Cultural Event: Pan's Labyrinth
XI LIU
Cultural Event Paper: Pan’s Labyrinth
I like watching movies, and I want to learn about different cultures from different countries. So I attended the cultural event of 2012 Foreign Film Series at 7:00 pm in October 9th. I was so excited that the Art History Organization gave us a chance to watch a Spanish film called Pan’s Labyrinth. I had heard of it before, but I had never watched it. This film combined the fantasy world and the real world perfectly. That is to say, it is a film of magic realism. I was attracted by the plot of the film, and I was astonished by the director’s conception and the visual effects even though a few scenes were a little bit disgusting and scary.
The background of the story was traced to 1944, five years after the end of the Spanish Civil War. Spain was shrouded under the haze of fascist dictatorship. Those who were communist party members and the democratic persons were hunted down and killed savagely by the army.
The plot of the movie develops with resistance against forces of General Francisco Franco, whose leader was Captain Vidal and who ruled Spain as dictator. The protagonist Ofelia entered a magic world with three challenges that Pan gave to her. The film opened with the sound of a faint melody which was accompanied by the sound of Ofelia’s breathing and the frames of blood streaming from Ofelia’s nose while she was lying on the ground. With the background of white words showing on the screen and the voiceover telling us Ofelia’s status of princess in underground realm, the story started.
Ofelia, who was twelve years old, took her pregnant mother to the north to rendezvous with her stepfather Vidal, whose real identity was a fascist officer responsible for repression of the local guerrillas. The purpose of Vidal’s living with Ofelia and her mother was his flesh and blood son to be born, and Vidal’s only pleasure was to study all kinds of ways to torture people who were caught. After watching her cold stepfather
Cultural Event Paper: Pan’s Labyrinth
I like watching movies, and I want to learn about different cultures from different countries. So I attended the cultural event of 2012 Foreign Film Series at 7:00 pm in October 9th. I was so excited that the Art History Organization gave us a chance to watch a Spanish film called Pan’s Labyrinth. I had heard of it before, but I had never watched it. This film combined the fantasy world and the real world perfectly. That is to say, it is a film of magic realism. I was attracted by the plot of the film, and I was astonished by the director’s conception and the visual effects even though a few scenes were a little bit disgusting and scary.
The background of the story was traced to 1944, five years after the end of the Spanish Civil War. Spain was shrouded under the haze of fascist dictatorship. Those who were communist party members and the democratic persons were hunted down and killed savagely by the army.
The plot of the movie develops with resistance against forces of General Francisco Franco, whose leader was Captain Vidal and who ruled Spain as dictator. The protagonist Ofelia entered a magic world with three challenges that Pan gave to her. The film opened with the sound of a faint melody which was accompanied by the sound of Ofelia’s breathing and the frames of blood streaming from Ofelia’s nose while she was lying on the ground. With the background of white words showing on the screen and the voiceover telling us Ofelia’s status of princess in underground realm, the story started.
Ofelia, who was twelve years old, took her pregnant mother to the north to rendezvous with her stepfather Vidal, whose real identity was a fascist officer responsible for repression of the local guerrillas. The purpose of Vidal’s living with Ofelia and her mother was his flesh and blood son to be born, and Vidal’s only pleasure was to study all kinds of ways to torture people who were caught. After watching her cold stepfather
Cited: Zhang, Justin. "The Esoteric Interpretation of “Pan’s Labyrinth”." Slant Magzine. 06 2006: 24. print