Thanks, Turq, I'll get it and watch it. Even though I read the good reviews about it (and they were all unfailingly positive), I never got around to checking it out. Your recommendation has pushed me over the edge.
Marek ** --- In [email protected], TurquoiseB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I downloaded this film some time ago, but never got around > to watching it until last night. I think that subconsciously > I was waiting to watch it near the area in which it was filmed, > and in which the story takes place. > > It's Spain, 1944. The revolution is over, and Franco's troops > have won. Outposts have been created at the various frontiers > to fight against the still-active anti-Fascists. And into one > of these outposts is brought Ofelia (the real star of the movie, > a young actress to watch), the stepdaughter-against-her-will to > a sadistic Fascist Captain (Sergi Lopez, in a fine but unsympa- > thetic performance), whom her mother has married because he > knocked her up and wants his unborn son more than he wants > anything else in his life. And, of course, he pays for things > like food and clothing, stuff that she'd otherwise have little > access to in Franco's Spain, since her husband (Ofelia's father) > was killed in the revolution as a traitor to the Franco forces. > > Gnarly situation. Ofelia deals with it the way she deals with > other gnarly situations, by retreating into an inner world > that only she can see. This world is full of fairies and laby- > rinths and fauns and giant frogs and menacing quasihuman beasts > with their eyes in the palms of their hands. In this inner > world she is a Princess of the realm, someone who had lost her > way in a previous incarnation and become trapped in the gnarly > world of Fascist Spain. All she has to do to return to the > world that she originally came from is to accomplish three > dangerous tasks, before the moon becomes full. > > This is such a marvelous movie, in so many ways, that I can't > really go into it here. Seamless special effects make Ofelia's > world bloom as accurately for her as it does for us. There > is great acting not only from the aforementioned Ivana Baquero, > who plays Ofelia, and Sergi Lopez, but one of Ofelia's few > friends in the Fascist outpost is played by Maribel Verdú, the > radiant and very talented star of "Y tu mama tambien." She is > in a way the heroic counterpart in the "real" world of Ofelia > in her world. > > One of the things that I find most interesting about this film, > and one of the main reasons I'm writing about it to Fairfield > Life, is the sheer consistency of one trend in the reviews of > this film I saw in the press. Many critics loved it; I first > discovered the film because it wound up on so many critics' > Ten Best of 2006 lists. But almost without exception, each > of those critics refers to Ofelia's world as "imaginary," > the unreal place that she retreats into to escape the > horror of her everyday reality. > > I find that very interesting, because I saw the entire film -- > both the shock of Franco's Spain and the beauty/awe of Ofelia's > world -- as equal partners in a very real visionscape. I saw > the whole film as mythic, and what the critics saw as Ofelia's > retreats into fantasy I saw as merely a psychic twostep into > another dimension, a separate reality, a parallel universe, > to which she alone has access because she alone can see it. > > I think this is a *marvelous* film, and suspect that many here > might find it interesting, too. Marek in particular (I think > it was you I had the short conversation with about simultaneous > incarnations) might like it. Just think of Ofelia as bouncing > back and forth between two simultaneous incarnation-streams, > trying to make sense of the simultaneity of it all. > > If you do watch it, the countryside it's filmed in looks a lot > like where I am right now, in Catalunya. That kind of rocky, > rugged, rolling countryside, but in my case ending at a beach. > Think Big Sur, except that they speak Catalan and Spanish here. > That and there are fewer "So you want lipo with that pina > colada" bars in Big Sur. But in Big Sur they make the women > wear the top parts of their bathing suits, so that kinda > speaks for itself, doesn't it? >
