Wandering into Pan’s Labyrinth is not the same as trying to find Frankenstein’s monster, but it’s close. I’m not really sure why del Toro’s critics would compare his work to a Spanish film with superficial similarities; I’m guessing that many of them, like myself, were only recently made aware of Erice’s masterpiece thanks to the Criterion Collection, meaning that they joined anyone with a Netflix account in their ability to make this assertion. So while both are based on a little girl’s [or girls’] escapist fantasies under Franco’s reign, del Toro’s treatment avails itself of the frightening brutality of Grimm’s fairy tales, while Erice’s lingering elegy to youth has the feel of Antonioni’s existential meditations.
If a complaint should be lodged against Pan’s Labryinth, it’s that del Toro shortchanges its audience with too little fantastical allegory and too much of the cookie cutter strongman we’ve all seen before. As is pointed out in the comments on Cinemarati’s fifth best movie of the year, del Toro fails to connect the the two halves of the film in a way that meaningfully contributes to the action of the story. Too literal by half, del Toro applies the pulpy Hollywood model to a film that should rely on some dark majesty and falls short of making the crypto-political masterpiece with which he’s being credited.
Both Cuaron’s and del Toro’s newest films are confident enough to leave the marrow of the fall to the imagination. One of my biggest criticisms of Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind was that it bribed audiences with sci-fi trickery. That willingness to expose the gadetry and how-come cheapened its viceral emotional gravity.
I’m excited to see that both Cuaron and del Toro are firm enough in their notions of the contemporary moment that they let can let us connect the dots ourselves. Even if the allegories are disjointed the termini are probable.
In specific regard to Pan’s Labyrinth I was grateful that an artist got the spark to show how even a posh child’s dreams have been overrun by a facist menace. The real sanctuaries are few.
I tried letting this one sink in a bit before I came to any real conclusions about it. I feel like as a filmmaker, Cuaron is more accomplished in that he’s shown greater range [Harry Potter to Children of Men in a few steps is no mean feat]; both Innaritu and del Toro seem to make the same movie repeatedly, and while being a genre filmmaker in and of itself isn’t bad [Hi Martin Scorsese!], it’s another thing to repeat the same mistakes indefinitely.
I don’t know why, but I’m always willing to give Gondry a free pass. I love his preoccupation with memory, history and psychology in relationships and the guy’s visual style is dazzling…and affordable!
I’m not familiar with many of del Toro’s other films, but I’m pretty certain that the themes and visuals that Pan’s Labyrinth shares with The Devil’s Backbone- if this is what you are referencing when you say he makes the same movie over and over again- were consciously placed. I think I read some interview in which he calls Labyrinth the sister of Backbone. Unfortunately, I guess that doesn’t go any length to address the mistakes he makes in each film, although I’m also not sure what those are!
And I don’t know about any failure to connect the two halves so much as I can imagine a complaint that they are only connected at a very base level (i.e., the keys connection; the knife connection; the innocent blood thing). It seems to me that every fantastic task Ofelia completes likewise “enables” (because I can’t think of a better word) some real subversion on the part of Mercedes, which in turn may explain del Toro’s oft-cited interview response, that imagination is one form of resistance, at the same time that it doesn’t give any credit to Mercedes presence as spy/insider prior to Ofelia’s arrival. As I type that I actually find myself a little annoyed because the whole thing seems to hinge on some a priori connection between women, but I blame my momentary and superficial reading more than del Toro (even if he is the one, ultimately, to blame). Now, as I think aloud, I realize that I need to see the movie again before I say anything more.
But I will synthesize the two comments above by saying that I like both del Toro and Gondry.
Oh, and as for Spirit of the Beehive, the IFC Center on 6th Ave played it a couple weeks ago, although I suspect that has more to do with its inclusion in the Criterion Collection than it does with any stirred memories after Pan’s Labyrinth, but hey, coincidences happen. I’m also totally guilty to adding Erice’s to my Netflix queue!