Sunday, November 27, 2016

Week 8 - Mythic Fiction and Contemporary Urban Fantasy

For this week, I watched two movies that in some way reinvented myth, Pan's Labyrinth and Big Fish. Pan's Labyrinth is a direct example of something called "magical realism". This is the combination of magical and realistic elements. The film is about Ofelia, the young stepdaughter of a brutal army officer from Spain, escapes into a fantasy world introduced to her by Fauno, the mythical beast that finds her in her time of despair.

The fanatical elements of the film stand in for the harsher realities that live outside of it, and as a result turn the basic "fable" into something more sinister. In my opinion, many of the issues we face today represent a failure of imagination and just accepting things as they are. In the film, Ofelia's mom criticizes her, asking her to accept the reality she lives in, not the one she made up. This is one of the reasons I love the film so much and why it does a great job reinventing a mythical story and bringing it to the real world with real issues.


Big Fish, however, is a much different representation of the same idea. The story follows William Bloom, who comes back to visit his dying father, Edward. The two of them were never really close, as everyone grew up loving Edward and his stories except for William. William, knowing this is among the last times he'll be able to talk with his father (with the help of his wife), he sits down as his father "remembers" all the stories he had as a kid. The film is, at its most basic, is about whatever is true in life is never as interesting as something you think of or imagine. But, I didn't see it as Edward lying about his life (a better version), rather that he just had a different perspective on what happened throughout his life.

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