Justine

As many in our class, I had a problem with the Tokyo story in Babel. First, it did not seem to have a strong enough connection to the other stories and though I do understand the purpose of depicting a person who is physically isolated in her own supposedly familiar world, I did not think it was all that necessary in this film. Perhaps the film would have benefited time wise from the cutting of this story as well. The story itself, in contrast to the rest of the stories in this film, was just not plausible to me.

Another aspect of the Mexican border story that made it so powerful in my opinion, is that it Iñárritu seems best versed in this type of story. His knowledge of Mexico obviously seeps into this story. It is obvious that Iñárritu critiques the United States border control, yet I cannot decide if he is critiquing Mexico or if he is merely trying to emphasize Mexico’s rugged charm in the scenes at the wedding and the drive through the dirty, poor town. Something Santiago (who is, I was happy to see, played by Gael García Bernal) said as they crossed the border to Mexico, to the effect of, “Look how easy it is to get into Paradise,” struck me.

Out of all the connected stories in Babel, the one that resonated most with me was Mexico-Border-Nanny story. I loved the way Iñarritu used the (very white) children to introduce the contrast between the borders. Their reactions to their surroundings were so well depicted as at first they were a little bit scared and perhaps even disgusted, yet perhaps through their innocence as children, they were having a great time by the time the wedding was in full swing. Perhaps the slaughter of the chickens shocked them a bit, yet that childish amazement and pleasure with their new surroundings was interesting and delightful to see. The tragedy of what happens afterwards is therefore all the more shocking and heartbreaking.

One of the most interesting characters in this film, and one I am not sure I can figure out entirely, is the Faun. The hardened character of the Faun seems to serve as a guiding, sometimes chiding father figure to Ofelia. Awoken from what I assume are centuries of waiting for this special child, he is given the appearance of an old, frightening, gnarled mythical creature who at first is difficult to distinguish from what might be an evil character. This interaction between a wise old person, or in this case, creature, and a young child is a relationship that is important for Ofelia. As in “Cronos,” the young child is given a role that is so pure and innocent that the appearance of a frightening creature does not disgust her, even though she clearly reveres her mother’s quality of beauty.
Something that was mentioned before the screening to look for in the interaction between the Faun and Ofelia, was sexual tension. I tried and tried to find this connection as I watched the movie, but this observation was utterly lost on me. I saw the affection of the Faun as something fatherly or that of a mentor, without undertones of sexual desire.

Reflecting on Guillermo del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth,” I was struck by how beautiful this film was. I love del Toro’s use of the color green. As we discussed in class, Ofelia’s costume is supposed to remind us of Alice in Wonderland. In some ways, this parallel to Alice in Wonderland is a current throughout the film, as the two tales deal with a darker side of Fantasy. It is this dark side of fantasy in the film that is the most arresting, and del Toro’s theme of using a child’s perspective to portray a perhaps grim reality is repeated in this film. It is through Ofelia’s innocent eyes that we see this terrible reality she is living through, and her fantasy life does not allow her to escape this distress as one might expect. Instead, her dark and violent fairytale world is an expression of her understanding of what goes on in her real life. This might seem obvious, but I think in this film through beautiful images and such an intricately woven tale mixing fantasy and reality together, del Toro’s has really outdone himself.

Aside from all I have written about how I DON’T like Sin City and Hellboy, I have to admit the technical aspects of these films are arresting. Sin City is especially interesting in its intricate scenery and color concept, which is made more amazing when you look at how the film was made entirely in front of a green screen. I especially like the scenes where Marv runs through the dark forest to on his way to kill Kevin, it was amazing to me how all that was computer generated. By making the film appear as close to a graphic novel as possible, the audience is perhaps more prepared for the ludicrous violence and the somewhat silly dialogue and voice-over in the film because they are transported into an entirely different world, where blood can flow white, red, or yellow.

Watching Hellboy this weekend, I was amused to see the difference between the visually stunning Sin City and this stunningly awful in every way, film. This got me thinking about our discussion of camp; something so awful and “kitchy”, it becomes good or amusing. From the storyline itself, to the dialogue, to the oh so red character of Hellboy, this movie reeks of the blockbuster and the generic larger-than-life hero genre that we have been exploring this week. In comparison to Hellboy, Sin City does this with a lot more style and finesse, allowing it to develop a perhaps more sophisticated cult status. Sin City is definitely a better movie in the sense that it has a better storyline, dialogue and definitely stunning visual effects. Yet since I am not a fan of this genre at all, I turn to Hellboy to be purely entertained, and thus had a far better time laughing at the ridiculous ….everything in the movie.

In our last class discussion about Sin City, the class brought up the topic of stylized violence. Sin City is rife with such violence of the blood and gore variety. With its nifty special effects, the one I found most intriguing was the colors of the blood. In most of the film, blood was an emotionless white, in contrast to the red blood of the main characters experiencing real pain, and the yellow blood…which could only come from the yellow bastard. This effect is supposed to distance the audience from the horrible violence that Sin City is chock-full of, yet, perhaps I am squeamish, but in the end, I don’t care what color blood comes out as. To me, gore is gore. This was my initial reaction, and during the course of the movie, I found myself becoming less and less affected by the blood and the gore, somehow that worries me.

I was amazed by the editing in this film. In no way was I ever confused by the time-line, which at certain points overlapped. I loved seeing the different perspectives of scenes, especially the car crash, which through different music and a shuffling of the order of shots that were reused (or were they?) seemed completely fresh and utterly different every time I saw it.

Why do some people find Valeria laughable? I did not find her situation as hysterical as some people did at the screening. Yes, her character is blond, leggy and beautiful, and yes, she is vain, but remember: that is her job she is a model. When she loses her leg, she not only loses her career, she loses all sense of herself. Her preoccupation with “Richie,” the laughable little dog can be mocked briefly, but her concern for her dog becomes an agonizing expression of her despair. Her gazing at the billboard of herself from the window of her glitzy apartment is not something I despise her for. Instead, I felt terrible for her. She is surrounded by images of her former perfection, while in front of her is stretched the ruined leg in an ugly, formidable brace that has made everything about her life uncertain, including the loyalty of her lover. After all, from her perspective, Daniel’s love for her is in jeopardy as a result of her accident. He left his wife for a woman whose whole life was centered on her own physical beauty. Then he surrounded her with images celebrating her most valuable quality, her attractiveness. When this beauty is gone in a flash, before they can even enjoy being together, is it any wonder that she might fear that Daniel will leave her and the she will be left with nothing?