Mira Nair - The Perez Family

Overall, I thought Mira Nair was a pretty good director. Her history of filming documentaries really did make her films seem more original. I also liked the fact that different languages were pretty equally used throughout her film, that is the first time I had ever seen a movie do that. My favorite movie probably had to be The Namesake, followed by the other two (which I thought to be near the same level of enjoyment). It was just interesting to see how the life cycle worked. There were a lot of different conflicts in her films, including those that involved the clashing of different cultures.

She grew up with two different cultures, so she knows the conflicts go that goes along with that. I actually also grew up with two different cultures, but I have yet to see the type of conflicts that she expresses, such as lost of identity. Some of the things she displayed made it seem like everyone that grew up with two cultures would have those problems. Personally, I think it was a bit dramatized. But I guess the movies would be a lot less interesting if those problems weren't exaggerated. I enjoyed watching Mira Nair's films and would recommend it to anyone that likes a mix of culture.

The film I watched was called The Perez Family, it is a comedy about a couple of Cuban immigrants that just happen to have the same last name, Perez. They realized that by pretending to be an actual family, they had a better chance of staying within the United States. This film was actually based off a book by Christine Bell. I chose this film randomly, I literally found a list of films that Mira Nair directed at the nearest video store and ran my finger down the list with my eyes closed. I think that was a bad choice, this movie wasn't all that great. Mira Nair was never shy about showing sexuality and swear words within her films. this film was not an exception. I didn't think that was really necessary for the film. This film does however have her signature theme of clashing cultures and how people cope with a new culture, as well as keep their own. I found it surprising that the film was about Cubans, and not Indians. All the films we had watched in class were about the culture of India in some way or another. There were some interesting things in the movie, such as the romance and some parts of the comedy. Watching the two main characters, the "husband", Juan Raul Perez and the "Wife", Dorita Evita Perez, was the way they interacted was very interesting. Even in this weird situation, love still seems to exist. Between a former aristocrat and former prostitute. This shows another one of Mira Nair's signature themes, a cross between class barriers. Christine Bell's book really had a lot of the themes that Mira Nair tended to have in her films, which is probably why she turned the book into a film. Overall I thought I should probably have chosen a better film to watch, but it had some good moments.

Coen Brothers

In my opinion, the Coen Brothers have been one of the best directors that we have studied in class. Their witty style has been very enjoyable to watch. One of the favorite things that I have seen in their movies, are the complete "badass" antagonists. They all seem to be larger than the average man in stature, and are willing to do anything to get what they want. For example, Sugure uses his "badass" shotgun with a silencer to kill so many people to look for the case of money. Then there is the protagonist, they always seem to be running away from something or someone. The Coen Brothers don't seem to be afraid of violence, they used guns in every film we watched in class. Even if it was a comedic part of the film, an example would be when Hi was running from the police after his failed attempt to steal some money and diapers. There were some things that I didn't find to be important, or add much to the film.

I don't really understand why they like the use of dreams in their movies. I guess it gives it a mysterious feeling to it, or maybe the idea that dreams can give you insight on things you wouldn't normally think about when awake. Personally, I didn't particularly like this aspect of their films. But overall, I thought the films created by the Coen Brothers were great, and very enjoyable to watch.

Robert Altman

The films created by Robert Altman seemed very different to me compared with other films. Typically films have clear indications as to what the plot is, or the general direction as to what the film is about. But there are just so many random things in some of his films, that it makes it confusing. I would say that out of the three directors that we have studied so far, Altman would probably placed second.

Then out of the three films that we watched, I liked The Long Goodbye the most. It had a sort of dark humor, while still stayed serious with a plot. There were pretty weird and confusing scenes in the movie, but it seemed as if all three films that we watched had those type of scenes. For example, strangely long shots of the half naked women or the humping dogs. The Player was an interesting story, but I lost interest quite quickly. The story moved too slowly in my opinion. Even though there was a murder, I just didn't take it very seriously. Though there were some funny scenes I liked that took place at the police station. Then the movie I really disliked was Nashville, I don't know what kind of movie that was. Random jumping from character to character. I assumed that they would eventually somehow all be closely involved in something with each other, but I was wrong. They didn't know each other, and the only connections they had were occasional conversations. If there was a plot or theme, I didn't understand it. So overall I didn't really like the films created by Altman, or his style of filming.

