Quote Originally Posted by Garland View Post
Pan's Labyrinth is an amazing film. My sister bought me the special edition DVD two years ago for Christmas. I'll admit, I hadn't heard of it. I watched it the first time, not so much out of interest, but to use my Christmas present so that I could comment on it. I was incredibly impressed. It was the perfect fairy tale movie, told with a general cynicism towards life that I could identify with. The ending was one of the best ever - completely unexpected and not Hollywood. We need more films like this, directed by people who aren't afraid to credit the intellectual capacity of the audience. Steven Spielburg makes great movies that always bring in the cash, but he doesn't trust the audience to understand what he's saying, and often diminishes the power of his films (like Schindler's List) by over explaining the stuff he thinks is important. When directors just make the film, with the art in mind, and when they don't condescend the audience, the movie is a winner. Pan's Labyrinth is a winner. It makes you think. It actually allows you to think. I like to think. I like Pan's Laybrinth.
Yeah, I agree completely, to the point where it actually may be my favourite film ever made. I was actually up for about five hours the night I first watched the film just thinking about aspects of the plot. A lot of the meaning doesn't really come together in your head until you've thought about it for awhile, because del Toro doesn't spell everything out.

I have The Devil's Backbone on DVD, but haven't watched it yet; I'm very much looking forward to it. I'll probably check out The Orphanage at some point as well; I've heard good things. Told it has some similarities to The Turn of the Screw, which come to think of it is another good example of an open-ended story (although I found the writing to be completely impenetrable).

Also yeah, Big Fish was pretty awesome. I find Burton to be generally somewhat a style-over-substance director, but that was a solid film all around, and the style is very well executed in any case.

As for the other recommendations, I'll definitely take those into consideration; thanks.