Of films, fanfic recs and tv show anniversaries

[selenak]

Pan's Labyrinth only arrived in our cinemas two weeks ago, and as I was skiing, I didn't have the opportunity to watch it until now. It was as beautiful and moving as people promised it would be. A couple of observations regarding the setting, though:



I can't help but suspect the del Toro counts on lack of historical knowledge in his audience when choosing 1944 as a date - as opposed to the earlier decade, when the Spanish Civil War was at its height - and included a scene where the anti-Franco-fighters talk about the Americans having landed at Normandy. If all you remember about Franco is that he was the third fascist dictator of the era (next to Mussolini and Hitler), then you might believe this signifies the impending ending of the Franco regime as well. Whereas in reality Franco, who was clever enough not to join the other two in their fight against the rest of the world, had several decades more to do and died peacefully in his bed. Whereas Mercedes & Co., aka the group of Republican fighters we see victorious at the end of the movie? Are either doomed to be killed, each and every one, by the Franco regime, or to give up their struggle and live with it, serve it just the way Mercedes had with Captain Vidal throughout the movie. In other words, the film's villain might be dead, but unfortunately, what he represents is going to win for most of these people's lifetime.

Speaking of Captain Vidal, what worked amazingly well was the juxtaposition of fairy tale and "naturalistic" setting. Vidal is both the evil stepfather (not as common as the evil stepmother, but he does exist in some fairy tales), a fairy tale ogre, and a convincing and frighteningly real depiction of a fascist. There is just enough, no more, no less, psychological suggestion of how he came to be such a monster, and the pay-off of that explanation at the end is magnificent because it does suggest both his complete failure and a way of how the pattern that produced him can be broken.

(Unless, of course, you try to think of it in a historical way, because, see above.)

Given that our heroine's name is Ofelia, I had the suspicion she'd end up dead (at least in the "naturalistic" setting) even before the opening image; in addition to suggesting a tragic victim, the name also implies imagination and madness alike. Which is why I'm glad Ofelia and her mother weren't the only female characters of weight in the movie. Mercedes as the true antagonist of the Captain, the one who fights back, survives and in the end judges saves the film from a male agressor/ female victim exclusiveness.

Lastly: I hope it's not just me rooting for the home team, but I still think The Lives of Others winning over this one was justified. Though it was a worthy foe.*g*

In other news, one of the joys of having been mostly offline for a week: lots of new good fanfiction to discover.

BSG: Show An Affirming Flame - a fantastic Athena character exploration. Being me, I love the paragraph about her interaction with Six best, but the entire story is gorgeous.

Marvel comics: The Past is Gone. I'm so predictable. Tell me about old friends who had a bitter fallout because of politics and became enemies, and I'm there. Hence my becoming interested in recent months in two characters about whom I didn't know much more than they existed before; Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, and Tony Stark, aka Iron Man. This story is set before the entire Civl War business and is just wonderful to read, hurt/comfort at its best.

***

Lastly: today it's been exactly a decade since the first episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer was broadcast. I don't have a new story or new meta to offer, but I'd like to link an old post, since it was about my very favourite BTVS episode, Restless - an episode which also happens to center on the four original Scoobies introduced to us in Welcome to the Hellmouth, Buffy, Willow, Xander and Giles:


Restless Revisited

Comments

[altariel.livejournal.com]

You might find my friend's Jungian review (http://takingcarltothepictures.blogspot.com/2006/12/pans-labyrinth.html) of Pan's Labyrinth interesting.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

*reads*

Indeed I do. Thanks for the link!

[altariel.livejournal.com]

The rest of her site has reviews of X-Men three, and a very long piece about Star Wars.

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

There was an interesting comment in a Guardian article on the film to the effect that Pan's Labyrinth was the first Spanish film to present a Nationalist character as quite so uncomplicatedly villainous, instead of making things more morally blurred.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Great icon!

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

It's by nostalgia_lj

[selenak.livejournal.com]

The first? Wow. I wouldn't have thought that. Though I know presentations of Franco himself are still a thorny issue...

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

I thought the point about the setting was to make us think of larger and larger contexts--that indeed the Facists would win, but then even later, they too would go down. Sort of concentric circles of irony. But maybe you're right and it wasn't intentional. Hard to believe, though, with a Spanish-speaking film?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Oh, I definitely think larger context was the intention. But I'm still a bit uneasy about the implied skipping over of several decades. But you're right, at least the home audience would be all too aware that it had not been that easy...

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

It probably was intentional, given that all four of del Toro's grandparents were Spanish leftists who fled to Mexico to get away from Franco.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Hah--didn't know that. Makes me even surer that the setting in time was deliberate.

On another topic, I've heard that the directors of the three big Mexican movies this year (Pan's Labyrinth, Babel, Children of Men) consider them to be a trilogy. Certainly they all have in common the focus on children as victims and saviors.

[ladyaeryn.livejournal.com]

Ah, thanks for the link to the "Restless" post - I hadn't seen that before, and it's now going into my memories. :) "Restless" is definitely in my top 10 BtVS episodes, probably even the top 5.