Akira Kurosawa

I personally thought he was my favorite director that I have seen so far in Art of Film II. His use of dark humor in his supposedly serious movies is just great. For example, the scene where the right hand man of Jiro plays dumb and brings back the head of a stone fox. Though sometimes he does take some shots too far and leave it on the character for too long in my opinion, but it is something new I hadn't seen before. The types of heroes is a bit different from the type I'm used to from American films, his heroes aren't invincible, they actually can get hurt pretty badly (Sanjuro for example in Yojimbo). His use of weather, strong winds, rain, nature is never weak in his films.

My favorite movie out of the three we watched would probably have to be Yojimbo, just because of the loads of dark humor in that film. Kurosawa never made a comedy but Yojimbo was pretty close. It was interesting to see an action film incorporate so many jokes and laughs, I had never seen that before in any American films. Sanjuro as a character seems to be very likable as well, he has the skill of any great samurai, but he still acts and looks like a commoner, and pretty carefree as well. I think foreign films bring a lot of new ideas to movie making that Americans just don't seem to be able to create once they are stuck in their film making norms. They can sometimes bring a new experience to viewers.

Spirited Away

This film is one of the most recent films created by Hayao Miyazaki. I really liked this one too, but the story was a little hard to follow. The film just made take up some much random information about the spirit world, but I did like the creativity. I think my favorite part of the film is when the giant baby and the evil bird get turned into a baby and a little bird. Then the bird flies around carrying the mouse around for a lot of the movie. I thought that was just very funny and creative of Miyazaki. The animation was better than ever before, everything looked so real, yet still animated, I especially liked the water in this film. Once again, a film from studio Ghibli can not go without a great soundtrack, and this film has a nice soundtrack.

There were so many random things that happened in this movie. For example, a giant water spirit leaves a brown ball of something when it leaves, and she thinks it is medicine? I would have thought it to be something else... but that might just be me. The boiler man and the little coal guys were pretty cool, the little coal guys look just like the dust bunnies from Totoro. There were many random events, but not enough to lose the storyline. I still liked them for their creativity and just for fun. But it sort of takes a little away from the movie itself. The ending had nothing to do with the movie at all, where Haku reveals who he really was. We never knew she almost drowned as a kid in a lake, I do not remember the film ever mentioning it even once before revealing it in that scene. The theme of "Don't judge a book by its cover" is also in this film and it fits in really well. But overall I really liked this movie, another great job by Miyazaki.

Alfred Hitchcock

Alfred Hitchcock was pretty unique when he started making his own films. His use of montage with sound to tell a story was very original back in his time. He also had his typical story lines full of suspense rather than surprise, this included the wrongly accused man or knowing a man has committed murder but just following him to see get caught. His fear of police and obsession with blonde women was pretty clear in many of his films. He always had the police ending up seen as weak and useless, and having a blonde woman as one of the main characters. Out of the three films that we had watched in class, I liked Vertigo. I liked the twists and turns throughout the movie, and when we were actually told the truth about everything was pretty satisfying. Then allowing the movie to progress after the point of us knowing the truth allowed us not to be left asking as many questions as we would have if it had just ended with us finding out what happened. There was still the last scene with the main character just standing there after the woman had fallen off the tower and fell to her death, we never found out what happened to him.

Overall I did not find myself to like Hitchcock as much as I thought I would. I think it is mostly because his style of film making has been copied over and over throughout the years by other directors. It just seems like I have seen his techniques used too many times already. At first I liked his background stories that were full of suspense, but those too had been copied and used countless time by other people. Even though they were original at the time, it just seemed a bit boring to me. The endings were typically predictable, with the exception of Vertigo in my opinion, which was why I liked it the most out of the three we watched in class.

