The Culture Club (Film: Pan's Labyrinth) September 14, 2008

This is the next study session in a series of culture studies where something from the media (e.g. a book, a film, a music album) is discussed from a Christian perspective but the session is for people of all faiths and people of no faith at all who want to explore the message behind the media.

The session will start at 5:30 pm when we will watch the film on the big screen and the discussion starts at 7:30 pm.

There is no charge for this event and is open to all who are 15 or older..

FILM INFO
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The following text taken from a Damaris article (http://www.damaris.org/content/content.php?type=5&id=511):

"Pan’s Labyrinth is a gorgeously-realised tale of fantasy and horror which mixes a child’s fairy tale with a violent and realistic story of Spanish fascists hunting rebel guerrilla fighters after the Spanish Civil War.

Young Ophelia travels with her heavily-pregnant mother to a remote military outpost to be with the man her mother just married, Captain Vidal. Unhappy in the dismal and distressing surroundings, she wanders out into the woods where she discovers a labyrinth and, at its centre, a faun who claims that Ophelia is the spirit of a long-lost princess of the underworld. The faun tells her that her true father in the underworld has been waiting for her to return to him for a very long time, and to do so she must complete three tasks before the moon is full. Ophelia’s tasks take her to places both beautiful and frightening where she encounters wonderful and terrible creatures. Meanwhile, the film also tells the story of her step-father, Captain Vidal, a horrifyingly brutal man, as he tries to crush the anti-fascist guerrillas hiding in the hills, and find those in his own household who are helping them.

Director and screenwriter Guillermo del Toro – best-known for comic-book blockbusters Hellboy and Blade 2 – has created a fascinating film in Pan’s Labyrinth. Although the elements of fairies, fauns and a little girl who discovers she is secretly a princess might suggest that this is a children’s movie, it is anything but. The horrifying violence portrayed on screen makes that utterly clear. The director claims that, ‘This is not a child’s movie but a movie about being a child.’

The film is a favourite of BBC film critic Mark Kermode. For his review, listen @ http://www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive/entertainment/a2z/rams/kermode060505.ram (starting at 10:00).

Mark also wrote this in a piece in The Guardian:

"Set against the backdrop of fascist Spain in 1944, Pan's Labyrinth is a dark fairy tale that distils his distinctive mix of fact and fantasy, poetry and politics, pain and pleasure. It's an epic, poetic vision in which the grim realities of war are matched and mirrored by a descent into an underworld populated by fearsomely beautiful monsters - a transformative, life-affirming nightmare which is, for my money, the very best film of the year."

Trailer :



Previous Sessions
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This series continues to be popular. Previous evenings have looked at "Utopian Dreams" (book), "Breaking and Entering" (film), "Little Miss Sunshine" (film), "Evan Almighty" (film), "Babel" (film), "The Zahir" (book), "Paradise Now" (film), "Life on Mars" (TV series), "Collateral" (film), "Arthur and George" (book), "Moulin Rouge" (film), the Robbie Williams album "Intensive Care", "Lost in Translation" (film), "Whale Rider" (film), "The Incredibles" (film), "The Da Vinci Code" (book), the U2 album "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" and "Chocolat" (film).