GUILLERMO DEL TORO: 15 THINGS HE KNOWS TO BE TRUE `PAN'S LABYRINTH' DIRECTOR TALKS ABOUT FANTASY, REALITY AND HOLDING FAST TO DREAMS.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

Guillermo del Toro's gothic fairy tale, ``Pan's Labyrinth,'' has been winning the Mexican filmmaker the highest praise of his career. The movie, which follows a girl named Ofelia through her retreat into a fantasy world to escape the grim reality of life in Franco's Spain, is up for the foreign language Golden Globe and recently was named best picture by the National Society of Film Critics.

Not bad for a movie that del Toro spent 2 1/2 years trying in vain to get financed. Ultimately, he gave back his entire salary so he could make it the way he saw it in his head.

Here, del Toro shares 15 things he learned through making the movie and living his life these past 42 years.

``Immortality is the moment you choose to ignore death. That's the only immortality you can attain. It's not about living 300 years and sucking the blood of virgins.

``In the Disney version of this movie, it would be really important that Ofelia be successful at the end of every test. She'd have to go three-for-three. But the tests are a distraction. It's not if she succeeds, it's how she goes about them that creates a picture of who she is. It's about finding her ethical and spiritual center by trusting only herself.

``I see life as a laundry list of things to do -- get laid, get the laundry, shine your shoes. Get married. Have children. And one of those `to-do' things is die, right? We tend as a culture to give it more importance than the other things. I don't think death is a big deal. Life is a big deal. Death isn't.

``Sometimes you don't compromise. We found different financial partners for `Pan's' and, at some point, they were scared of the ending, they were scared of the opening, they were scared of the language. One partner said, `I'll not only give you the money, I'll give you twice as much if you do it in English.' (Forget) that. I see some European movies done by American actors and they feel wrong.

``Our culture is so obsessed with permanent youth and permanent well-being. What does that mean? I don't understand. I think we should obsess about how dirty and great life is, how imperfect and (messed)-up it is.

``I was almost relieved when the first negative review appeared on Rotten Tomatoes. We were 31 out of 31. When the 32nd appeared, I thought, `Finally.' I was hoping it would affect people in different ways. It's a blotch test. Some people come out of the movie and say, `That was such a downer.' Others say, `It was uplifting and poetic.'

``I enjoy that difference of opinion. Of course, they say the same thing about `Children of Men' being bleak, and with that, I am surprised. I find `Children of Men' almost biblical in a strange way, like the best of those old biblical tales about hope. It has that moment of almost ethereal poetry when the crying baby stops the war. How can somebody find bleakness after that?

``We all create fantasy worlds. `I'm a lawyer.' `I'm a doctor.' `I'm a Republican.' `I'm a Democrat.' These things are fabrications, imaginary virtues. And then we'll strangle the things that are more intimate, those places in our hearts that are populated by monsters and fairies and goblins and things that really talk to our deepest beings. We choose to believe in a law degree and taxes. (Forget) that! It's amazing to me.

``There was an English inventor named Geoffrey Pyke who said something gorgeous about child- rearing: `We should treat children as ambassadors of a higher culture and try to learn from them as opposed to teach them the stupid, meager rules of our culture.' I believe that with my heart.

``If we were wise, we wouldn't have invented money. We wouldn't have invented borders. What the (hell) is a border? Alfonso Cuaron said it beautifully. `When I look at the Earth from space, I don't see any lines dividing countries.'

``People are too obsessed with narrative in movies. Some of my most precious images as a filmgoer aren't connected with the most coherent storytelling. I love Georges Franju. I love Dario Argento. I love David Cronenberg. And some of their images survive story line.

``I keep obsessive notebooks. I started because I heard Ben Hecht carried a notebook as a reporter and a screenwriter. I try to write every day. I met a guy the other day whose name was Knuckles. I wrote it down. What a great name - Mr. Knuckles.

``One of the most horrible lines you can hear -- and I have uttered it -- is: `I don't make the rules, but I follow them.' That is a truly disgusting thing to say. You should only follow rules that feel natural to you. Other than that, it's an absolute perversion.

``Parenting is the hardest job there is. My girls are 10 and 5. When they're 16, they'll tell me where I screwed up. They will. Yours will, too. Believe me.

``When I see this movie, I see the favorite movie I've done. That's always great when it's the last movie you've made.''

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

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Director lifts from fable, fairy tales for `Pan'

Ask Guillermo del Toro if he was like Ofelia, the Alice in Anything-but-Wonderland heroine more at home in the fantasy world than the grim reality in ``Pan's Labyrinth,'' and del Toro will answer before you finish the question.

``I am like that little girl right now,'' he says, laughing. ``I think the `fantasy world' is actually more tangible than the false world we create out of the mundane things in our own lives.''

The Mexican-born filmmaker has been devouring fairy tales and fables his whole life, and he showcases variations of some of his favorites in ``Pan's Labyrinth.''

Here he acknowledges his influences in the movie's key creations:

Character: The Pale Man, the faceless creature with stigmata on his hands and eyes on the stigmata, who chases Ofelia after she dares eat from his banquet.

Del Toro: ``A constant in the fairy world is the banquet room where they say, `Do not eat or drink anything.' Or, in `Aladdin,' the cave of marvels where they say, `Do not take any gold or jewelry.' Of course, these rules are made to be broken.

``We designed the Pale Man as faceless, making him an institution like the church that devours the children. Something about that felt pretty natural to this ex-Catholic boy.''

Character: The faun, the mischievous satyr inviting Ofelia into the fairy world.

Del Toro: ``In classical mythology, satyrs are neither good nor bad.

``They can murder a man or create a field of flowers. They are neutral, like nature. They most certainly aren't your friends, like the one you see in `The Chronicles of Narnia.'

``I wanted the faun to have a rock-star feel, masculine, powerful, bigger-than-life. I told the actor (Doug Jones, who also plays the Pale Man), `More Mick Jagger, less David Bowie.' ''

Character: The frog, the guardian of a key that Ofelia must take to complete a test.

Del Toro: ``Frogs nesting underneath trees are very common in fairy tales. Or in European folklore, you have a frog clogging the waterways of a city, and you have to kill it for water to flow.

``Mostly, I liked the frog because it's slimy and grimy and gross. And that's what I wanted `Pan's Labyrinth' to be like. Grim as in Grimm.

``Even the fairies are meat-eaters!''

-- G.W.

CAPTION(S):

4 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- cover -- color) enter the `LABYRINTH'

Faceless creatures, meat-eating fairies haunt director Guillermo del Toro's fantasy

(2) Ivana Baquero stars as Ofelia, who navigates the fantasy world of ``Pan's Labyrinth'' to escape the grim reality of life.

(3) no caption (Guillermo del Toro)

(4) no caption (creature from ``Pan's Labyrinth')

Box:

Director lifts from fable, fairy tales for `Pan' (see text)