BLOG POSTING GUIDELINES

If you have completed the QUIA workbook and laboratory exercises and have attended "La mesa de Español", and you need more minutes to satisfy your lab requirement (100 minutes a week), you can do any of the following activities for minutes and post your comments in the blog:
  • Película/Programa de TV: Watch movies/TV shows in Spanish and write a short show or movie about them (a brief explanation of the show and your opinion about it) 50-75 words – worth 50 minutes of labtime,
  • Ex. Title format: Película: "El Laberinto del Fauno" (50 lab minutes minutes)
  • Evento: Attend an event related to Hispanic culture and write your comments about it 50-75 words and post pictures in your blog. – worth 100 minutes of lab. Ex.Title format: Evento: "Hispanic fest St. Louis" (100 lab minutes)
  • Otro: If you have any other ideas/suggestions, check with your instructor to see if this will count as lab minutes.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

El laberinto del fauno

With being home unwell I was able to watch a movie that I've wanted to for a while now. The film is called Pan's Labyrinth and was made by Mexican film maker Guillermo del Toro. It came out in 2006 and was highly acclaimed for it's visual effects and imaginative storyline. The story itself is based out of Spain in 1944 during the post civil war era when Francisco Franco was still in power. The main character, Ofelia, is traveling with her pregnant mother to live with her step father in the mountains while he fights off any remaining Spanish Maquis guerrillas. The life that Ofelia has is chaotic and violent and to escape it she creates a fairytale world involving an abandoned labyrinth near her new home where she is visited by fairies and Pan himself. She is told by Pan that she is a princess but in order to get back to her throne and with her king father she must prove herself by following three difficult tasks.

The story connects reality with fantasy very well and at times made me wonder if what was happening to Ofelia was real or in her head. The movie was visually beautiful and captivating, having both a curious charm and an eerily dark plot.

This movie contains violence and harsh language and has a few disturbing scenes.

Side note, I watched the movie with subtitles and left the original language playing. This is the first time I've watched a Spanish film while taking a Spanish class and I got a kick out of being able to understand snippets of words without looking at the subtitles......but I still need them, for now.