Princess Mononoke

This is probably my favorite movie out of all the other movies that were created by Hayao Miyazaki and Ghibli Studios. This movie had everything, action, suspense, romance, and even his trademark concern for nature. The film is about a boy that had been living peacefully in his village when a demon boar attacks. In order to save his village, the boy becomes infected with what drove the boar to become a demon (pollution). He is told to leave his village, and he begins his journey. He meets a family of wolves and a human girl (Princess Mononoke) that lives with them, but they are hostile towards the boy. He also discovers that there is an iron mining village that is polluting the environment, but befriends the people that live there. He must then choose who to side with, the iron town or Princess Mononoke, industrialization or the environment. The main reason why I liked this movie so much was because, it felt like Miyazaki wanted to really just tell people that we should be concerned about the environment instead of just hiding it in the background of most of his other movies. He basically comes out and says that the environment is dying due to our pollution and irresponsibility.

The fight between industrialization and the environment is very much real, both in the film and in the real world. Miyazaki just shows us how he sees how industrialization and the environment are interacting with each other in this film. He seems to believe that the environment will strike back if industrialization goes too far and pollutes too much. We can see the results of green house gases and global warming today. Miyazaki shows that humans can not abuse the environment as much as they want without consequences and that humans must respect the environment if they plan to take things from it.

Once again I was amazed at the detail of the animation and the wonderful music made specifically for this film. Then there are things that surprised me when I first say the movie, so much violence and gore from Miyazaki. The film has a lot of violence and gore. For example, the boy accidentally shoots off a samurai's arms with an arrow. I thought that was pretty entertaining, but I believe many people were like me and suspected a more tame movie. I feel bad for those parents that brought their children to watch this movie and finding out that it was nothing like Totoro. It was unexpected, but I think the violence and gore was a nice change by Miyazaki. Any fan of Miyazaki should really watch this film if they haven't already done so.

Director Blog 1: My Neighbor Totoro

I have watched this movie multiple times over the years, but it never gets old. I enjoy how innocent the movie is. Theres a big giant fluffy bear/squirrel thing that has magical powers as one of the main characters, what more would someone want? He even comes with a smile that takes up 2/3 of his face(Freaky the first time I saw it)! Then there was the cat that was also a bus, I thought that was very creative and original. The film was trying to show the importance of nature while also showing how powerful the imagination of a child can be. The film switched back and forth between reality and fantasy, mixing them together slowly until the end where people could no longer tell them apart. My favorite scene would probably have to be when the kids and Totoro were waiting together for a bus and Totoro kept jumping in order hear more rain drops hit the umbrella. It reminded me of when a child figures out that one thing causes another and thinks that it is interesting, so the child keeps doing it. But the one thing that Miyazaki does not want the people that watch his movies to forget is the importance of nature, that is why it is present in almost all of his films. Such as in this film where Totoro and the children planted seeds and made them grow spontaneously into gigantic trees.

One of the main reasons why I liked this movie was how well the music and video worked with each other. Both the animation and the music must have taken a lot of effort. The music just fit into the movie so well, and it wasn't like anything I had heard before when I first saw the film. This film was way ahead of it's time, I don't remember seeing any other animated films with fully original music and an entire orchestra to back it up. The music is very soothing to listen to and I liked how much effort was put into it. (I also already wrote a blog about this film in Art of Film 1 (Tonari no Totoro, in 2007), so I would just be repeating myself if I wrote more.)

Do The Right Thing!

I found this film strangely entertaining. I think it was because the style of the film reminded me of the television show Fresh Prince with Will Smith. I thought it was well made, I liked the cinematography, it showed many different angles and shots of the neighborhood. The entire setting of this place had nothing real about it, the people didn't really act like that, it was a creation of Spike Lee. They had to clear out that neighborhood, cleaning out all the drug addicts in order to shoot the film. Overall I thought the film was pretty fun to watch. I feel like I should mention the death of Radio Raheem, It is a tragedy when a young person dies for such a small issue. Spike Lee then tries to hide it by not making it a big deal, making the destruction of Sal's Famous Pizzaria more important. I thought he was trying to show that people considered Sal's Famous Pizzaria was more important than the life of an adolescent African American boy. Then the movie critics basically did what he said they were going to do and didn't even mention Radio Raheem. It seemed sort of like a trap, seeing who caught it and who didn't, and those who didn't would be prosecuted by Spike Lee himself in his interview about he film. Overall I thought this was a very entertaining film and would recommend it.

The Battle of Algiers!

