protean muse

Thursday, January 22, 2009

El Labyrinto Del Fauno (Pans Labyrinth) Movie Review

Living in the mountians for the month with only a few DVD's + a case of the winter flu = a re-watch of Guillermo Del Torro's "Pan's Labyrinth." I am reminded why this film impressed me so much:

I think it's a brilliant depiction of how we can so easily lose our connection to magic and Earth-wisdom, during our passage from one era to the next, and likewise from childhood to adulthood. We see this through the eyes of Ofelia, the main character. Not yet closed to the wonders of the natural world, she sees portals and creatures the grown-ups have long-forgotten, or stopped looking for. As a "dark fantasy" that taps the mythical and magical realms, this isn't a story about fantastical magic, but our connection to ordinary magic: what we contact when our minds are fresh, vivid, present. As the post-industrial age and 20th century began to over-run the wonder & awe of past eras & civilizations with a blind, alienating rationality and militant nationalism, the artifacts of these past worlds still lingered. These trademarks and dangers of passing into the modern age all culminated in WWII and -in the case of Pan's Labyrinth- Franco's Spain.

The cinematography, shooting, & visual effects serve the story with a compulsory appeal to leave our mundane consciousness behind. While watching, I find myself not even considering the acting, which usually indicates its brilliance. Up here in the Santa Cruz mountains this winter, I now find myself feeling the moss growing over the trees, the limbs of my curiosity reaching into the shadows of the forest, and wondering about the people who have lived on these ridges or in these valleys before me. When imagination is present, these are vivid parts of the moments and places that I find.