Monday, June 18, 2007
El Laberinto del Fauno
So, Pan's Labyrinth is quite possibly the best movie I've watched from 2006. It was imaginative, creative, engaging, dramatic, a bit scary, with great acting and even better writing. Cannot recommend this film enough! I loved it! But I want to get your opinion on something, for those of you who've seen it.
---WARNING!!! SPOILER ALERT!---
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Ok, so at the end of the movie, three possible interpretations leapt into my mind. I'm pretty sure which one of them I believe, but I think all three are valid and I want to get your thoughts.
#1 - The movie is taken at face value. Ofelia dies on earth, but is reinstated as Princess Moanna in the fairy realm, where her father and mother rule as King and Queen. Pan is real, and is the servant of the Fairy King. El Capitán cannot see Pan because, duh!, he's a fairy and only children can see fairies, or because Pan chooses to reveal himself only to Ofelia.
#2 - Pan is real, but is not the servant of the Fairy King. He is, in fact, an evil character and the trickster mythology holds him to me. He is trapped in the labyrinth my some ancient magic and uses Ofelia (in her innocence) to get him out by tricking her into thinking she is the Princess Moanna. Once he is released, he will kill or orchestrate Ofelia's death, which in fact happens. Ofelia is really dead and Pan is released.
#3 - The fairy world, Pan, the "quests" and "journies," the knife, the fairies, the mandrake root (as anthropomorphized), all of it, are figments of Ofelia's active imagination. By reading the fairy tales in her books, she essentially builds a vocabularly for herself in order to create all these impossibilities as her way of dealing with the horrors of the wartime situation she is in. She comes tobelieve herself to be Princess Moanna and sets for herself these imaginative quests like most children do. El Capitán cannot see Pan in the Labyrinth because Pan does not exist. In the end, El Capitán shoots and kills Ofelia. This interpretation is bolstered for me by the fact that the final image of Ofelia the movie shows the viewer is not of her in the fairy kingdom, but is of her dead body.
#3 is the interpretation I am going with, but I'm curious, which of these makes the most sense to you? Or, do you have another interpretation?
-R
---WARNING!!! SPOILER ALERT!---
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Ok, so at the end of the movie, three possible interpretations leapt into my mind. I'm pretty sure which one of them I believe, but I think all three are valid and I want to get your thoughts.
#1 - The movie is taken at face value. Ofelia dies on earth, but is reinstated as Princess Moanna in the fairy realm, where her father and mother rule as King and Queen. Pan is real, and is the servant of the Fairy King. El Capitán cannot see Pan because, duh!, he's a fairy and only children can see fairies, or because Pan chooses to reveal himself only to Ofelia.
#2 - Pan is real, but is not the servant of the Fairy King. He is, in fact, an evil character and the trickster mythology holds him to me. He is trapped in the labyrinth my some ancient magic and uses Ofelia (in her innocence) to get him out by tricking her into thinking she is the Princess Moanna. Once he is released, he will kill or orchestrate Ofelia's death, which in fact happens. Ofelia is really dead and Pan is released.
#3 - The fairy world, Pan, the "quests" and "journies," the knife, the fairies, the mandrake root (as anthropomorphized), all of it, are figments of Ofelia's active imagination. By reading the fairy tales in her books, she essentially builds a vocabularly for herself in order to create all these impossibilities as her way of dealing with the horrors of the wartime situation she is in. She comes tobelieve herself to be Princess Moanna and sets for herself these imaginative quests like most children do. El Capitán cannot see Pan in the Labyrinth because Pan does not exist. In the end, El Capitán shoots and kills Ofelia. This interpretation is bolstered for me by the fact that the final image of Ofelia the movie shows the viewer is not of her in the fairy kingdom, but is of her dead body.
#3 is the interpretation I am going with, but I'm curious, which of these makes the most sense to you? Or, do you have another interpretation?
-R
2 Comments:
Ryan, how do you explain some of the fantastical things that happen in the "real world" if everything is a figment of her imagination? For instance, how does Ofelia get in and out of guarded rooms and escape from el capitan if the chalk doesn't really make doors?
bp
By 
, at
9:06 AM
guy that wrote this SHUT UP!!! who is pan??? who? the faun? NOOO!! the faun doesnt say his name! PAN was a mistranslation! IT IS ALL REAL!! watch the special features....the faun is not EVIL he is good, the is the GOOD GUY! fauns are nice....GET IT RIGHT!!
By , at
7:52 PM
