Pan's Labyrinth Review

Yesterday... Yesterday was seeing Pan's Labyrinth. Kristin and Kiwii went with me to see the movie at the Harbour Centre (Annapolis). We arrived relatively early and meandered around for a while. We went to the bookstore, where Kristin bought a few books (Augh... Good Omens and Complete Lewis Carroll?).

The movie was excellent. It is adult, it is rated R. Some people said it was very gory, which it certainly is not, but it is not free of violence or blood. There are three parts that would claim 'gore', but it is not like these Saw or Chainsaw Massacre movies, which are relatively akin to the pulp horrors of the 50s. It was, to say, necessary gore. It could have been done, cinematographically, differently but it was better this way. The audience understood it this way. The example I will use (and not be a spoiler) is when the Captain beats and kills a man with a bottle. We see him break his nose and smash it in. I would deem that more violent than gory. However, when watching it, remember that 1. This is NOT an American film and 2. It has violence and blood (and some gore).

I expected there to be more of the fantasy. While Ofelia is the main character, we get a lot more of the Spanish Civil War and the Captain, in some ways, than Pan and the fae. I think Gaiman (oh shut up, there are not many OTHER authors on blogs so I can't quote them, now can I??) said it best: 'an uncompromisinly adult film, with a child and her fairy tale inset into it as a contrast and echo.' There are two plots, really. I thought they would converge at one point (and that was slightly disappointing, but I will get to that later), but they never really do. There is the Captain (and his bastardness) with Ofelia's mother and Ofelia and her brother and then there is Ofelia and Pan and the fairies. The movie is mostly done through Ofelia, but we also see a lot of the Captain's view. That is, of course, interesting. As the villain, we should see less of him and more of Ofelia, but when we are in the real world with the Spanish Civil War, we see both Ofelia and the Captain. When we slip in the fairy world, we only see Ofelia. There are no 'only Pan' moments. We get Ofelia and that is it. Actually, for a movie called Pan's Labyrinth, it is not so much as based around the labyrinth itself. (Do not mistake me, for I love the fact that it is called that).

I loved the faun and the white man. I should actually stop calling the faun 'Pan' because I don't think he was named that. He was always just the faun. The white man was most interesting. Both were the same man, if I remember correctly... Yes, it was Doug Jomes who played them. I love the costuming for that. It was latex plus CGI-ed lower halves (if you look at the white man's lower half, it is extremely skinny and unhuman). The legs for both were made latex and they deleted Doug's legs, out of the picture. Very interesting and beautiful. Nothing was, I think, compeletely and utterly CGI. The fairies are the only thing. Everything else was latex - the frog, the captain's face... the mandrake was there, too. That makes me very pleased with Guillermo del Toro. It was done, special effects wise, how I think films should be done - anything that can be done (well) with latex and models and costumes, do so... anything else done by CGI. The imagery was wonderful (as an add-on, so was the music).

I found it interesting how I forgot about the sub-titles. Completely forgot. They were done well.

Now, the plotlines. This is most likely to contain a bit of spoilers (I will attempt to NOT make many, but I'll put the horrifically big ones in white). I thought that, in the end, Ofelia's world and the real world would collide. Interestingly, it never really did. Some people might be disappointed, I found it refreshing. It was nice for them to not, blatantly, converge. My theory on it is that the faun and fairies are all in Ofelia's mind. ((SPOILER, highlight to see: This is most obvious when the Captain (his name is Vidal, apparently) enters the middle of the labyrinth. He does not see the faun and the faun does not see the Captain. There is no interaction at all. )). It is a bit iffy, really. There are some things that it does not make entire sense, but we do see it (the fairy parts) through Ofelia. The movie is not a fairy tale, so much as a war story fused into one. Instead of seeing it through the eyes of an adult, where we would get an accurate tale of the war, we get it through the eyes of a little girl who is obsessed with fairies and fantasy. Ofelia, being an imaginitive little girl, does not absorb herself into the happenings of the war and so, makes up her own little world. The only way we can see anything about the war is if we look through the Captain's eyes or Mercedes (I realise I haven't said much on her... haha) or Ofelia's mother or even the Doctor ((SPOILER, highlight to see: Minor note, I love it when the Doctor dies. It is astonishingly done... The view of the camera and his actions - wonderful)). If the film was done entirely through the eyes of Ofelia, we would not have any of the war, most likely. It would have been all faun and fairies.

...

On another note, Ray Bradbury is going to Comic-Con. This makes me really happy. Now it is both Bradbury AND Gaiman, haha!

First Chapters Writing Competition

http://www.gather.com/viewGroup.jsp?grpId=3659174697244428

On Gather.com, there is a competition running of Touchstone's to publish a book. Sadly, I cannot enter. I do not have a finished manuscript, which makes me want to cry. I'll wait until another opportunity, but felt like sharing this. ((And if anyone else new to Gather was wondering, yes... it is extremely confusing your first time around)).

Snow and cuts.

http://kino-express.ru/stills/stardust

Russian site, has a lot of pictures of the movie (Stardust).

http://www.theoriginalsushipillow.com/home.html

Wonderful pillows. They are very beautiful and I really would love to get one. They are sushi pillows. I want the avocado nigiri and the shrimp the most.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6286617.stm

Romanian news (because I care?). I always post these articles.

