Post by klep on Jan 18, 2021 9:05:47 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 1/18: Pan's Labyrinth
THIS FILM KILLS FASCISTS WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
The great challenge in choosing images for this movie is in limiting yourself. The imagery is not all beautiful, but it is all striking and all powerful. You get that, with Guillermo del Toro. It's also worth noting that he did it on half the budget he could have had—he rejected a doubled budget if only he'd work in English. What's more, he once left his notes and sketches for the movie in the back of a cab, and it was only because the cabbie recognized their importance and sought del Toro out to return them that the movie got made. We all owe that cabbie an enormous debt.
It is Spain in 1944. Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) and her mother (Ariadna Gil) travel to an old mill to be near her stepfather (Sergi López), who is a captain in the Spanish army. Carmen, the mother, is very pregnant with Captain Vidal's child; he clearly cares more about the son he is certain she carries than he cares about her. Ofelia, he doesn't even care enough about to hate, I think. Ofelia encounters what she believes to be a fairy and follows it to the home of the Faun (Doug Jones).
What follows alternates between the tasks Ofelia does to prove she is a princess and the atrocities Vidal commits in the name of freeing Spain from the Communists. The Vidals' housekeeper, Mercedes (Maribel Verdú) is helping the Communists, not least because her brother Pedro (Roger Casamajor) is one of them. Of the local power structure, only the doctor (Álex Angulo) opposes the fascists. He also tries to aid Carmen, despite being told by Vidal to save the child if there is a choice.
Ofelia, too, tries to help her mother. The faun gives her a mandrake to leave under her mother's bed and implies that it will help her mother. Meanwhile, she must prove her own worth. Most famously, she must go into the hall of the Pale Man (also Jones) and unlock a door. There will be a feast, she is told, and she must not eat a bite or drink a sip. She, both hungry and a child, eats two grapes. The Pale Man awakens and eats two of her three fairy companions. And del Toro says she is not wrong to have done so, because sometimes, you should be brave enough to disobey.
I have always wondered if Vidal killed Ofelia's father. It's clear that he doesn't care for Ofelia's mother, just her ability to bear him a son. He knew Ofelia's father; he used to make Vidal's uniforms. He shames Carmen for telling the story of how she and Vidal met, saying that she hasn't learned that no one cares about her stories. After she was asked how she and Vidal met. He's perfectly capable of the killing, too. We certainly see him kill enough other people over the course of the movie.
The translation for the English subtitles was done by del Toro himself. He felt the translations of his previous works were poorly done, so he did it himself. (He's also the only person on the set other than Doug Jones who spoke English, apparently, which must have been kind of lonely for Doug Jones.) It's clear that this was a movie that meant a lot to him. And he had a very clear vision for it—for example, he's firm that the faun isn't actually Pan, whom he considers too sexual a figure to interact with a child.
Not that this is a children's movie, of course. Guillermo del Toro was sitting next to Stephen King during a screening, and Stephen King squirmed at one point. He compared King's reaction to winning an Oscar—I'm curious if he still does, now he has one. Unlike King, I don't squirm as much at the supernatural bits as at Vidal, but it's still something where I've kept my kids out of the room so I can rewatch it. I did mention that I thought my three-year-old daughter would miss a lot of what's going on, because she doesn't speak Spanish. She hastened to correct me that she speaks some Spanish; she can count to six. Which is still not enough to understand the dialogue. Even though she told me she likes "movies that are too scary," I still watched without her.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 1/25: Pather Panchali
1950s WEEK!
For 1950s Week we'll be taking a trip to the Indian subcontinent as we finally begin Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy. Be sure to join us next week as we discuss this tale of life in rural India. Pather Panchali is available on Criterion Channel, HBO Max, and Kanopy and can be rented in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 1/19: Sideways
Next week the podcast starts a pairing on tying one on with Alexander Payne's 2004 film Sideways. Come join our discussion on Wednesday! Sideways is available for rent at the usual places.
