Right from just this movie you can see how Greek mythological archetypes have spread even to Spain, since I saw the all-famous Pan's Labyrinth on the weekend. When I first saw the movie I must have been 10 or 11, because I did not understand it at all. But now, it's only tricky complex movie with many allusions to myth, especially on the main character.
Well all know Pan well from myths such as "Echo" and "The Pan Flute From Arcadia". There's also a strange fact that he was the only god to ever die. I guess them people up there aren't immortal either. The hero in this movie, Ofelia, is under a spell that she must perform a number of activities. As she knocks them off one by one, you wonder if she's immortal. But she isn't, and those brick walls keep coming down. This whole movie is a the hero Ofelia living in a fairytale, and Pan was known to companion the nymphs who told her fairytales no one had heard before. Both Ofelia and Pan also seem to reject their "overlords", as shown when Captain Vidal (who we can compare to Zeus on another day) is caught torturing a rebel.
So now I ask you, the reader what other connections you see between Ofelia and Greek god Pan?
Hi Donald,
ReplyDeleteThat movie makes me shiver. Go into more depth about the archetypes YOU see repeated in the film and perhaps this will elicit discussion.
Well in the movie the fact that Ofelia is being trapped by this spirtual mind or "building" shows the hero looking like he/she is dead, but coming back up and in the end winning.
ReplyDeleteAnd one more thing, the name Ofelia sounds something Eastern European, so obviously the director in this case had a clear image and knew he was going to go back to Greek Myth.
However, the character was never meant to be Pan, as Del Toro has said himself. In fact, in its original Spanish title it is called El laberinto del fauno. Which translates to the Labyrinth of the Faun. He wanted the character only to reflect the mythos of fauns rather than Pan specifically because he believed that Pan was too sexually devious for the character he wanted in his movie.
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