Pan's Labyrinth

2006 Director Guillermo del Toro

Mexican filmmaker Guillermo del Toro returns to fantasy cinema that defined such early works as Cronos with this haunting drama set in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War.

It concerns the strange journeys of an imaginative young girl who may be the mythical princess of an underground kingdom. Her mother recently married a sadistic army captain and is soon to bear the cruel military man's child. The young girl is forced to entertain herself as her recently-formed family settles into their new home nestled deep in the Spanish countryside. As her bed-ridden mother lies immobilized in anticipation of her forthcoming child and her high-ranking stepfather remains determined to fulfill the orders of General  Franco to crush a nearby guerrilla uprising, the young girl soon ventures into an elaborate stone labyrinth presided over by the mythical faun Pan. Convinced by Pan that she is the lost princess of legend and that in order to return to her underground home she must complete a trio of life-threatening tasks, she sets out to reclaim her kingdom.

Beautifully shot and acted this film is a huge improvement on del Torro's earlier works. Although the plot is classical the delivery is done with impressive imagination and flair. Well worth watching although some of the scenes are definitely not for the young, notably the scene where the Captain beats a soldier to death with a bottle and the whole sequence with the eyeless monster.

Timecrimes

2007 Director Nacho Vigalondo

An extraordinary film that deals with the protracted problems connected with reverse time travel. This is Nacho Vigalondo's debut film in which he plays the minor role of the scientist in charge of the time machine.

An ordinary man is renovating his country house with his wife when he sees something that catches his attention while playing with his binoculars. Looking at a wooded area, he spies a beautiful woman taking her clothes off, and decides to take a stroll and give her a closer look. However, when he arrives the woman is lying in the grass and appears to either be dead or passed out. As he examines her, he's attacked by a strange man and flees on foot. He seeks refuge in a building that turns out to be a research facility owned by a scientist, who gives him a place to hide inside what looks like a milk vat. It is actually a time machine and when he emerges a few minutes later and looks out of the window he sees himself working in the garden as he was before. Thus starts a series of loops as he attempts to keep time in a straight line without leaving himself stranded in the past and unable to rejoin his wife.

The film has many twists and turns but does remain coherent and logical. It wisely omits any special effects that would otherwise detract from the very ordinary look of the film.

The Night of the Sunflowers

2006 Director Jorge Sánchez-Cabezudo

This film explores the idea that the truth is never as simple as at first appears. Castilla-León is a dying rural village in the middle of nowhere. Told from six different perspectives the story unfolds with the discovery of a cave near the village. Cave explorers arrive to document the find and there is much speculation that this will put the village back on the map and bring much needed visitors. But emerging from the cave they discover that a girl has been assaulted. This sparks a violent revenge mission that sets into motion a tragic series of events in the impoverished local communities.

Each chapter overlaps the previous and is told from a completely different perspective drawing the viewer to empathise with the current character so thoroughly that all their actions appear completely logical, given the circumstances.

Beautifully shot in a captivating landscape its a very watchable film.

The Spirit of the Beehive

1973 Director Victor Erice

In a small Castilian village in 1940, in the wake of the country's civil war, six-year-old Ana attends a traveling movie show of Frankenstein with her teasing sister and becomes possessed by the memory of it. She comes upon a deserter in a remote animal shelter on her father's farm and draws parallels between his plight and that of the monster.

The film's cinematography is lovingly shot with long atmospheric scenes. The child that plays Ana shows a remarkable talent. In particular the dinner scene where her father shows her the watch that the soldier was discovered with. The eye contact shots make all dialogue superfluous.

It is noteworthy that all characters have used their real first names. Apparently this was a late alteration to the script because Ana became too confused with the character's names.

Produced as Franco's long regime was nearing it's end, The Spirit of the Beehive is a bewitching portrait of a child's haunted inner life and one of the most visually arresting movies ever made.