Dark Side of Faerie Tales

Rating: 10/10 (5 June 2019)

Honestly, there is probably not all that much that I can say about this film that hasn't already been said by countless of other film critics that have watched this film. Yeah, it is basically one of those films that literally grabs the attention of all the arty types out there so that they can delve into it and try to dig out its many meanings, and get it absolutely wrong. In fact there was one that I watched that suggested that the intention of the director was a minor thing - seriously, this is getting a little too far.
The story is set in 1944 and apparently the Spanish Civil War is winding down (though I had no idea that it lasted that long - by 1944 I thought that it was well and truly over). So, this lady and her daughter are brought up to this mill in the country because her husband basically wants his child born where he happens to be. Well, he is an officer in the army, and his job is to basically crush what remains of the resistance. To say that he is not a nice guy is basically putting it lightly.
The film dances between the fantasy world that the child, Ofelia, has discovered, and the brutal world of Franco's fascist Spain. The situation is that Ofelia's father is dead, and her mother married this officer, and the undertone (though it is never specifically said) indicates that this officer is responsible for her father's death. Anyway, Ofelia finds this rock on the ground, and places it back into this ancient rock carving, and releases a fairy.
Now, the film is about the interplay between the fairy world that Ofelie experiences and the brutal reality of the fascist regime that has taken over Spain. There has been a suggestion, and the film does hint at this, is that children retreat into fantasy worlds as a way to deal with the real world. The only problem is that this fantasy world is just as brutal as the world in with Ofelia really lives. There as also been suggestions that this world doesn't exist, or at least only exists in Ofelia's minds, yet there are also hints that this might not be the case.
Look, it turns out that this is actually a pretty awesome movie, one that I had been meaning to watch for a while, but have been constantly putting it off. I'm not actually surprised that the director, Giamarmo del Torro, won an Oscar for a later film because you can certainly see that there is a lot in this film to take in. The problem is that when one then watches a commentary afterwards, one sort of loses their perspective of the film. Still, it is pretty awesome, and certainly well worth watching.