Pan's Labywrinth

Something about it. I loved it. Immediatly went in my top 3. Along with Annie Hall and Harold and Maude. If it was in english, it would have been no where near as enjoyable.

 

I liked it..but didnt really see what all the fuss was about.

 

I saw it, most of it. I think I fell asleep twice. That's not the movie's fault. I was sick at the time.

I liked it. I liked how she got her natural end in RL and her fairytale end as well.

 

I thought it was an excellent film. I loved the dark undertone to it.

 

I've seen all the previews and it just doesn't really do anything for me. What's so good about it?

 

I Loved this movie I watched it on the Plane Ride to My Tour of Europe... It was a little demented.. But I loved it


1. The Fantasy

2. The Drama

3. The Action

4. The Horror

5. The Confusing Plot

 

I don't want to spoil anything too much here. But when you view Terry Gilliam's Tideland and Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth in juxtaposition, you should notice a very apparent thread that connects them at their deepest levels. Both tell the story of an orphaned young girl who suffers the hells of life but relies on a connection to the mythic, nonmaterial world to survive and retain her childlike wonder. In both films, she carries with her a treasured book that speaks of this fantastic world, and both films show us this realm of hidden fantasy through a child's eyes as it manipulates and enlivens the bleakness of rational "adult" existence. There are insects-turned-faeries in both; there are monsters and terrors. And there is abomination -- war, death and destruction -- painted in the palette of our modern dystopic lives. Yet these two girls, in their purest Blakean innocence, can see the brilliant magic that underpins the darkness, and it is salvation to them.

The correlations are uncanny and numerous, to the extent that one begins to philosophize on the implications of the two films' contemporaneous emergence. It is safe to assume that neither director had a foreknowledge of the other's project as these pictures went into production, yet they seem to echo one another almost deliberately. It is almost as if the filmmakers are channeling the same inner vision, crafting dense and visually arresting allegories of our own miasmic world as it wobbles on the brink of self-annihilation. Tideland and Pan's Labyrinth represent a cultural transmission akin to the archetype of the Apocalypse, a meme that has begun to surface prominently in recent months across the spectrum of popular entertainment, with media icons from Trent Reznor to Leonardo DiCaprio heralding the end of days. Yet there is something more sanguine than nightmare scenarios of Orwellian autocracy and meteorological chaos in the vivid dreamscapes of Gilliam and Del Toro. In the films' closing scenes, at the height of the drama when mankind's callousness is at its most unrestrained, the little girls escape with their faeries into another stage of consciousness –- a magnificent oblivion.

As the catastrophes of our own society converge and threaten to engulf all hope, as violence and hatred boil over and ecological devastation speeds up, these films offer us a timely lesson: Look to the magic of the hidden realm to make it to the other side. The word "apocalypse" translates to a revelation or unveiling. That invisible realm of mythic kingdoms and unseen intelligence glows brighter day-by-day, illumining the curtain between the material and the divine. Films like these are like modern day fairy tales, rekindling our dulled imaginations to a connection with the mystical. One day, our own spirits may depend on it.

 

I liked what I saw, but I didnt finish it cause I had to leave. One thing that was wierd was that they kinda made it look like a kid movie from previews and it does when your watching it up until the army guy smashes the beer bottle into the guys nose until its as flat as his face. But all in all, great.

 

Prof. Propaganda said it beautifully.

Apart from that, it was beautiful, sad, and dark. And at times surprisingly scary/violent. I like the concept of a fantasy world within our own much more interesting than any Middle Earth or any of its many rip-offs.

 

I loved it. I just got done watching it earlier for like the 50th time. It's really a good movie! I recommend you watch it.

 

good

way way overhyped

crap end.

 

Yeh I thought it was pretty good. The idea of a dark fairytale was really intresting to me though the ending was too idealistic.

 

I thought it was amazing. Too bad it lost to The Lives of Others for Best Foreign Language Film at last year's Oscars. It really deserved it.

It's too bad for those who don't like foreign language films soely because of it being in a foreign language because this is one of the great ones.

 

^ there are way way way better foreign films out there

there are some really amazing German films especially

The Memory of a Killer - about an assasin with onset of Alzhiemer's
Downfall - an amazingly well acted realistic potrayal of the last days of Hitler and his Berlin
High Tension - just a real real fucked up fun horror movie
Head-On - a 'romance' about two very fucked up people who meet in a suicide clinic, and the Turkish girl asks to marry him to get out of her strict Turkish household so she can sleep around easily, and he eventually falls for her

check them out
and just for some contrast:

good French romance:
An Affair of Love - girl and guy meet to share fetish filled sex, end up falling in love

Italian:
Intacto - a very interesting thriller in which ppeople play high stakes games in order to win other people's luck
Life Is Beautiful - touching story about a Father and Son in a concentration camp during the Holocaust

Hong Kong:
check out the Once Upon a Time in China series for some amazing action

 

No I know that there are alot of other good foreign films out there I just consider Pan's Labyrinth to be a good one.

I've seen Downfall. Bruno Ganz was pitch perfect in his depiction of Hitler.

I've seen High Tension too. What a killer ending. I didn't see that coming. I noticed that foreign horror films seem to be ALOT gorier than American horror films (at least the ones I've seen.) And High Tension isn't German, it's French.

Another good Spanish film is Volver. I really, really liked that movie. I thought it was so touching and sweet.

 

you're right about High Tension, I don't know why I got that mixed up, I just watched the dvd like two nights ago =P

 

I got Pan's Labyrinth on an overnight rental and watched it three times in a row. Loved it.

 

I really, REALLY loved this movie too. For some reason, I felt like it was mind-expanding for me. I had awesome dreams the night after I watched it. It was like it stimulated my imagination

...or something. Great flick!

 

I thought it was awesome. I loved the gore and the storyline was really good. The end leaves you a lot of space to wander.

 

I love that movie. I mean it's not the best movie in the world but in it's genre it is definitely a top 10. I liked the fairies in it and I even teared up whenever she died, but got to see her mother & father again. The Faun was awesomely done as well. Go Hollywood! (or whereever it was made lol)