DIRECTED BY Zack Snyder
STARRING Gerard Butler, Lena Headey, Dominic West
US 2007 117 mins.
PAN’S LABYRINTH **
DIRECTED BY Guillermo del Toro
STARRING Ivana Baquero, Sergi Lopez, Maribel Verdu
Mexico/Spain/US 2006 112 mins.
Critics have opinions like a centipede has legs; they’re what we run on, and what keeps us going. I’ve been away for two months, which – as I realised with a kind of inward gasp a couple of days ago – is the longest break I’ve had from this column in about 10 years. During those eight weeks I preferred not to read the opinions of Lauren and Sheridan, my estimable replacements – but I’ve now skimmed through the past few issues of Seven, and find myself dribbling righteous outrage like a leaky dinghy. ‘How could they think that?’ I cry, and ‘What does it mean?’, and ‘No! No! A thousand times no!’. Two stars for the eerie dislocation of Perfume? Four stars for The Last King of Scotland, a crude comic turn that settles into crappiness long before our hero gets assailed by a chorus of Invisible Voices? I mean come on.
Sorry, I’ll settle down now. That’s the thing about opinions, hence the comparison to a disreputable body-part that has no place being mentioned in a breakfast magazine; everybody has one. I’m actually quite happy to have been away, if it meant missing Norbit and The Messengers and the Mr. Bean movie – though equally I’d have liked a chance to express my enthusiasm for Perfume, Letters From Iwo Jima and The Pursuit of Happyness, four-star movies all. But there I go second-guessing again.
One film I do want to offer a second opinion on is 300 because, unlike the others, it’s still showing – and doing very well. One friend claimed it made him “proud to be Greek”, but I note two problems with that. First, my friend doesn’t look much like Leonidas and his brave 300, whose physiques have been digitally buffed and dilated so they look like the mutant kids of a brick wall and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Second, the film isn’t about being “Greek” – it’s about being Spartan. Athenians, for instance, are dismissed as “boy lovers” (though I’m not sure how that squares with the lingering, ambiguously gay looks Leo and his men exchange before setting off to slaughter some Persians); even being born in Sparta isn’t enough, if a baby is weak or misshapen. Over the cliff it’ll go, down where the bones of tiny skulls glisten in the sunlight. “No room for softness, no room for weakness! Only the hard and strong may call themselves Spartans. Only the hard! Only the strong!”.
Lest I be misunderstood, I actually have no problem with 300 being fascist as hell. It’s not exactly sneaky in its main thesis – Spartans as a warrior caste, a master race, ranged against the dark-skinned, the effeminate and freaks of all descriptions (Ephialtes the traitor is now a full-blown monster) – and it’s rather deliciously ironic, with Iraq in quagmire mode, to see the conflict between West and East replayed as lavish, take-no-prisoners comic-book. If the film were subtler it wouldn’t give audiences what they want, a stark martial fantasy for tentative times.
On the other hand, you can’t take it seriously – and 300 doesn’t even work as camp (it’s too emphatic), so there isn’t much to take your mind off the preening, posing and cries of “SPARTAAAAAA!!!”. More surprisingly, the much-touted ‘look’ is nothing special; I’d hoped for another Sin City (also based on a Frank Miller comic), but Sin City looked like nothing else whereas this looks like a music video. Filters abound; the sea is grey, the sky semi-permanently yellow. Men’s blood runs black, though their cloaks be crimson. A narrator appears unbidden, spelling out the men’s thoughts while they stand there looking moody. The soundtrack clatters with swords on shields and Celtic effusions. Reader, I was bored.
Then there’s Pan’s Labyrinth – another smash-hit fantasy, winner of 51 awards at last count (including three Oscars). Lauren or Sheridan gave it five stars (!) in last week’s Seven, and I guess I see why. People love this film the way they loved Lord of the Rings, entering its world in a state of blissful abandon, like a child with a much-loved fairytale – but I’ve now seen it twice, and can’t join the chorus of hosannas. What can I say? Opinions again.
The film – which should actually translate as “The Faun’s Labyrinth”; the goat-man is never named – is a loose retread of The Devil’s Backbone, made by the same director in 2001. The setting is again the Spanish Civil War (in this case soon after the war, with Franco’s forces mopping up resistance) juxtaposed with a tale of the supernatural; in Backbone it was ghosts, in this one an imaginative little girl stumbling into a magical world presided over by a faun, who informs her that she’s really a princess. About two-thirds of Pan is action thriller, with Sergi Lopez as the girl’s sadistic stepdad (a Captain in Franco’s army); the rest is fantasy, following our heroine on the various “tasks” she must perform to prove her birthright.
How do the two fit together? Well, exactly. The action scenes are fine, if simplistic, with Lopez doing an essay in moustache-twirling villainy. The fantasy scenes have some vivid images, notably an ogre with eyes in the palms of his hands. But there’s no reason for the two to be side-by-side, except some vague Message – so wispy and emaciated it’s almost pitiful – about Pan embodying the opposite of blind obedience, hence the nature of the “Third Task”, while the Fascists stand for the suppression of Spain’s collective imagination. (There’s even a scene where Lopez extols blind obedience in so many words.) If you’re extra-good we’ll add a hint of anti-Catholicism, the priests at Lopez’s dinner table tying in with echoes of Abraham and Isaac in the final (aborted) sacrifice. That’s your lot, I’m afraid.
