Jeff and I saw the superb Pan’s Labyrinth just over a week ago, and I’ve patiently waited him out, thinking: he’ll put up a good post about it, and I can virtually nod my head. But he’s remiss. So I’ll note quickly a couple things:
I loved the film’s negotiation of the “fantasy” and the “reality”–or, rather, I loved that it both invites our attention to the distinction between its represented worlds and also carefully decenters our certainties about both. One world depicts a young girl grappling with a beyond-evil stepfather, a Captain in the fascist Spanish military brutally quashing the local resistance (even as he sternly seeks control of his new wife’s pregnancy). But the girl frequently wanders off into an old maze on the edge of the property, where she encounters a faun who recognizes her as a long-lost princess, and sets her three tasks allow her return to her rightful royal heritage in the underworld. Continue reading Pan