Pan's Labyrinth

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Big Magilla
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Post by Big Magilla »

OK, I'm sure nobody cares, but just to close out my thoughts on the subject, I have revised my ten best list to include Pan's Labyrinth, Children of Men, The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen, Letters From Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers, Dreamgirls, Little Children and Volver in that order.

Pan's Labyrinth becomes my fourth non-English language film to win my best picture award behind The Passion of Joan of Arc (which may or may not count as it is a silent film), The Bicycle Thief and Yi Yi.

Guillermo del Toro, the director of Pan's Labyrinth, becomes the ninth director of a non-English language film to win my best director award, behind Carol Theodor Dreyer (The Passion of Joan of Arc), Jean Renoir (Grand Illusion), Vittorio de Sica (The Bicycle Thief), Federico Fellini (La Dolce Vita), Luis Bunuel (The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie), Francois Truffaut (Day for Night), Ingmar Bergman (Fanny & Alexander) and Edward Yang (Yi Yi).
Big Magilla
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Post by Big Magilla »

LOL. There isn't enough time in the day to do all the things I need to do as it is.

The first time I watched Little Miss Sunshine was to see it for myself before I read all the bashing here. The second was to see it with a more critical eye in view of all the bashing to see if maybe I was being too naive the first time around. I liked it even more. The third time was to entertain guests. Again, I liked it even more. There are a few more people I'd like to show it to, if I only had the time.
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Post by Damien »

OMG , Big, you sat through Little Miss [fill in the blank] three times? Seriously -- and I say this as a friend -- intervention is necessary and you need to find other ways to fill up your days. Kiwanis Club? Backyard garden? Painting sad-eyed clowns? Driving a power mower across Texas?
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Big Magilla
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Post by Big Magilla »

Reza wrote:
Big Magilla wrote:I'm re-evaluating my ten best list. I need to sleep on it before I come to a final conclusion, but I'm considering bumping Pan's Laybyrinth and Children of Men to the top of the list, which means that two of my current top five (The Departed, The Queen, Little Miss Sunshine, Dreamgirls and Letters From Iwo Jima) will have to drop to the bottom half of the list. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

It should hardly be much of a decision!

Get rid of LMS and Dreamgirls and you will have a cozy fivesome.
But it is. I probably need a few more days.

I've just seen Pan's Labyrinth for the second time, have seen Children of Men, The Departed and Little Miss Sunshine three times each and expect to revisit The Queen this weekend or next. I find it hard not to include any of these or Letters From Iwo Jima, which I've only seen once so far. Dreamgirls, which I've only seen once as well, has already faded from memory except for three or four of the musical numbers. It's kind of like an old Alice Faye or Betty Grable musical, bringing a smile when I think of those numbers but not remembering much else about it. Maybe I need a second viewing. Right now I would list Pan's Labyrinth, Children of Men, The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen, Letters From Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers and maybe even Little Children ahead of Dreamgirls, with Notes on a Scandal and The Painted Veil vying for tenth place.
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Post by Reza »

Big Magilla wrote:I'm re-evaluating my ten best list. I need to sleep on it before I come to a final conclusion, but I'm considering bumping Pan's Laybyrinth and Children of Men to the top of the list, which means that two of my current top five (The Departed, The Queen, Little Miss Sunshine, Dreamgirls and Letters From Iwo Jima) will have to drop to the bottom half of the list. Decisions, decisions, decisions.
It should hardly be much of a decision!

Get rid of LMS and Dreamgirls and you will have a cozy fivesome.
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Post by Big Magilla »

Now that I've discovered what del Toro can do, I want to see both The Devil's Backbone and Hellboy.
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Post by Precious Doll »

Magilla,

You should watch del Torro's best film - The Devil's Backbone.

Whilst I like most of del Torro's work I think Gonzalez Inarritu and Cuaron are vastly overrated. I would quite happily not see anything else directed by either of them.

I think the best filmmaker to emerge from Mexico in recent years has been Carlos Reygadas. However Reygadas is not particularly interested in traditional narrative, hence his films remain inaccessible for most people. It's a real shame as Reygadas is a truly unique filmmaker, something that'd very hard to be these days.
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Post by Big Magilla »

Now that I've watched Guillermo del Toro discuss the film in three separate documentaries accompying the film on DVD, I have to conede that it is indeed a fairy tale, albeit a very dark one as was his intention.

As discussed in the best films of 2006 thread, I had previously seen the story as the hallucinations of the 11 year-old girl, Ofelia, as a way to get through the horrors of living in Spain in 1944. It's that and more. Lapsed Catholic that del Toro is - he says once a Catholic, always a Catholic and he's one 23 out of 24 hours a day - it's no coincidence that the film is filled with religious symbolism. Heaven for Ofelia, as he describes it, would be to go back into her mother's womb, so it's no accident that the fantasy world is introduced through her laying her head on her mother's stomach to talk to her unborn baby brother. The ending, too, is clearly meant as her going toward the light.

The fairy tale is, as I've said, very dark - del Toro sees Ofelia as Little Red Riding Hood and her wicked stepfather, Captain Vidal, as the big bad wolf. That's teh way fairy tales were in ancient times, not as they have prettified for the Disneyfication of the modern world.

The only previous del Toro film I had seen was Mimic, which I didn't like. Turns out he didn't like it either, or least not what Miramax did with it. The film was supposed to be about God being so fed up with what teh human race has done to teh world that he decides to make insects the superior beings, but the concept was too dark for Hollywood - they wouldn't allow a film with God as the villain.

How typical that the three most thought provoking films released in 2006 were from Mexican film-makers del Toro and his buddies, Cuaron and Gonzalez Inarritu, but that the only one nominated for a best picture Oscar was the most obvious, least complex of the three.

I'm re-evaluating my ten best list. I need to sleep on it before I come to a final conclusion, but I'm considering bumping Pan's Laybyrinth and Children of Men to the top of the list, which means that two of my current top five (The Departed, The Queen, Little Miss Sunshine, Dreamgirls and Letters From Iwo Jima) will have to drop to the bottom half of the list. Decisions, decisions, decisions.
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Post by Anon »

I finally saw Pan's Labyrinth, and I'm happy to say it did not disappoint!

This movie worked for me on both levels of fantasy and reality.

While admittedly it's a bit heavy-handed with its metaphorical commentary on our present-day war, I can live with filmmakers now deciding that, the only way they can be vocal in their dissent of U.S. imperialism is to do throwback stories about other wars (in this case the Spanish Civil War and life under Franco). Sure, I could be reading way more into this film than is there, but I have a feeling del Toro wouldn't mind my interpretation. :)

Too bad "Babel" was chosen over this for Best Picture.
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