an extraordinary masterpiece

Spain. 1944. Ofelia, a girl fascinated by fairy tales, is sent with her pregnant mother to meet and live with her new stepfather, Capitan Vidal, a particularly sadistic character. One night Ofelia meets a fairy, is told she is a princess and encounters the faun Pan. To prove her royalty, she must execute specific albeit gruesome tasks.

Sergi Lopez as the Capitan is excellent, as are the two leading actresses, Maribel Verdu (playing Vidal's housekeeper, Mercedes) and Ivana Baquero (Ofelia). The faun is magistrally played by Doug Jones.

An intense, brutal, beautiful, magical world is what makes this movie A MUST SEE, for it is quite the masterpiece, visually and artistically. The film definitely deserved its Oscar for best cinematography: Guillermo Navarro used wonderful lighting and techniques.

Brilliantly directed and masterfully written by Guillermo Del Toro, this is a movie FOR ADULTS.

(Warning: English subtitles only so far available on the DVDs.)

10/10

Comments

Prelude

Posted : 2 years, 6 months ago at Jun 17 15:07

I loved it as well, but one thing I disagree on; although any other year, it would (and should) have gotten oscar for best cinematography, unfortunately the camera work in Children of Men was better, maybe not artistically, but definitely technically, so if it was up to me, I think CoM should've got the oscar last year. But regardless, Pan's did have excellent cinematography. I wish Hollywood would take a cue and start making more movies like this instead of the mass-appeal trash they seem hell-bent on churning out.

Added by doudouce55 2 years ago on 16 June 2007 09:29