Laberinto

I forgot to mention that the yarn for the Swallowtail is a blue-grey colorway of Trekking XXL. It's nice to knit a shawl in sock yarn, I've decided. So nice, in fact, that I think I'll do it again sometime. (And I did get my circular needle, which has made knitting on it even better. Yay!)

Oh, and my cousin had her baby four, maybe five days ago. He's a doll, and his name is Tristan. I haven't asked if I could post a picture, but I will link one. This is my favorite.

Okay, on to Guillermo del Toro's El Laberinto del Fauno — Pan's Labyrinth. First off, it's a foreign film, which I enjoy, and it's in Spanish, which I also enjoy. (Spanish of Spain, as opposed to other Spanish-speaking countries. You can tell by the lispy way the name Mercedes is pronounced: Mer-THAY-deth. Also the movie is set in Spain in 1944.)

I have to admit, it has its scary moments, like when you first see the faun (who is not in fact Pan, as Crazy Lanea also pointed out). Also, when you first see this guy:


Talk about scary. Those are eyes in his hands. The Pale Man, as I see he's called, really is the stuff of nightmares, if you're prone to them. At any rate, it's not a film for children, despite the fairy tales.

I very much enjoyed the movie. I loved the way it was shot, how it was set, hell, I even loved the subtitles. (I love movies with subtitles. Even if the film's in English and the subtitles are on, I end up reading them.) I didn't even mind the gore. The shooting, though, was a little surprising, though by the end you come to expect it.

You know, The Pale Man reminds me a bit of one of Goya's paintings, don't you think?


(That's my favorite painting of "Gory Goya", which is what my high school art teacher always used to call him.) Anyway, I do recommend this film. But if you see it, you'll have to tell me whether you think the fairy tale is real, or in Ofelia's head. I know what I think.