NPR: Movie Review 'The Battle of Algiers' by Kenneth Turan - Morning Edition
http://www.npr.org/templates/dmg/dmg.php?prgCode=ME&showDate=09-Jan-2004&segNum=14&NPRMediaPref=WM

My classmates might have found this movie to be quite annoying, mostly because they didn't like the subtitles, but I actually liked the movie. I liked the effort in trying to make the film unbiased, to show both sides of the conflict. I also liked how they tried to make it as realistic as possible, with scenes that looked like they were from a documentary. They were even able to get an operational tank for one scene. This film was made only a couple years after this actually happened which is surprising to hear. I really liked this film overall and would recommend it to someone if they are researching the battle of Algiers, or they just want to see an old war film. This film is still even relevant today as the review says, even though this review was made years ago, our present day situation in Iraq can be compared and similarities arise. The gorilla warfare in the city look very familiar. The way the film was shot made it look realistic and basically stated, "This is happening now!" to the audience.

China Town!

I liked this film, I thought it was probably the best film noir out of the the three films that we had watched in class. The fact that this film was more recent than the other two probably had a lot to do with my choice. I didn't really like the character the main character, J.J "Jake" Giddies played by Jack Nicholson. Especially in at the beginning of the film, he just seemed like he was profiting off of other people's problems. But as the film went on, I think he was starting to show a more human and compassionate side of him. By the end of the film, he failed but tried the best he could to do the right thing and that is what counts. The type of ending of the film was definitely not the typical happy ending. It was a dark ending that actually reminded me of some of the foreign films I have watched in the past. It leaves a bit of mystery unsolved, what is going to happen after this? Will the water tycoon problem be solved? It just doesn't give a definite answer, and leaves people wondering. Overall I thought this was a good film, and would definitely recommend it.

Kiss Me Deadly...

I thought this was pretty bland as well, though it was funny watching the main character slap people for information. The whole mysterious detective that the story follows in film noirs are getting annoying. Every single one has pretty much the same characteristics except a different background story and mystery to solve. There is a question that I wanted answers to, why didn't he go and close the box? I mean if it was going to cause the end of the world, he could have just closed it, he even opened and closed it earlier in the movie. The sound made by the box was pretty annoying, why did they have to make things sound like that in the old movies? It apparently it gets louder when there is a person screaming or a sound effect. This was a "B" movie, so I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. Overall I thought the movie was alright, it would have said I didn't like the film if the main character didn't go around slapping people though.

Out of the Past...

I didn't really like this movie, this style of film isn't very interesting to me. I didn't even finish part of the movie because I was gone on Friday, oops. But from what I have seen, there isn't very much to it. It was probably very original when it was first created, dark and mysterious, but now it just seems used up now. All the detectives in these films seem pretty much the same, always smooth with the ladies, and is invincible throughout the movie, until the end. Overall I just didn't really like the style of the film, the whole film noir style is not very appealing to me. The mystery in these films aren't really that mysterious, there is no excitement, no suspense. The withheld information just annoys me, there is no point when the information is revealed, it just fills in the holes of the plot that they withheld from the viewers in the beginning. It is supposed to surprise the viewers when it is finally revealed, but the plots of these films really wasn't too exciting to me. The films are not bad, but they are just not my cup of tea, they are just dull in my opinion.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind!

The film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind directed by Michel Gondry is a pretty fun film to watch. I think it is the best film we have seen so far, I really liked it. It was a nice mix between sci-fi and reality, science and love. My favorite scene in the film is probably at the end of the film where Joel Barish, played by Jim Carrey, tells Clementine, played by Kate Winslet, that he didn't care if things were going to repeat. I think this is a good ending because humans know how to learn from their mistakes, and if they don't then they would just repeat them. That is why we study history and keep records of the past. If they know that the other doesn't like some of the things that they do, then they will probably try to change and not do those things for each other. Then there was also the fact that it wasn't exactly over when Clementine had Joel erased from her memory. Joel bought a gift for her and wanted to get back together, a question arises. What would have happened if Clementine didn't spontaneously get her memory erased and Joel gave her the gift? It might have been a happy ending right then and there, but then there wouldn't be much of a story. Maybe everything that happened to them will happen again, but now without the memory erasing, Joel may be able to have a chance to give Clementine his gift and get back together. Overall I really liked this film, and highly recommend it.