...

I got my haircut (whoo). It's a lot shorter than before. It was too long, before. It was grating on my nerves, really. This is the best picture I took (no one was awake when I was taking pictures, so I had to take them by myself). I look a tiny bit scary here?


Here is when I first tried to take my picture, and sort of missed.


Finally, this is how short it is in the back:



If you want a reference picture, this is what I looked like before hand:



Much shorter.

On another note, it is snowing here. It's been snowing off and on this week, but it snowed uite a lot (actually) today. It kept flurrying. It was very beautiful. We all went out and threw snow at each other and played, for the most part. Then everyone shuffled off to go home.

I figured out how to add fonts to Word (and all that). It was very amazing. I've added Ancient (both versions) and Go'auld, from Stargate. It amused me greatly.

I've been doing nothing all night. I ought to go do my homework now... *sighs*. (I also need to finish up reading Spindle's End and give it back to Cunningham).

...

Edit: I had forgotten to mention this earlier, but I am going to see Pan's Labyrinth this Saturday. It is playing at 7 in the Harbor theatre and I can't find the thing for the mall theatre (this would be in Annapolis). We (my dad and I) want to arrive in Annapolis at 6-ish, so we (Kristin, Kiwii and I) can eat dinner and kind of play around for a bit. I was hoping for the movie to be at 7:30 so that we could have more time, but the only other time is 10 and that is most certainly too late (we can only see a movie around 7 or 8 because of when Kristin gets off work).

The Sacrificing Brother (A. Cain Arlini) - Link

The Sacrificing Brother (A. Cain Arlini) has been written, edited and finished... and submitted to Suite 21.

The Sacrificing Brother (A. Cain Arlini) is about a more-or-less modern-day Cain and Abel story. ((There is no definitive time period, but it is done in the 20th century)). Cain and Abele are sons of the mafia members: Adem and Ava Arlini. Cain and Abele live and run an apartment building. Abele, to his dismay, is beaten by his brother on a monthly (and sometimes weekly) basis. The Sacrificing Brother is a second part (of sorts) to The Sacrificial Brother (Abele Arlini).

Note: I will be making these little posts from time to time because it is easier to look at then digging through my mass of links in Never Wonder Nights.

Links, links to lists and wasting time.

Archeophone would be a website about 'old' music, basically (stuff that's from 1900-1920 type stuff and earlier). Interesting.

Adam Buxton's blog. Don't know if I posted this before or not, but I like his blog. Amusing.

I keep meaning to look through this blog thoroughly. It's relatively interesting and I need to look up Susanna Henderson now.

I've heard of John Crowley before (in passing mention while looking up something Good Omen-ish). I like his list, it IS something good to look at, if you're a fantasy writer (especially) and good if you like reading (fantasy, mostly) and, in general, like writing or reading.

Kawaii Not. Somtimes funny and always cute. Webcomic. ((I sometimes think I should put up a list of webcomics that I think are amusing, good and/or entertaining)).

...

Because I don't want to list it all here, I'm going to give the link for my livejournal. ((Same material, but with the big gigantic list of books. Basically, if you don't want to read it, skip on. If you do... well, you know what to do)).

I'm supposed to be saving my money for Comic-con (seeing how that's my GRADUATE PRESENT, that means that I get no money for it). I'm not sure how that'll work if I have such a long and tantalising booklist, >.<'' (that gets longer about every week... there are still some things that are not written down that I want).

...

I've 'applied' to the local library, so I can get my community service hours. I have 18 and I need 45 (on the whole and general... basically minus 18 from that because I'm not very good with math). I'm hoping that I pick my grades up enough so that I can actually get to intern. What will I do for interning? Who the hell knows. I have no freaking clue as to what I'd do for interning. It's a very broad thing, me interning. I kind of want to do something like Vertigo or something random and fun and interesting. I don't think I'd be able to intern there, haha.

Blogging is very impeding towards writing. I've wasted a few hours now. *sighs*

Step up and enjoy the show.

So, this is the pilot of a new blog. It seems as though I am creating a collection every few months. First my livejournal, than Never Wonder Nights and now this (thankfully this is only an ammendment to Never Wonder Nights and not a completely new blog). This will, most likely, contain a lot of the same information of my livejournal.

This is still in 'construction'. As you can see, there are no links up. I'm not sure why not, but I'll figure that out eventually. ((As a small note, Never Wonder Nights is still in slight construction)). I would love to figure out how to cut long posts. Perhaps it is not even possible on blogger, but Never Wonder Nights posts are always so long and it is hard to navigate. I also need to add a few links. I need to add the Suite 21 link (that would be a writing club I belong to... even if it seems to not reallybe going anywhere) and my librarythings page (for those wondering, go here. I personally like librarythings). Besides all of that, I have been trying to figure out RSS feeds. I would love to put this up on livejournal. Perhaps that would actually mean people reading these things. This is probably a small hope, but maybe, just maybe, it might not be.