8.14.2006

Frank Darabont Loves Pan's Labyrinth

Found this through the CHUD discussion thread of the film:

PAN’S LABYRINTH is a return to the notion of film as art—one man’s vision, from the heart, the gonads, and the gut. It's gorgeous and unique and very moving. As a filmmaker, I found it both humbling and inspiring—humbling because it sets the bar so high; inspiring because it shows what passionate filmmaking can and should be. It is a gauntlet thrown down, a declaration that movies should count for more than just opening weekend grosses, that “Ars Gratia Artis” shouldn’t just be a forgotten slogan in a dead language decorating a roaring lion logo.

I’ve seldom seen a movie more in love with film—with the very idea of film. It rolls around in its love of cinema like a dog in grass. Every frame exudes a love of movies…but not the easy, referential kind that recycles other films in the guise of “hip homage.” This is a purer love born of a filmmaker’s desire to be daring, original, to take chances. It is Guillermo’s gift to anybody who ever had their breath taken away the first time they saw a Kubrick or a Scorsese or a Spielberg bust a new move in cinema. It reeks of classicism—the way it’s shot, paced, edited, scored. It’ll feel old-fashioned to some—but that is one of its greatest strengths: there isn’t a whiff of MTV-era filmmaking about it.

Letting my personal feelings sneak back in for a moment, can I just tell you what a thrill it is to see a friend as deserving as Guillermo hit his artistic stride?

Is it a huge film? A blockbuster? The next LORD OF THE RINGS? No. The only things epic about PAN’S LABYRINTH are its emotional landscape and the power of its imagination—otherwise it’s intensely personal and intimate, small enough to hold in the palm of your hand. Though it has its share of thrilling moments, it’s not a thrill ride…it’s a rumination, a meditation, a journey through fairy tale magic and gut-wrenching realism. That it blends these things at all is ambitious, that it blends them perfectly is a miracle. Stephen King, who just saw the movie yesterday and loved it, wrote me an email calling it “an R-rated fairy tale,” and that’s as accurate a description as you can get.

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