1) Two additional thoughs about Pan's Labyrinth. In my post yesterday, I listed a number of filmmakers to whom it seemed director Guillermo Del Toro paid hommage. I want to make it clear, I don't think Del Toro was ripping these people off, or giving cute little shoutouts to his heroes. I don't even know if these were deliberate.
While it's true that Del Toro (who is from Mexico) uses the film's Spanish setting to pay tribute to a number of great Spanish artists--the lighting and much of the imagery recalls Goya, Del Toro has clearly read Garcia Marquez, and there is one blatant reference to Bunuel and Dali's Un Chien Andalou--other influences may be more oblique. The use of music and the painterly lighting schemes seemed to me to evoke the great Italian fantasist Mario Bava, and I have no doubt Del Toro is familiar with his work--but the connection is subconscious not deliberate. And the film's haunting final shot reminded me very much of the final shot of Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke--but was this a connection Del Toro intended, or something that is entirely in my own mind?
The second thing is, Pan's Labyrinth is such an outstanding piece of work, it made me immediately look forward to whatever Del Toro would do next. And the good news is, he starts production on a new movie this spring. The bad news? It's Hellboy II. Sigh...
2) Pan's Labyrinth is, among other things, about the end of childhood. We experienced a bit of that in the real world yesterday--somebody stole Paul's Nintendo DS. He and his mom were meeting friends at a restaurant yesterday, sitting at the front waiting for them, Paul playing with his game. When the friends arrived, he set the game down on the chair beside him, and ran to the door to open it and greet them. The hostess proceeded to seat them, and they began to eat. Paul remembered he'd left his game on the chair up front, went to get it--and it was gone. Tabbatha asked the management if anyone had brought it to them, but no. It was taken.
You could argue that Paul shouldn't have brought it in to the restaurant with him, and certainly that he was neglectful in leaving it in the chair. But he's seven. He's going to do things like that.
As a seven year old, he knows bad things happen in the world. But he's never had anything stolen from him before, certainly not something as big and important to him as his Nintendo DS. "I wish the world didn't have people who do things like that," he told Tabbatha. Well, yes. A part of his life has been taken, and it can never be gotten back.
3) The Bushinistas are claiming Iran is responsible for much of the killing of U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Not directly, mind you--the claim is serial numbers on roadside bombs "suggest" the bombs have been smuggled in from Iran. No proof the Iranian government has anything to do with anything, but this is exactly the kind of shadow evidence used to get us into Iraq, and so far the Democratic leadership is unwilling to rule out action against Iran.
I wish the world didn't have people who do things like that, either.
