El Laberinto del Fauno

My favourite movie of all time is El Laberinto del Fauno by the genius Guillermo del Toro. I saw it when it first came out and this weekend I watched all the extras on the dvd and the entire film with director's commentaries. If you liked the movie, I really recommend watching the movie with the commentaries because like del Toro mentions in the extras, there are so many layers to the movie and learning the layers only increases your appreciation of the movie. I am so amazed that the movie didn't get more awards -- for sure, it deserved the Oscar for best foreign movie. The acting alone was brilliant. The storyline fantastical. The score enchanting.
I won't say too much about the movie because it seems everything I want to say is better conveyed by the many reviews of the movie. So instead I will list various quotes which I liked and some comments. Note there will be sp0ilers so if you haven't seen the movie, go see it! and then read the quotes. :-)
Btw, other movies related to this which I want to watch are: The Devil's Backbone and The Little Princess.

"When we're kids, we all really believe that there is a rabbit-hole somewhere that we can tumble down and come out in a magical place. But as we grow up, the belief wanes but the need for that belief increases." This is so true. Perhaps this is why religion becomes so important to some grown ups.

And although audiences have interpreted the film's bittersweet ending as everything from a religious metaphor to a psychological allegory, del Toro offers a simpler, but more poetic, explanation, that of "I always think of that beautiful quote by Kierkegaard that says the tyrant's reign ends with his death, but the martyr's reign starts with his death. I think that is the essence of the movie: It's about living forever by choosing how you die."
At the end of the movie, I really struggled with the idea of whether the fantasy world was real or not. Why can't it be? But I guess it's not. Along the same lines, a reviewer writes: "she defies her stepfather with the knowledge he can kill her. But what he does not know is that he cannot take her life."

"The bulk of the movie deals with one question: How does one contend with overwhelming, tyrannical violence?" Everyone deals differently, from the brutal violence that Captain Vidal leashes out on those around him, to the guerrilla warfare of the rebels, the double life of Mercedes and the Dr, the acceptance of the mother and its total rejection by Ofelia.

The first lines of the movie, quoted from the faun, reads: "A long time ago, in the underground realm, where there are no lies or pain, there lived a Princess who dreamed of the human world. She dreamed of blue skies, soft breeze, and sunshine. One day, eluding her keepers, the Princess escaped. Once outside, the brightness blinded her and erased every trace of the past from her memory. She forgot who she was and where she came from. Her body suffered cold, sickness, and pain. Eventually, she died. However, her father, the King, always knew that the Princess' soul would return, perhaps in another body, in another place, at another time. And he would wait for her, until he drew his last breath, until the world stopped turning..."
This quote kind of reminded me of the parallel of this movie and that of The Little Prince where he escapes from his world and comes to earth seeking people, thinking that then he will no longer be lonely. He learns too late that you can still be lonely in a sea of people. Another of my favourite books.