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Pan's Labyrinth is Alice in Wonderland for grown-ups, with the horrors of both reality and fantasy blended together into an extraordinary, spellbinding fable. Set during the 1944 facient regime in Spain, the focus on the film is upon Ofelia, a solitary girl with a penchant for dreaming. Her mother has married a military officer that is charged with removing all the local rebels. The young girl creates a fantasy world in her boredom with fantastical creatures and secret destinies.
Pan's Labyrinth is a tapestry of the splendid horrors of reality and the tantalising taste of fantasy. Reminds me of the art of The Cell with the storytelling of Legend or perhaps Labyrinth. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a 98% fresh rating, if you use that as a reference point.
The Zeigeist - I know it's on myspace, but they are really fantastic. They remind me a lot of The Knife- and of every 80s new wave hit. The Pitchfork track review of Tar Heart speaks a little more eloquently than I'm willing to be at this point: " An addendum to early leaks of Silent Shout, "Tar Heart" was originally presented as a mislabelled Knife track, so although tiny morsels of information on Gothenburg's Zeigeist have emerged over the past few months, it's still hard to listen to this without thinking of the Dreijer siblings. It snuck by discerning ears for good reason-- not only is this more sprightly Scandinavian electropop with trancey, Balearic flourishes, and a forbidding melody, it also features a quavering female vocal that could out-Karin the actual Karin Dreijer Andersson in at least one out of every five blindfold taste tests. Despite also boasting a chorus in very obvious debt to "Running Up That Hill", "Tar Heart" is nonetheless pretty special as its own thing, a sturdily constructed bit of synthpop that stands up to the very best in its burgeoning sub-genre. A little less spooky and a little more 1980s, here's hoping Zeigeist have more like this in them, whoever they are."
