Tea and figs

We saw Pan's Labyrinth last night, and I still feel as though I'm recovering. I loved the film, though I'm not sure I could watch it again. It's a kind of inverted children's story (and definitely not for children). What I mean is that the harsh reality that causes children to produce escapist fantasy lands (WWII in Narnia, horrible relatives in everything Roald Dahl ever wrote) is displayed in full, brutal detail. The film takes place in rural Spain during the civil war, as a girl and her fragile, pregnant mother go to live with her new husband, who's a captain in Franco's army. Del Toro paints monsters (both real and imagined) with nightmarish clarity -- and Jer thought that the Captain was the best evil character he has seen in a long time. Don't go to this film expecting a fairy tale; this is a story about how war affects children, and left me quite emotionally raw.