His Girl Friday...

This film was alright in my opinion, it was not great or bad. I just thought too many things happened at one time, one after another. There was that one scene where a convict is hidden inside a desk and then a woman jumps out of a window. Things are happening so fast, and nothing seems to be important. Hildy Johnson seemed weak at the end, when she was asking Walter Burns where they would be going for a honeymoon. She seemed like a giddy school girl for a slight moment, nothing like the powerful woman she was at the beginning of the film. I did not understand what the point of this part of the film was meant to do, was it meant to show that Walter and Hildy would be together again, or was it supposed to show that all women want to have one of those fairytale lives and that they only act tough. I think it could be interpreted either way, but I hope the second option is not what it is supposed to be. I find it impressive that all of these things could happen when there were only five different settings in the entire movie, Walter's newspaper, the restaurant, the news reporter office, the jail cell, and the street. Overall this movie was entertaining, but I think it was just too many things happening at the same time and many of the things having no purpose. I would recommend watching this movie, but prepare to be focused on the film the entire time, or you might miss something important to the plot, especially when Hildy and Walter start to talk.

Unforgiven

I don't really know what to say about this movie, it had an interesting storyline and had Clint Eastwood which added intensity into the scenes he was in. This is by far the most interesting film we have watched in Art of Film in my opinion, probably since it was in color. But this film is important because it revises of the stereotypical western films of the past. A revisionist point of view tries to correct the errors of stereotypes in films. In this film the hero, Will Munny isn't shown as the expert marksman in the beginning of the film, but an old pig farmer and former murderer with two kids. He can't even shoot a can with all six bullets from his revolver, this scene was created to show how he isn't the stereotypical cowboy from the western films of the past. I find it interesting how he turns into that stereotypical cowboy close to the end of the film. He walks straight into the lion's den, the brothel where the sheriff and a whole platoon of armed men were having a meeting. Munny is able to kill the sheriff, the person who owns the brothel, and several other men while able to avoid being shot by another handful of men. This scene is incorporated into the film because it allowed the viewers to compare the two heroes. Munny in the beginning and Munny at the end, two very different people. One being the washed up murderer that can't shoot a can, while the other is fed off of revenge, fearless, and maser marksman. This comparison of the two heroes was my favorite part of the film overall.

Bibliography:
http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/34/003_UNFORGIARP~Unforgiven-Posters.jpg

Tonari no Totoro

Director Hayao Miyazaki is my favorite director of all time. Along with a company called Studio Ghibli which he co-founded, Miyazaki created many memorable animated films. One of which is Tonari no Totoro or My Neighbor Totoro in English. One of my favorite films of all time and the first film by Miyazaki I watched. It was completely different from the films I had seen in the past when I first watched it. It was fun to watch, soothing to hear, an interesting story, and was still able to promote the themes that Miyazaki lives by. This film won the Animage Anime Grand Prix, an award given out by the Animage magazine. It is a well known award when it comes to Japanese anime, and is a pretty important award in the anime world Miyazaki played a huge role in creating this film, mainly because he wrote it. In this film, Miyazaki incorporates Japanese culture, as well as his own beliefs and ideas. A lot of people think Totoro is supposed to be a kami spirit of the Shinto religion, a kami spirit supposedly looks after nature. Causes of thunder, wind, the sun and other natural occurrences. In this film and many other films that were directed by Miyazaki have themes that tie it to nature. As well as how humans interact with nature and technology, how these three things come in contact with one another. In this particular film the technology isn't as apparent as some of his other films, such as Princess Mononoke or Laputa: Castle in the Sky. Another one of his themes that he uses quiet often is how hard it is to become and stay a pacifist, the difficulties of avoiding violence. There are two more things that many of his films have in common. One are the antagonists, they are usually strong headed individuals that follow their own beliefs even though it might seem different from the protagonist. They usually aren't entirely evil, they tend to change through the movie and redeem themselves. Then there are the protagonists of Miyazaki's films. They tend to be young females that are innocent and just seem like a normal person, but they demonstrate their bravery and strength when it is needed in the films. This film demonstrates more of the strong young female protagonist and the connection of humans with nature. Those two things are most common in his films that I have seen. But the films by Miyazaki appeal to me not only because of the themes, but his ability to entertain the people that watch his films. People young and old are able to watch these films and become entertained, even a child that doesn't understand a thing about humans and their connection with nature will find his films entertaining. Without analyzing a anything in his films, I found enjoyment just watching the films. Miyazaki's creativeness and original ideas really make his films fun to watch. Even while making these films extremely entertaining, he is still able to create these interesting worlds in the films based on his themes. I personally love the music created by Joe Hisaishi as well, this music really helps make Miyazaki's films a lot more enjoyable in my opinion. Hayao Miyazaki is definately my favorite director and deeply involved in all of his films. I still don't really know which film is my favorite of his films, but Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind are two films that I highly recommend. I just wish I knew when his next film is finished.

