[ed. note: I've been out of site for the last few days due to my wandering the streets of New York with my lady-friend, hitting art galleries and a couple of live shows, including the musical version of The Evil Dead. Day before yesterday we actually stood outside the entry to the art exhibition mentioned in here but the Guggenheim was so insanely packed we opted to go to the Met instead. Kind of wondering if we should have braved the crowds now ...
Been so tough getting anything on paper this week—been insanely busy. Made the mistake of watching Beetlejuice for the billionth time this morning. It’s only a mistake because, afterwards, I have one-person calypso dance parties in my apartment. Sorry, can’t help it. Harry Belafonte is just too sexy. That said, I did something cool last weekend I want to recommend to ScreenAnarchy readers, or at least ScreenAnarchy readers in NYC. I know not everybody who reads ScreenAnarchy is in close proximity to NYC, but locale and circumstance made for an extra special viewing of Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth last weekend. I spent some time with my NYU friends at the Guggenheim Museum, just east of Central Park. There was an exhibit that I thought might make a great double bill with del Toro’s movie. It was called Spanish Painting from El Greco to Picasso. It was clear with The Devil’s Backbone, that he has something of a Goyan sensibility, with gravitas that nicely anchors his love of Bava and Argento as well as the cheapo Mexican horror flicks from his own childhood. However, I didn’t understand the depth of the Spanish influence until I saw the exhibit and Pan’s Labyrinth concurrently. The most obvious allusion in the movie is also, I think, the film’s most successful scene—The Pale Man sequence.
I think this might be one of the greatest horror sequences of all time. From del Toro’s other movies, we are familiar with his obsession with what my friend Derek obnoxiously calls “Russian Doll Syndrome”. You know…things inside of things inside of things— as well clocks, gears and pretty much anything else that seems to mix organic and mechanic. He’s obviously a big Frankenstein buff, too! But this particular scene really combines and synthesizes all of his hot buttons into one helluva tight allegory.
SPOILER—IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN PAN’S LABYRINTH YOU MAY WANT TO STOP READING BUT SOMEHOW, IF YOU’RE ON SCREENANARCHY.NET I BET YOU HAVE SEEN IT, MAYBE TWICE, IF NOT, GO SEE IT AND FINISH READING THIS ARTICLE LATER.
The Pale Man sequence is the most directly evocative of a Goya piece, although one that doesn’t appear in the Guggenheim exhibit, Saturn Devouring His Son. The young heroine, Ofelia, must, at Pan’s bidding, enter the slumbering Pale Man’s sanctuary, retrieve an artifact and return. Easy enough, right? All she has to do is stay away from the sumptuous feast laid out before the grotesque at the head of the table. Del Toro and his DP Guillermo Navarro create a mechanical set piece that’s a sort of bio-demonic Rube Goldberg machine. Allegorically, the scene is about the abuse of political mobsters and the machines by which they consume their masses—conversion and death. The fruit, the bait, is the empty promise of escape from civil strife. Del Toro has articulates a timeless beast in the most horrifically imaginative way possible.
From the opening seconds, the scene’s tragic inevitability is palpable. After spying hundreds of empty children’s shoes (a foreshadowing of the Pale Man’s appetite and a nod to M and JAWS, each of which feature artifacts of children devoured by monsters) , Ofelia still can’t avoid the feast. It calls to her like sirens singing for Ulysses’ men. When she takes the bait, the “alarm” goes off and the vile Pale Man wakes, plugs his eyes in and lumbers forward to feed. An unthinking machine fueled by greed. Pan’s fairies, Ofelia’s assistants in this task, are torn apart and eaten, consumed by the creature’s appetite. Terrified, Ofelia must find a way out before the creature swallows her, too. Whether Ofelia gets away in this scene or not is irrelevant. Del Toro’s made his point
Maybe I’ve been a little all over the place, but the politics of the movie seemed so much more tangible after viewing the paintings. If you’re in town, I suggest giving it a try. If you’re not, well, you can use Google to see loads and loads of paintings from El Greco to Picasso…
Ps. And tell me this Diego Velasquez painting from the exhibit isn’t the spitting image of Ofelia?
One last item of business—I just want to remind every that I’m hosting a FREE advance screening of Bong Joon-Ho's The Host, sponsored by Magnolia Pictures and Helio this coming Monday, February 12th, 2007 at 8:00 PM eastern. It’s at the Magno Review 729 Seventh Ave (between 48 & 49 St), 2nd floor, Room 1 NYC. The seats are going fast—if you want one/some send me a message via my MySpace page, myspace.com/koreanfilmfan or through the message forums I’m a part of at www.monsterhunterclub.com and I’ll confirm your seat!