THIS FILM KILLS FASCISTS WEEK!
Note: This week's essay is graciously provided by a guest contributor.
The great challenge in choosing images for this movie is in limiting yourself. The imagery is not all beautiful, but it is all striking and all powerful. You get that, with Guillermo del Toro. It's also worth noting that he did it on half the budget he could have had—he rejected a doubled budget if only he'd work in English. What's more, he once left his notes and sketches for the movie in the back of a cab, and it was only because the cabbie recognized their importance and sought del Toro out to return them that the movie got made. We all owe that cabbie an enormous debt.
It is Spain in 1944. Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) and her mother (Ariadna Gil) travel to an old mill to be near her stepfather (Sergi López), who is a captain in the Spanish army. Carmen, the mother, is very pregnant with Captain Vidal's child; he clearly cares more about the son he is certain she carries than he cares about her. Ofelia, he doesn't even care enough about to hate, I think. Ofelia encounters what she believes to be a fairy and follows it to the home of the Faun (Doug Jones).
What follows alternates between the tasks Ofelia does to prove she is a princess and the atrocities Vidal commits in the name of freeing Spain from the Communists. The Vidals' housekeeper, Mercedes (Maribel Verdú) is helping the Communists, not least because her brother Pedro (Roger Casamajor) is one of them. Of the local power structure, only the doctor (Álex Angulo) opposes the fascists. He also tries to aid Carmen, despite being told by Vidal to save the child if there is a choice.
Ofelia, too, tries to help her mother. The faun gives her a mandrake to leave under her mother's bed and implies that it will help her mother. Meanwhile, she must prove her own worth. Most famously, she must go into the hall of the Pale Man (also Jones) and unlock a door. There will be a feast, she is told, and she must not eat a bite or drink a sip. She, both hungry and a child, eats two grapes. The Pale Man awakens and eats two of her three fairy companions. And del Toro says she is not wrong to have done so, because sometimes, you should be brave enough to disobey.
I have always wondered if Vidal killed Ofelia's father. It's clear that he doesn't care for Ofelia's mother, just her ability to bear him a son. He knew Ofelia's father; he used to make Vidal's uniforms. He shames Carmen for telling the story of how she and Vidal met, saying that she hasn't learned that no one cares about her stories. After she was asked how she and Vidal met. He's perfectly capable of the killing, too. We certainly see him kill enough other people over the course of the movie.
The translation for the English subtitles was done by del Toro himself. He felt the translations of his previous works were poorly done, so he did it himself. (He's also the only person on the set other than Doug Jones who spoke English, apparently, which must have been kind of lonely for Doug Jones.) It's clear that this was a movie that meant a lot to him. And he had a very clear vision for it—for example, he's firm that the faun isn't actually Pan, whom he considers too sexual a figure to interact with a child.
Not that this is a children's movie, of course. Guillermo del Toro was sitting next to Stephen King during a screening, and Stephen King squirmed at one point. He compared King's reaction to winning an Oscar—I'm curious if he still does, now he has one. Unlike King, I don't squirm as much at the supernatural bits as at Vidal, but it's still something where I've kept my kids out of the room so I can rewatch it. I did mention that I thought my three-year-old daughter would miss a lot of what's going on, because she doesn't speak Spanish. She hastened to correct me that she speaks some Spanish; she can count to six. Which is still not enough to understand the dialogue. Even though she told me she likes "movies that are too scary," I still watched without her.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 1/25: Pather Panchali
1950s WEEK!
For 1950s Week we'll be taking a trip to the Indian subcontinent as we finally begin Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy. Be sure to join us next week as we discuss this tale of life in rural India. Pather Panchali is available on Criterion Channel, HBO Max, and Kanopy and can be rented in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 1/19: Sideways
Next week the podcast starts a pairing on tying one on with Alexander Payne's 2004 film Sideways. Come join our discussion on Wednesday! Sideways is available for rent at the usual places.