Twisted
We've had a second run at open inspection this weekend, and about the same amount of interest, if not the same dollars on offer. Everybody who's come up with an offer this time has come substantially lower than where we'd like them to, so, after a few chores, I took myself to the movies, Pan's Labyrinth, by Guillermo Del Toro. It was a bad choice, if what I was hoping for was to be cheered up. This has to be one of the saddest movies I've ever seen, aside from the ones with animals. Yes, it's beautiful, and it does things with mythology, like his earlier film, Cronos, that's become unexpected in mainstream cinema. It's brutal, in fact, which, I guess, is the political point it's trying to make, but beautiful, aside from that. I've come away from it saddened, but also angry. Set in facist Spain, in the period after the civil war there was effectively over and Franco's forces essentially just "mopping up," the sadism indicted is still present in our own time, and in places it shouldn't be. Do we hold ourselves so far above those evils, yet scuff and mumble over abuses in Iraq and Guantanamo? And who's harmed thereby? Not just the innocents, but our own selves, for every moment of silence, every second's delay in taking up our courage in both hands and changing the world however much we can. It's an awesome movie, which I mean in a non-slacker way. I'm gladdened by such artists, even as much as I'll probably be depressed for days.