Saturday, July 21, 2007

Pan's Labyrinth



finally saw it last night, and it was beautiful in so many ways. wonderful visuals, excellent acting, heart-piercing story and deft mixing of mythologies and faerie tale sensibilities. the story is "about" an imaginative young girl with a wise and ample heart, about the differences between blind obedience and belief, about innocence and experience, about freedom and fascism--and a lot more.

alas, I think because of the film, which takes place just after the Spanish Civil War, I dreamt about Hitler last night. he came to inspect a large group of us (not sure whether a school or something else), checking that we were holding our hands properly in a particular folded way. I hated myself for doing it, for fearing him, and so I broke into a speech about how all humans are equal in value though independent in spirit.

**Spolier alert:

at the end of the film, the faun tells Ofelia, the young protagonist, that she has demonstrated the understanding that one should always spill one's own blood before spilling the blood of an innocent.

this resounded in me. and I wept and wept and wept.

2 comments:

katrina said...

I LOVED this movie.

Stephanie said...

I saw this last weekend and enjoyed it, but man, it gave me the WORST nightmares for two days. Talk about a powerful film. It was like it reached into my head and shook all sorts of demons loose in my psyche.