Another very short movie review

[sabotabby]

You should all go see Pan's Labyrinth if you haven't already. It's got at least nine of the things I like in movies, which is not surprising given that it's by the guy who did Hellboy and The Devil's Backbone. Also, I'm amused at the thought of parents taking their kids to see it because it looked like a Tim Burton version of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe from the ads and finding out that it really, really isn't.

At any rate, it's the most blatantly anarchist movie I've seen in ages.

Comments

[ironed_orchid]

Am eagerly awaiting it's au release, I think it's the 18th.

[sabotabby]

It is so good.

[rayaluna.livejournal.com]

I was thinking about this. Will have to see.

[sabotabby]

Yes, you must.

Also, your icon makes me smirk. Poor dude.

[nom-de-grr.livejournal.com]

I'm very excited about this movie.

BTW, a GYBE song on a soundtrack should definitely rate more points, considering that they almost never give permission for their music to be used in any commercial product. As far as I know, Vanilla Sky is the movie they've ever appeared in, and who the heck knows why they went with that one. They must really like Cameron Crowe.

...they also gave ME permission to use "Moya" in my awesome little short film.

[sabotabby]

There was a GYBE song on 28 Days Later. I don't know why they bothered with Vanilla Sky, but maybe they hadn't seen it, or had only seen the original or something. Weird.

I met Efrim. He is way nice and I tried to keep the fangirling to a minimum, considering he knows a bunch of my friends.

[nom-de-grr.livejournal.com]

ZOMG next time I am there, you need to sit us all down at a bar. Drinks are on me!

[sabotabby]

He lives in Montréal. I too would love to buy him a beer, though.

[misfratz.livejournal.com]

That list is very helpful, although I only counted six of the things in Pan's Labyrinth (hmm, could be because I wouldn't recognise the actors and have different classifications for creatures...). Yeah, you would take the kid out after the first or second torture sequence though, right? Anarchists are a definite bonus, but I found it a tiny bit slow in some places (I have to start doing an ADHD film review corner somewhere- most films are too long for me). I loved it when the cool anarchist woman (forgot name) told the evil nazi that the kid would never even know his name (it was something like that?); excellent comeback to his bullshit.

[sabotabby]

My count: Anarchists, fairies in the garden/magic realism, genre-bending (you got fantasy in my war movie), history, language, Nazis or fascists as the main villains, ornate and anachronistic technology (El Captain is obsessed with clocks because the director is into steampunk), setting is not New York and involves urban decay, and spies.

[jordansc.livejournal.com]

Does it have sharks or undersea battles?

[sabotabby]

No, but there have been too many crap shark movies for sharks to make the list.

[arianadii.livejournal.com]

I've bene waiting for this movie to open somewhere around here. I'll go even if it doesn't have a Tom Waits cameo.

[sabotabby]

It doesn't have a Tom Waits cameo, but it's still fantastic.

[realcdaae.livejournal.com]

I just saw it yesterday, really liked it. We tried to leave the cinema by a secondary entrance because it was so full and people were taking ages to shuffle out, only it turned out to be a fire exit. This other couple and us were wandering around these corridors and up and down the stairs trying to find a way out, only to find a broken lift. Eventually we found a door leading to the outside world, to an empty and grimy alleyway. So after seeing Pan's Labyrinth, we got lost in a labyrinth.

[sabotabby]

OMG, we had almost the exact same thing happen. We weren't lost for long, though.

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

Had my eye on that one, and I've heard other good reviews from people whose taste I normally approve. So definitely going to try to get to that!

[sabotabby]

You'll probably love it.

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

What's more, I've just found it's on at the independent lefty cinema five minutes walk from me. So yay!

[herkyjerkydance.livejournal.com]

I just found out that's coming to my town and I'm really excited. I watched The Devil's Backbone just recently and I really enjoyed it.

[sabotabby]

Is he giving a talk?

[jaymoh.livejournal.com]

Where have I been? I just found out about it yesterday. A friend of mine just called me this morning and told me that I had to leave work immediately to go and see it.

And now I know I need to see it! :)

[sabotabby]

Hahaha. Well, you can probably finish work, but go see it immediately after.

[nom-de-grr.livejournal.com]

I watched Pan's Labyrinth last night, and although it's easy enough to see the leftist (or at least anti-fascist) bent, I'm curious as to why you'd consider this movie to be blatantly anarchist.

[nom-de-grr.livejournal.com]

...I mean, I assume there are other qualities of the picture that qualify it as such, other than the presence of the insurgents?

[sabotabby]

Of course, I'm only seeing this comment now, so let's hope you have comment notification on.

The leftist stuff is a no-brainer, even without the insurgents (the toad as ruling class, criticism of the role of the church, anti-fascism, etc.). But there were two times when I felt that it was a specifically anarchist leftism: the doctor's last words before he's executed, and Ofelia's final disobedience of the faun. Within the context of the Spanish Civil War, the anti-fascists ranged from Stalinists to anarchists, and the refusal to shed innocent blood and the rejection of authority suggests that the filmmaker's sympathies are far closer to the latter than the former.

And if I had any suspicions that this was an accident or that I was reading too much into it, the fact that the rabbit-hunter is apparently carrying something that says "No Gods, No Masters" clears that right up.

[nom-de-grr.livejournal.com]

You know, somehow I completely missed the "no carbs gods no masters" line when I viewed the movie. If I had caught it, I doubt I'd even have asked the question.

The frog was an interesting moment, one that I interpreted through a freudian rather than a political lens. I took it as Ofelia's desire to remain a child, or even a desire to return to the womb: the vertical slit and wet tunnel that she passed through were pretty clear symbols. The frog itself, nested at the heart of the tree and corrupting it, could have been a stand-in for Ofelia's unborn brother, whom she may have felt threatened by or viewed as a usurper. That's how I've been looking at it, anyhow.

What were the doctor's last words? And considering the political subtext of the movie, didn't you find the final apparent endorsement of monarchy to be a little weird? Or do you think that should simply be written off to the fairy tale theme and nothing more?

[sabotabby]

Freudian references are so common in movies that I miss them half the time. Basically, whenever someone crawls through a small space and gets covered with goo—anyway; you should see me when I watch BSG.

I don't remember what exactly the doctor says before he's shot, but it's something that is echoed later by Ofelia about how one shouldn't unquestioningly take orders, and that's the difference between people like him and people like Vidal.

I write off the end as keeping with the fairy tale theme. Otherwise, it makes little sense; the rebels have no apparent leader.