Underneath Your Horns, You're Just Like Me

I've had two weekends of intensive movie-watching. Last weekend it was Apocalypto and Borat. This weekend it was Pan's Labyrinth and Brotherhood of the Wolf. So that's Mayan, English, Spanish and French language films, all in nine days. I admit that this makes me feel very superior and arty.

Though, to be honest, the only one of these films that can justifiably claim to be art is Pan's Labyrinth. The others are very good movies but in the end rather predictable. Okay, Borat is never predictable, but it does have a formula that isn't too hard to deduce. Pan, on the other hand is the sort of movie you just want to relax and experience, without trying to out-think the script or outsmart the director. So predictability never becomes an issue.

I especially loved the dark treatment of the fantasy elements of the movie. If you've only seen Hollywood executions of fantasy (think The Chronicles of Narnia), you could easily believe that fantasy literature is all about black & white characterizations and the predictable triumph of (good) elves over (evil) orcs. But as we fantasy geeks know, the real pleasure of reading great fantasy is that it tells complex, morally challenging stories. Behind the breathless heroics and magic spells, behind the strange races and exotic names, there are characters with deep passions and swirling conflicts. No matter how good they are, they sometimes do evil. Mythology is simple, but fantasy is not.

So it was a pleasure to see Guillermo del Toro's interpretation of Pan. He was as gnarly and sinister as a woodland god should be. From the moment he first entered the story, you had to wonder whether the little girl Ofelia was right to trust him. Him with his short temper, secretive ways and instructions to complete strange tasks. And his mis-shapen body. Many scholars believe that the devil's horns and hooves are references to Pan, an attempt by the early church to induce people to give up pagan beliefs.

Be that as it may, what is certain is that a good fantasy story is a rich mix of scary, sad, brave and occasionally funny. A lot like real people are in the real world. I guess that's what makes it so powerful as an art form.