the consolation of fairy-stories

[ontology]

The reason for this post is mostly to say that Pan's Labyrinth is one of the most exquisite films I have ever seen; so brilliant and terrifying and beautiful that I am honestly not sure I can even write about it because I keep skimming about for words and can't find very many. Dad and I watched it last night (actually he was going to watch it all by himself, but I asked very nicely and he let me watch it with him), and we were both so overcome by it at the end that we didn't say anything until the credits were half over. I shook for ten minutes after it was over -- not from fear, though the film was frightening, but from sheer wonder, and a strange sort of joyous grief, or anguished joy -- as well as an immense glorious veneration for the art of it -- for the filmmaker in me, it was sort of like reading F. Scott Fitzgerald for the first time, or the way I felt after finishing Madeleine L'Engle's Two-Part Invention.

At the end I could think of nothing more than Tolkien's concept of the eucatastrophe, the 'sudden joyous turn' he speaks of in his essay On Fairy Stories -- all of the horror (and there was a lot of horror in the film -- very real horror, and if you have a weak stomach you may not want to see this film) turned towards something beautiful.

But the “consolation” of fairy-tales has another aspect than the imaginative satisfaction of ancient desires. Far more important is the Consolation of the Happy Ending. Almost I would venture to assert that all complete fairy-stories must have it. At least I would say that Tragedy is the true form of Drama, its highest function; but the opposite is true of Fairy-story. Since we do not appear to possess a word that expresses this opposite — I will call it Eucatastrophe. The eucatastrophic tale is the true form of fairy-tale, and its highest function. 

The consolation of fairy-stories, the joy of the happy ending: or more correctly of the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous “turn” (for there is no true end to any fairy-tale): this joy, which is one of the things which fairy-stories can produce supremely well, is not essentially “escapist,” nor “fugitive.” In its fairy-tale—or otherworld—setting, it is a sudden and miraculous grace: never to be counted on to recur. It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe, of sorrow and failure: the possibility of these is necessary to the joy of deliverance; it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you will) universal final defeat and in so far is evangelium, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief. 

It is the mark of a good fairy-story, of the higher or more complete kind, that however wild its events, however fantastic or terrible the adventures, it can give to child or man that hears it, when the “turn” comes, a catch of the breath, a beat and lifting of the heart, near to (or indeed accompanied by) tears, as keen as that given by any form of literary art, and having a peculiar quality.

In conclusion: go see this film. The cinematography is also brilliant, and the score. Oh blimey. The main theme, as it were, is the most memorable and haunting in recent memory, I think. I've added the soundtrack to my Amazon wishlist and dearly hope someone will get it for my birthday, which is in twelve days (!!!).

Comments

[charismitaine.livejournal.com]

Isn't it incredible? The week it came out I ran out and got the special edition DVD, which is really worth it--I adore the director, even though I can't spell his name, because he understands all of the right things about fairy tales.

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

Dad was really keen on seeing special features, but alas! Netflix only has the regular edition, which was what they sent us. Perhaps the library will have the special edition. I wish I could buy it, but with my younger siblings and the television right in the middle of the house, I'd never be able to watch it. (Get A Laptop, reason 273.)

And, yes, he does -- I was reading some of what he has to say on the website, and already I want to meet him for coffee. :D

[psychicnagger.livejournal.com]

I adore that film. I bought the DVD the day it came out. :-)

Also, I have the soundtrack and can upload it for you if you like!

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

It's brilliant. And would you? That's regularly splendid of you, thankee! ♥ (I've been listening to the soundtrack streaming from the official website for two days and worked out the first bit of the main theme on my guitar -- oh dear, the obession is settling in!)

(P.S.: you wouldn't happen to know where I could find some particularly good icons? I looked through the LJ communties I found and didn't find a lot of nice simplistic ones not crowded up with obnoxious text. There was one post I saw the day before I watched the film that had a lovely one of Ofelia entering the fig tree, and now I CAN'T FIND IT AGAIN, AGH.)

[trolliepop.livejournal.com]

I've been dying to see this movie. My friend, Lucy, keeps going on about how wonderful it is, and I think we're going to watch it next time I'm at her house. After reading this, I only want to see it even more.

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

Hurrah! It's lovely! But bring tissues, and don't plan on eating a great deal (there's a nice show of Facist brutality -- yeah).

[trollywoodqueen.livejournal.com]

Supremely well said, my dear...after I saw the film, I really had no words to describe it, so I didn't try, but, you always have a way of telling everything so well.

Bravo...

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

♥ Thankee! And mostly I just stole Tolkien's words in place of mine, you know. He says things better than -- well, nearly everyone. :DD

[safebox.livejournal.com]

I really must see this - though shall have to brace self against the horror, about which I have heard much.

But I love that Tolkein quote to pieces, that's really fabulous!

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

Actually the real-world sequences are much scarier than the fantasy ones -- thank you, Facist sadists. Mostly I just didn't look. I've gotten very good at this. (It was nicer when I still wore glasses instead of contacts -- I'd peek over the lenses and still got a general idea of what was going on, with all of the uncomfortable bits happily blurred.) The bit that got me more than anything else was the doctor giving someone an injection -- eeeegh, the little twitchy things like that make me more uncomfortable than any amount of blood. :p

Tolkien is fantastic. ;D I haven't read his book of essays in a long time; I'll have to get it out again. He's such a darling geek.

[greyeyedpixie.livejournal.com]

Happy Early Birthday! :)

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

Thankee! ♥

[mermaidrain.livejournal.com]

Wow! Thanks for posting that tidbit from Tolkkein. I'm memorying this!

[sheshellabella.livejournal.com]

i want to go see it badly!

[anthon1.livejournal.com]

Pan's Labyrinth is fantastic. I had heard great things about it, and a friend told me I should watch it, and, after a little bit of stuff in the interim (http://anthon1.livejournal.com/64643.html), I did, and it is definitely one of the best films I've seen this year. It has a perfect balance between the eerily beautiful otherworldliness of the fairytale and the brutality and oblique, crushing, brutal pragmatism of the real world, and they merge together by the end of the film. Somehow the fact that it is spoken in a beautiful language that I cannot understand makes it even better.

It's funny; you're not the only one (http://elenathehun.livejournal.com/67629.html#cutid1) to have discovered and fallen in love with this film recently...

Two other things: firstly, you use both score and blimey. You are wonderful. :D

Secondly, the first sentence of the second paragraph of that Tolkien extract is just dying to be used as an epigraph. Or maybe just the whole paragraph. Hmm... :D

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

I would also probably say it's one of the best films I've seen this year, except that most of the films I've seen this year did not actually come out this year and not a lot of them came out last year, either. So it counts, and it also doesn't. :p (Local cinema is not in the habit of showing good films very often; also, for reasons mainly involving money and time, we almost never go, which is a gigantic pity because I am a cinemaholic. I love seeing trailers for the first time even if I'm completely uninterested in the film, I love the weird juxtaposition of being very alone and yet surrounded by people, I love the huge screen, and most of all I love how the screen flickers, and the whirr of the reel in the background -- I will fight digital film with my last drop of blood if I have to.)

the first sentence of the second paragraph of that Tolkien extract is just dying to be used as an epigraph.
SHUT UP YOU WILL NOT MAKE ME WRITE NOVELS AGAIN. IT'S BAD ENOUGH THAT THAT THING THAT NEIL GAIMAN ISN'T GOING TO WRITE BECAUSE I THOUGHT OF IT AND HE DIDN'T IS HAVING FAR TOO MUCH FUN IN MY HEAD ALREADY. :DDDD