Through a Glass Darkly

Wednesday night's movie in the series The Love of God was Pan's Labyrinth (Spanish: El Laberinto del Fauno; literally The Labyrinth of the Faun). The movie was written and directed by Guillermo del Toro and it won 3 Oscars among many other awards.

The film has two settings interwoven together, a fairy tale world where the Princess Moanna has moved from the underworld to the earth and lost her memory, and 1944 Spain where the Fascist Franco government has almost totally defeated any opposition. Ofelia, a young girl loves fairy tales and travels with her pregnant mother to meet her new stepfather a captain assigned to destroy the anti-fascist rebels left in the mounatins. A large stick insect, which she thinks is a fairy, leads her into an ancient labyrinth next to the old mill where they are billeted. Here she meets the faun/Pan who declares her to be Princess Moanna. He gives her the Book of Crossroads from which she will receive 3 tasks to complete.

Back in the mountains, the captain proves himself to be a brutal, self-determined, and demanding soldier willing to do anything. The most violent scenes (and they are violent) involved him and the soldiers. In fact the visual violence of this warfare is even more brutally portrayed than last week's film!

This movie reminds me of issues raise in Paprika (see earlier post), the nature and difference between reality and dreams/fairy tales. I surprised at the juxtapostion of the violence of life and fairy tale. Pan's Labyrinth basically came from Guillermo del Toro's notebooks, which he said were filled with "doodles, ideas, drawings, and plot bits." It, like Paprika, also synthesizes a large pool of iconic symbols and allusions to many stories of childhood. The soundtrack is basically draws on a lullaby hummed to Ofelia because the words are forgotten. Somehow while gentle it maintains a more hopeful tone, than a sleepy withdrawal, throughout the film.

Both J R Tolkien and C S Lewis believed that fairy tales are important as a medium—however dark and troubling they are, they can help us explore spiritual mysteries and understand a reality of grace which can shine through a glass dimly, or in this case a screen darkly. It is significant that while del Toro turned down the opportunity to direct The Chronicles of Narnia, yet in this movie the Christian overtones are still present and strong, e.g. temptation, disobedience, sacrifice and redemption.

The end of movie is ambiguous because reality itself is ambiguous but I felt the alternative reality in the world of Ofelia to be more real, more hopeful, more life giving than the world of Franco's Spain. For a while I wondered whether this fairy tale world was merely otherworld escapism, but when I really look inwardly at myself I find a deeper and lasting reality.

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. 1 John 1:1-2