- Title: FRANCE: 'Pan's Labyrinth' is a dark and violent fairytale
- Date: 1st June 2006
- Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 27, 2006)(REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE)(Spanish) SERGI LOPEZ, ACTOR PLAYING CAPTAIN VIDAL, SAYING: "It's fascist to pretend that a fascist can also be human. I enjoyed this role like a child who has been asked to play the big bad wolf in the little red riding hood. Well, of course, it is great and highly enjoyable to incarnate the Bad one."
- Embargoed: 16th June 2006 13:00
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- Location: France
- Country: France
- Reuters ID: LVAAGMEBMJ9EIH1FXFY9NSYD5DN1
- Story Text: Mexican director Guillermo Del Toro presented "Pan's Labyrinth" on Saturday (May 27), at the Cannes film festival.
A dark and violent fairytale, "Pan's Labyrinth" tells the story of a young girl who escapes the cruelty of her stepfather, a soldier in Francisco Franco's army, by entering a parallel world of fairies, monsters and riddles.
Del Toro created a highly codified movie to link the real world with the magical one.
"We wanted the artistic production and the photography to unite the two worlds through a common texture, contrasts in the shapes and colours that are carefully codified and elaborated. The film has a very accurate code that allows the passage from the magic world to the real world, and you still feel it's one unique film. The camera makes the link, it is sensual, it has a rhythm and a continuity throughout the movie," Del Toro described.
"Pan's Labyrinth" was the final movie of 20 main competition entries to show to the press at the annual Cannes film festival, which closed on Sunday (May 28).
Like his 2001 film "The Devil's Backbone", Del Toro tackles the theme of fascism, and suggests that the real monster of the story is not one of the creatures who reside in the Labyrinth, but the ruthless, real-world captain himself.
The heroine, played by Ivana Baquero, is the young Ofelia who is set three tasks by Pan, the horned guardian of the fantasy world. If she succeeds, she will be allowed to return and rule the magical kingdom.
Ofelia must decide whether to save herself or make the ultimate sacrifice, just as anti-Franco forces hiding in the woods do as they risk lives for their ideals.
Although a fantasy, the film is not for children, with scenes of torture, execution and gore.
"More than being a dark movie, I think it's a very melancholic movie, it's a bit like 'El Espinazo del Diablo' (The Devil's backbone) about the loss, the destruction. You cannot do a film about this period in times, and it's a triumphal film. It's a film where hope is a tiny flower that flowers at the end. However tiny hope there is, it is hope," Del Toro explained.
Sergi Lopez plays Captain Vidal, a fascist officer under orders to clear the territory of rebels. Vidal is ferocious and violent, an unrepented villain.
"It's fascist to pretend that a fascist can also be human. I enjoyed this role like a child who has been asked to play the big bad wolf in the little red riding hood. Well, of course, it is great and highly enjoyable to incarnate the Bad one," Lopez said with a grin.
In addition to 'El Laberinto del Fauno', there were four Spanish speaking films in the 2006 Cannes main competition; Almodovar's 'Volver', Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu 'Babel', 'Cronica de una fuga' from Uruguyan director Israel Adrian Caetano and 'El violin' from Spanish director Francisco Vargas.
"Films from Latin America or Spanish speaking films have already triumphed. I would love Elmodovar, Innaritu, to receive a prize but we have already been recognized. I hope Spanish speaking movies would be the Chinese movies of the beginning of the twenty first century. In the 90s, you had Chinese films, and now films in Spanish are the strong cinema of the first decade of the twenty first century," Del Toro rejoiced. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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