Two Songs from My Neighbor Totoro:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=pWwOVkfv_FU


http://youtube.com/watch?v=BpUHQjO-smU

Bibliography:
http://www.math.sc.edu/~griggs/Family/totoro.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hayao_Miyazaki

Stagecoach

This movie was by far better than Citizen Kane in my opinion. The tune was catchy and easily recognizable as well. I liked the diverse personalities of the characters in the movie, but I felt like there wasn't enough character development overall for each character. I saw a lot of similarities with this film and more recent ones. Although more recent films aren't usually westerns. Though the whole hero in pursuit of a woman, hero prevails over evil, and an American happy ending has definitely been used way too many times. It was probably still quite fresh when this film was created. I just see a lot of the things that turned how films are made today in Stagecoach. For example the Apache Indians chase scene, this seems like an early version of any typical chase scene in a movie, but with a stagecoach and horses instead of cars.

This scene was discussed in class quite thoroughly. How the camera violates the 180 degree rule in filming, the director wasn't trying to prove a point. According to him it was because he got a better shot from that angle and position. Once it had been pointed out, it became pretty obvious. The scene would have the stagecoach and the horses moving in opposite directions, one would think this would make it harder to follow along and make the chase scene less logical. But it didn't, no one in my class had noticed this switching of directions. Everyone in the class also seemed just fine while watching the movie, and was able to understand what was happening in the scene. I was also very impressed by the stunt men, I lost count of how many people were shot and fell off their horses. The movie looked as if it had been made later than 1939 in my opinion, it just didn't look as outdated as it was to me. Then there was the animal cruelty going on in the movie, with the horses being jumped on and falling over. It would be pretty hard to see a recent movie treating horses that way with all the animal rights laws.

In conclusion, I actually liked this film. My favorite character was probably Doc Boone, he just brought laughter with his constant alcohol abuse throughout the film. Then there were more annoying characters like Lucy Mallory that I didn't like. She didn't seem like a very good actress to me, she never really showed any emotion in the film. Even when she tried to show fear and anxiety in the stagecoach during the chase scene but instead she looked constipated or brain dead. I couldn't help but laugh when there was a long shot that was perfectly parallel with the side of the stagecoach because Lucy Mallory's face was looking straight out the window and her face just looked weird. But overall, I liked this movie.

Kane...

Some call this the best American film. I didn't think it was THAT great, I had no problem with most of the movie, but the loud sounds made to refocus your attention was very annoying. Especially that transparent bird that almost scared my class to death. It was due to the director's history with radio, but it was just very annoying. I'm not saying it wasn't effective, I'm just saying I didn't like it. It had one of those endings that no one would really understand, I just realize that some of those movies really don't have an answer. The director might have just done it so people would talk about it and have their own interpretation, and to confuse people so much to go and watch it a second time. I really don't see why this was such a great movie overall. Susan Alexander's voice was quite annoying as well. In conclusion this movie made me want to stop watching after the scene with the transparent bird and when Susan Alexander was complaining to Kane about her review in the Inquirer. I guess I could say these two things kept me awake in class?

Pan's Labyrinth Rocked my Socks Off!

