Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

a.k.a El Laberinto del fauno

Director: Guillermo del Toro

Synopsis

In 1944 falangist Spain, a girl (Ivana Baquero), fascinated with fairy-tales, is sent along with her pregnant mother (Ariadna Gil) to live with her new stepfather, a ruthless captain (Sergi Lopez) of the Spanish army. During the night, she meets a fairy who takes her to an old faun (Doug Jones) in the center of the labyrinth. He tells her she's a princess, but must prove her royalty by surviving three gruesome tasks. If she fails, she will never prove herself to be the the true princess and will never see her real father, the king, again.

Male Deaths

• Alex Angulo [Dr. Ferreiro]
• Chicho Campillo [Old Man]
• Inigo Garces [Young Guerilla #1]
• Sergi Lopez [Capitan Vidal]
• Federico Luppi [King (Ofelia's father]
• Ivan Massague [El Tarta (Stutter)]
• Manolo Solo [Garces]
• Milo Taboada [Young Man]
• Fernando Tielve [Young Guerrilla #2]

Female Deaths

• Ivana Baquero [Ofelia]
• Ariadna Gil [Carmen Vidal]

Gallery

Milo Taboada

Chicho Campillo

Inigo Garces

Ivan Massague

Álex Angulo

Manolo Solo

Fernando Tielve

Ariadna Gil

Sergi Lopez

Ivana Baquero

Trivia

1. Received 22 minutes of applause at the Cannes Film Festival.
2. In 2007, this film became one of the few fantasy films ever nominated in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the Oscars.
3. Stephen King attended a screening of the film and sat next to Guillermo del Toro. According to Del Toro, King squirmed when the Pale Man chased Ofelia. Del Toro compared the experience of seeing King's reaction to winning an Oscar.
4. The fauna in the movie was inspired by a lucid dream Guillermo del Toro repeatedly had when he was a child: every midnight, he would wake up, and a faun would gradually step out from behind a grandfather clock.
5. Doug Jones had to memorize not only his own lines in Spanish, a language he does not speak, but also Ivana Baquero's lines, so he knew when to speak his next line. The servos in the head piece that made the facial expressions and ears move were so loud, he often couldn't hear her speak her lines.
6. Guillermo del Toro is famous for compiling books full of notes and drawings about his ideas before turning them into films, something he regards as essential to the process. He left years worth of notes for this film in the back of a cab, and when he discovered them missing, he thought it was the end of the project. However, the cab driver found them and, realizing their importance, tracked him down and returned them at great personal difficulty and expense. Del Toro was convinced that this was a blessing and it made him ever more determined to complete the film.