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Mexican helmer Guillermo del Toro travelled to Spain to shoot his "transcendent" masterpiece Pan's Labyrinth. Hollywood would never have sanctioned such a dark fairytale that sees a young girl (Ivana Baquero) conjure a fantasy world to escape the horrors of war. In an Oscar ceremony dominated by shamefully overrated movies in 2007, del Toro missed out on the gong for Best Foreign Picture. The film only took awards for makeup, design and cinematography.
The Way In
In a prologue to this two-disc edition of Pan's Labyrinth, del Toro calls this "The most personal movie I've ever made". He elaborates on this in a half-hour interview at the NFT, describing it as a "companion piece to The Devil's Backbone [2001]" and saying that after that film, the 9/11 attacks radically altered his opinions regarding children and their reaction to war and oppression. It's a fascinating interview and del Toro is as ever very articulate in describing the ideas that have shaped his outlandish and sometimes gruesome films. He reveals that he loves monsters because they represent all the qualities that we wish to keep hidden, but which at the same time, "make us human".
Wearing his screenwriter's hat, del Toro deconstructs the classic children's fairytale in The Power Of Myth. He reflects on the common occurrence of prepubescent girls (representing innocence versus the corrupting influence of the material world), adding that, "Characters can be types and still have an emotional life." He delves deeper into the subtext of Pan's Labyrinth in a brilliant commentary for the film. He talks more about wanting to "juxtapose violence and magic" and how one shapes the other, plus the "feminine feeling" of the story.
Pan's People
Femininity is expressed in the visual style of the film as del Toro and his design team explain in Colour And Shape. Everything in the fantasy world is round and warm "like the belly of her mother", he says, while the material world is "cool and blue". These ideas were some of the earliest notions that occurred to del Toro in the development of the film. In a section of seven featurettes titled Director's Notebook, del Toro leafs through his early scribblings that include sketches of the creatures that would eventually become Pan and The Pale Man.
Keeping on the creature theme, there is also a half-hour look at the conception and creation of Pan and The Pale Man. Both characters were played by Doug Jones who sits patiently in the makeup chair as layers of painted rubber are glued to his body. Costume designers David MartΓ and Montse RibΓ© admit to being a little sceptical about del Toro's wacky ideas (eg, The Pale Man should "look like an old man who lost a lot of weight, and his face."), but an Oscar each is surely enough to convince them he was right.
Composer Javier Navarrete gets a shout in The Melody Echoes The Fairytale. Del Toro explains that he wanted "a lullaby" and tested various compositions by humming them to his daughter. (You too can enjoy the full, finished signature theme accompanied by a montage of scenes from the film.) Storyboard-to-thumbnail comparisons and a demo reel of visual effects round off the extras.
It's a shame that we don't get to hear much from Baquero or the rest of the cast and there is no footage from the set, but what del Toro does offer us is a detailed and wonderfully insightful picture of intention. His willingness to let us ramble around inside his own fantasy world, as well as the one he portrays onscreen, ensures this DVD is truly spellbinding.
EXTRA FEATURES
Pan's Labyrinth: 2 Disc Edition DVD is released on Monday 5th March 2007.
