Whats in a Name? - The Pan Debate

Connoisseur Michael

One point I forgot to mention, and I am taken aback that it was not mentioned by my co-Connoisseur Javier, is the title of the film.  “El Laberinto del Fauno”, literally “The Labyrinth of the Faun” or “The Faun’s Labyrinth” given the English language’s propensity for possessive “s”es, is the Spanish title of movie and yet somehow this translates to “Pan’s Labyrinth” in American.  I say American because I don’t know how it was translated in Great Britain, but it reminds of “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” which somehow became “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” when it flew over the big pond to the unruly Colonies.  If I may be so bold as to ask, why do we Americans need different titles than everyone else?  In the case of Pan’s Labyrinth it make absolutely no sense whatsoever given that there is no character in the movie called Pan; the faun in question is simply referred to as a Faun.  It makes me think that there is a room full of executives somewhere, each making 6 figures mind you, standing around a white board with notes from their focus groups “brainstorming” what would be the biggest selling title to the American public.  This whole thing gives me not-so-happy butterflies in my stomach.

Connoisseur Javier Replies

I noticed it but I was trying to keep my review lean and mean and to avoid putting up too much of a Mexican bias (this faun is our ticket to the Oscars). Now every country plays that annoying name game, the worst being Mexico I would of thought.

For example Crank is called “Crank: veneno en la sangre” or “Crank: poison in the blood”. Why the extra title? Who knows? Worse is Spain that translates everything directly… so for crank I wouldn’t be surprised if they call it “manija” (like a wooden crank, not a reference to being tweaked). Why did I give Mexico extra recognition in the sucking department? Because of another one of Guillermo Del Toro’s movies: Chronos. That’s the name of the movie, made in México under the name Chronos. BUT IN THE MEXICAN MOVIE THEATERS THEY CALLED IT “EL INVENTO DE CRONOS”. That’s like calling Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein “Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein’s monster”.

Still where the hell did they get Pan? I can only guess that Fauns are not part of our collective American mythology, but then again they didn’t do anything about the Faun in the lion, the witch and the wardrobe. Still it is particularly annoying because he makes it a point to make himself nameless, “my name is ancient and can only be pronounced by the wind” or some such fey dialog.