30 Day Blog: Day 24

Prompt: [one of] Your favorite movie[s] and what it's about.

Una Princessa
 
 One of my favorite movies is Pan's Labyrinth (or El Laberinto Del Fauno) , written and directed by Guillermo Del Torro. The movie is in Spanish with English subtitles.

The movie begins with a story being told, a Fairy Tale. The story tells of a Princess who lives in a kingdom below the ground. She sneaks out of the castle, against her father's wishes and journeys up into the world, but the sunlight stuns her and erases her memory. It is said that her father continues to search for the Princess, refusing to stop until she returns home to her kingdom.

This Fairy Tale becomes intermingled with the reality of a little girl named Ofelia, who has traveled with her pregnant mother during the Spanish Civil war to live with her stepfather, Captain Vidal. She meets a mysterious Faun at the middle of an ancient labyrinth structure in the woods close to the house. The Faun gives Ofelia a mission, telling her that she is the missing Princess of the story. The magical land of Ofelia's fairy tales begins to mix with the dark reality of the war torn world that she lives in, bringing out the strength that Ofelia needs to discover her destiny.

One of the very first things that I loved about this movie is that fact that it's basically a dark Fairy Tale. I've loved fairy tales from the time when I was little, and as I grew older I became fascinated by the original, darker versions of the tales that we all know. (An example: In Cinderella the two stepsisters cut off their toes or their heel with a knife to make the glass slipper "fit" them). I love the way that the Fairy Tale intermingles with reality, until the audience isn't entirely sure if it's really happening or if it's all just inside Ofelia's mind.

The movie is also uses almost no computer generated effects. For the role of El Fauno, there was an actual actor inside a fully functional suit, saying the words and moving on his own.

You can hardly tell, however, and I love that. So often lately movies have been relying on computers to make all the special effects and it was refreshing to see a movie that had amazing fantasy elements that were actually created, outside of the computer.

There were also some wonderful creatures/fairy tale elements within the movie. The Faun, fairies, a Mandrake that looked like a really ugly baby, three trials and a price that Ofelia must pay to reach her goal.

And then there's the Child-Eater:

This thing is absolutely terrifying.

The characters are written and acted brilliantly, I don't believe there is a single weak length in the entire cast. Ofelia is a wonderful at remaining imaginative and, to an extent, innocent while gaining the strength and determination she needs to become a true heroine. Mercedes, the housekeeper of Captain Vidal, is kind to Ofelia, almost like a second mother, while at the same time being extremely brave and mysterious, sneaking food and supplies to her brother's regiment under Vidal's nose. Vidal is wonderfully cold, malicious and terrifying. The scene where he beats a worker with a glass bottle is still incredibly chilling.

The final component that brings this movie together is the music. From the very first haunting melody of the wordless Lullaby played during the opening story, the music becomes another character, joining the world of the Fairy Tale to Ofelia's reality. Exceptional highlights are the tense, terrifying score that plays during the Child-Eater sequence and the bittersweet, simple lullaby hummed by Mercedes as the movie ends.

Pan's Labyrinth is a very unique, chilling movie, full of the magic, wonder, and the terrible danger that comes from Fairy Tales.