Lest I be misunderstood (again), I don’t necessarily require Pan’s Labyrinth to be ‘deep’. Given that it isn’t deep, however, it needs to do the genre trappings exceptionally well – and it simply doesn’t. No amount of magical toads and swooping-and-gliding camera moves can forestall questions like ‘Shouldn’t she be taking that hourglass along with her? How’s she going to know when time is up?’. Grasshopper fairies are all very well, but they couldn’t stop me thinking, ‘She’s not going to eat that grape, is she? Why doesn’t she just take it outside and eat it there?’. Maybe I’m just the kind of awkward boy who likes his fairytales to make sense.
Pan’s Labyrinth is one of those films that’s so enveloping – its pace portentous, its tone dark and doomy – it’s easy to ignore or overlook how little it’s saying, and how lazily it’s saying it. Lord of the Rings was another such film; so, to an extent, is 300. The point is that filmmakers now have the technology to create worlds so detailed and rich – so profuse in gigabytes of digital detail – they seduce the viewer into switching off; the Golden Age of Fantasy is also a Golden Age of hypnotic surfaces (isn’t ‘fantasy’ just another word for ‘escape’?). We sit there gawking at the wallpaper, when we should be getting up and checking the foundations. Or perhaps that’s a matter of opinion.
NEW DVD RELEASES
Here’s our regular look at the more interesting titles released on DVD in the US and UK over the past few weeks. Some may be available to rent from local video clubs, or you can always order over the Internet: dozens of suppliers, but http://www.amazon.com (for US) and http://www.play.com (for UK) are among the most reliable, if not necessarily the cheapest. Prices quoted don’t include shipping. Note that US discs are ‘Region 1’, and require a multi-region player.
NEW FILMS
THE
DEPARTED: Surprising (but mostly deserved) Oscar winner in 2-disc Special Edition, including deleted scenes, a 21-minute profile of the real-life gangster played by Jack Nicholson – and, last but not least, the 86-minute documentary ‘Scorsese on Scorsese’. [US/UK]
HALF NELSON: Much-acclaimed indie, with Ryan Gosling in Oscar-nominated performance as dysfunctional teacher. Extras include outtakes and deleted scenes. [US]
MUTUAL APPRECIATION: Quirky, micro-budgeted drama (in black and white) about young New Yorkers. A genuine cult movie. [US]
INFAMOUS: Better than ‘Capote’ (so they say), with Toby Jones as the fey little man with an ice-cold heart. Check it out. [US]
MARIE ANTOINETTE: Vacuous or witty? Kirsten Dunst in divisive (yet light) period drama, with featurette and deleted scenes. [US]
REQUIEM: ‘The Exorcism of Emily Rose’ remade (loosely) as a German arthouse drama! Extras include interviews and commentaries. [UK]
OLD FILMS
BICYCLE THIEVES (1948): One of the all-time greats in a spiffy new transfer from the Criterion Collection, looking better than ever. Copious extras include documentary on Italian neo-realism, documentary on director Vittorio de Sica, and separate booklet with essays and reminiscences. Did we mention the film is a masterpiece? [US]
GREEN FOR DANGER (1946): More from Criterion, taking on an obscure but underrated British mystery (set in WW2), with delicious Alastair Sim performance. Includes commentary. [US]
THE CLOCK (1945): Beware! Judy Garland in a beautiful drama, a brief encounter in New York with soldier Robert Walker – but the transfer is soft and disappointing. Extras include the truly zany cartoon ‘Screwy Truant’. [US]
THE BUTCHER BOY (1998): Belated DVD release for dark Neil Jordan comedy, a kiddie film that’s not for kids. Includes commentary by Jordan and additional scenes. [US]
BLUME IN LOVE (1973): Grown-up 70s cinema, starring George Segal as divorced husband. A gem. [US]
THE HEIRESS (1949): Olivia de Havilland in Oscar-winning Henry James adaptation. Talk to your video shop! (It’s only $13.)
OUT OF THE PAST (1947): Already available in superior US version, classic noir thriller comes to Region 2. No extras, only recommended if you can’t play Region 1. [UK]
PAUL ROBESON: PORTRAITS OF THE ARTIST: 4-disc set from Criterion, showcasing the remarkable Robeson – singer, activist, successful black man in a segregated America. Not for everyone, but it’s good to have it. Films include ‘The Emperor Jones’ (1933) and left-wing agitprop ‘Native Land’ (1942). [US]
VIVA PEDRO: THE ALMODOVAR COLLECTION: Bargain! 8 films by Almodovar – ranging from the 1986 ‘Matador’ to the 2004 ‘Bad Education’ – for a mere $88 plus shipping. No extras, alas. [US]