Pan's Labyrinth directed by Guillermo del Toro is a very original movie. It is full of action, suspense, and yet was able to introduce me to a very original story. Most of the credit should go to Guillermo del Toro, who directed and wrote the screenplay as well. It was produced by many people, including Guillermo del Toro, Alfonso Cuarón, Bertha Navarro, Frida Torresblanco, and Alvaro Augustin. But telling this story would not have been possible without the actors/actresses. There is Maribel Verdú who plays Mercedes the main house keeper, Sergi López who plays Capitán Vidal the main antagonist, Doug Jones who plays the Faun as well as the Pale Man, and many other minor characters that helped bring the story together. But the most important is Ivana Baquero who plays Ofelia, the main character. She seems to handle herself quite well in front of the camera at such a young age. She seems quite real when it comes to her reactions and emotions. She seems more natural while acting than some of the younger American actors/actresses that I have seen. Then there was the way the movie was filmed, it was all shot to seem like a story. The person behind the photography was Guillermo Navarro. He seems to try really hard to always have the actors face shown, every emotion and facial expression is captured. He uses a large number of techniques as well for the filming. The music is very important as well. Javier Navarrete is behind all of the songs in the film, the songs are never too loud, they are soothing yet a bit creepy in a way. It made me relax, yet at the same time gave me a creepy feeling because of the way it is played. I think the best example of this is the theme song from the movie "Long, Long Time Ago". This movie is very original compared to anything I have seen before, but it did make me see some connections to a movie I had seen recently. There are some similarities between Pan's Labyrinth and The Chronicles of Narnia. In both films there are innocent children that step into a fantasy world and have very important roles in those worlds. Pan's Labyrinth is set during the Spanish Civil War in 1944. There seems to three specific conflicts that appear in the film, yet they are connected. The first is between the soldiers who follow the orders of Franco and the revolutionaries, second is the connection between her and the Faun, and third is Ofelia's conflict with the adults around her. The main characters are Ofelia, Mercedes, Capitán Vidal, and the Faun. The story revolves around Ofelia, a young girl who has moved with her pregnant mother to live at a military fort with her step father Capitán Vidal. While she stays there, a fantasy world opens up to her. Mercedes seems more of a mother figure to Ofelia than her actual mother, she becomes a mentor to Ofelia. Capitán Vidal is the antagonist and is the stepfather of Ofelia. The Faun is a creature of Ofelia's fantasy world that she has stumbled upon, it is hard to tell which side the Faun is one, good or evil. The plot of the movie overall is well-structured, the story is easily followed. But there are underlying themes and hidden messages throughout the movie that are a bit difficult to find. Everything seems to be resolved in the end and makes logical sense, yet there are questions that are never really answered that keeps the audience thinking. The dialogue in the movie is very real and what a person would normally say in Spanish. One of the more important themes that I found was that one should not blindly obey to authority without question. The acting was superb in my opinion, Ofelia really showed an innocent child very well and Capitán Vidal actually did such a great job at being the antagonist that I just wanted him to die close to the end of the film. The sets, costumes and makeup was beautifully done, the set in the long hallway leading to the Pale Man's dining room was so extravagant, the Faun and the Pale Man's costume/makeup along with some computer graphics made them come alive and become the creatures of fantasy that they were meant to be. I really liked the way this movie was filmed as well. There were many slow tracking/steady cam shots that just allowed me to capture the emotions of the characters much better. During these slow shots there wasn't too much action going on but when there was, I noticed a lot more cuts during those scenes. For example, the scene with Ofelia and the Pale Man in the corridor. There were many lengthy shots in the film, including a scene that I liked was of Ofelia walking along the edge of the Pale Man's dining table full of food. There was a use of deep focus as well in this scene where the Pale Man was on the right but Ofelia is clearly visible and in focus in the background walking towards the camera. But my favorite shot of all is a medium shot of Ofelia standing in front of the three locks, but with the unfocused Pale Man over her shoulder in the distance. This shot just gave me a slight chill down my spine because I kept wondering when the Pale Man was going to move. Pan's Labyrinth was a very enjoyable movie, and was just so original. It was something I had never seen before. It was a new idea by mixing historical facts with fantasy. I would recommend this movie to anyone who has not seen it, and to anyone who has already seen it, just because it allows people to see things they had not seen the first time around.

Pan's Labyrinth Trailer:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7YeuPMrPt_Y