Pan's Labyrinth

Imagination. It varies between people, for some it is small, others big. Guillermo Del Toro is widely regarded as having one of the most vivid imaginations in the filmmaking world. His films are full of strange, magical worlds inhabited by magnificent and deadly creatures. Throughout his Spanish language films in particular, these worlds are created by children desperate to escape from the terrors of the Spanish Civil War. 

'Pan's Labyrinth' (El laberinto del fauno) simply is a masterpiece. The visuals throughout the film are stunning and beautiful yet monstrous. Del Toro is a pioneer of inventive and magical cinema, faultlessly blending aspects of horror and fantasy to fascinate and shock the audience. With this film, he has truly outdone himself. It may sound cheesy and slightly stupid, I know, but this film does that to you. Immediately I wanted to go back and pick it to pieces and find out the true meaning behind the make-up and cinematography. 

The story follows twelve year old Ofelia, a young girl who dreams of fairytales and longs for excitement in her life. She and her heavily pregnant Mother travel to the mountains of Spain to stay with her mother's new husband and the father of her child. Becoming increasingly bored, she wanders off and discovers a labyrinth hidden in the forest, a magical fortress housing fairies and the beautifully creepy faun, Pan. Announcing himself as her guardian, Pan presents the naive child with three tasks to complete before the full moon. From here the narrative jumps between reality and the fantasy world, often with the two realms mixing together. The story draws comparisons to fairytales but one aimed at adults more than children, with literary references scattered throughout including Alice in Wonderland to The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. But unlike other films of this genre the fantasy elements are not the main focus, with the reality scenes playing just as much importance. Its a sort of fable where Ofeila is learning lessons from her trips to the fantasy world that can be used in everyday life. 

Coming back to the monsters of the film, how one man can dream up/create such horrible and majestic creatures is a mystery. They include the toad living in the womb of a tree and the true horror of the tale, The Pale Man (seen above). With loose skin dripping off him and eyes in the palms of his hands, he shouldn't be allowed to be seen and definately deserves a place in the most terrifying monsters in film history. However the most brutal and sadistic of all the villains is Ofelia's stepfather Captain Vidal. He is the driving force of everything that is evil in the story, his charm and matter of fact beatings of innocent men standing out as extremely cruel.

In terms of cinematography, things don't get much awe-inspiring than this. The aspects of both the fantasy and real worlds are blended together faultlessly with fairies flying through the air into the houses and up to Ofelia. Long, sweeping shots are used to show the grandeur of the labyrinth and religious/birth related imagery is constant throughout. This just adds to the grand tale, building new aspects for the audience to get lost in and immerse themselves.

An instant classic, and the film that Guillermo Del Toro deserves to be remembered for. 

My rating : *****