Pan’s Labyrinth

In Brief: Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) is one of the most remarkable films of the 21st century — something I was not prepared for when I first saw it. Even while recognizing del Toro’s talent in his previous films (sometimes more obvious than other times), there was little in his work to prepare me for this masterpiece. The closest was probably The Devil’s Backbone (2001) — an evocative ghost story that was finally too transparent to be wholly effective, but which bears a relationship with Pan in its evocation of the work of Luis Bunuel. Plus, the anti-authoritarian surrealist satire of Bunuel is tempered here by a poetic mysticism that recalls Jean Cocteau. Indeed, it’s hard to escape the sense that if Bunuel and Cocteau had ever collaborated on a film, the results might be very like this. It’s as much a humanist outcry as anything in Bunuel’s work and as magically mystical as anything in Cocteau’s work. This is not meant to suggest, by any means, that del Toro has merely copied these other filmmakers. On the contrary, his sense of invention is purely his own, his filmmaking style is personal, and the results are unique. This excerpt was taken from a review by Ken Hanke originally published on Nov. 17, 2015.