Pans Labyrinth

Pans Labyrinth

Pans Labyrinth is set in Spain, during the Spanish civil war. Spain was controlled by the fascist  Franco, who received support from Mussolini and Hitler and at the end of the war installed himself as a dictator of Spain until he died in 1975. Pans Labyrinth was directed by Guillermo del Toro.

The first scene I'll be analyzing is the beginning. The beginning is a very powerful opening as it gives the audience is presented with some of the key themes that feature within the film. The beginning starts with a black screen with ambient sounds of the wind is howling and heavy breathing with the non-diegetic humming of what appears to be a lullaby whilst some context of the film is displayed on the screen. As the black screen carries on the speed of the breathing increases which could allude to the fact that we are about to see the person behind the breathing. The sounds of the wind are overlapped with the non-diegetic orchestral music which has a sad tone implying that the film starts with sadness. Then the camera pans across what we can assume is the ground as we see a young girl who we can also assume is the protagonist in the film as she is the first character to be introduced. She is lying on the ground covered in blood which is an enigma code as it creates a plethora of questions which we hope is answered throughout the film.

As the camera is focused on the unidentified young girl the camera is positioned in a Dutch tilt which reflects the audience's confusion at the lack of context. As the clip carries on the camera circles the young girl as the blood coming from her nose is going back to initiate that the film is going to begin. The color palette used is blue and blacks which implies a very cold theme that runs throughout the film. The camera begins in a close-up shot and whilst zooming in, in circular motion zoom in the assumed main protagonist's eye a voice-over is heard giving context but the way the context is presented is a convention to the genre in which the film is about, fantasy, as the voice-over begins the film by saying "a long, long time ago.." the language is commonly associated with fairy tales and fantasy indicating that in the film characters that we wouldn't expect to see in a film covering dark topics like the Spanish Civil War to be featured.

Once we see the two worlds 'fantasy' and 'real' we can see how the two states differ from one another as the fantasy world is presented as dark and cold whereas the real world is bright. When we are introduced to the main protagonist we see her with who we can assume to be her and the voice-over describing a young girl from the fantasy world and we see the young girl we can assume that she is the lost princess, however, we see a fairy tale book so we can assume could also be the narration from the book. When we see the protagonist we the camera is positioned in a medium shot so we can see her mother and her pregnant belly, as well as the main protagonist, reading her book. Her mother is sick with a baby link to the mouth and the sickness caused by the unborn child relates to the father of the child who we later find out to be the fascist leader, Vidal. In this scene, it's pure diegetic sounds to make the scene raw and so we can explicitly read the emotions from the performance of the actresses rather than having non-diegetic music and or sounds to help alleviate certain emotions. The lack of diegetic sounds carry on when Ofelia's mother is out of the car as she's ill and Ofelia is wandering off, this again could be so that the audience isn't given any extra clue to what might happen but however non-diegetic piano music is playing this could indicate the  When Ofelia finds a rock on the floor the camera is positioned in an over the shoulder shot to show the audience what Ofelia is looking without it looking too obvious. The object is of an eye from a statue which again is a common theme in the film.

The second scene I'll be analyzing is the pale man scene. When Ofelia has to use the key that she retrieved from the frog's stomach in her previous task set by the Fauno. At the beginning of Ofelia's adventures she is giving a book, this book allows Ofelia to know how to enter the hidden room of the Pale Man. The camera is positioned in an over the shoulder shot to show the 'magical' abilities of the book as the description of how to carry out the task is presented this is a which is a convention of the fantasy genre that this film fits into to as in most mythical and fantasy films the main protagonist is usually given some sort of aid whether that be from a book or a fellow character. The book that helps Ofelia shows Ofelia how to enter the pale man's room through illustrations, commonly associated with fantasy books. The image on the book resembles that of the uterus and the life that is in the uterus is locked conveying the demanding state Spain was in, in the 40's and it also further amplify the theme of life throughout the film. The reference to life in this instance alludes to Ofelia's mother and how she is currently carrying life which will be kin of the controlling Vidal who was inspired by the wicked and controlling nature of Franco.

When Ofelia enters the tunnel the lighting is low-key which is a convention of horror as it provides this sense of uncertainty to the audience on behalf of Ofelia as the illustrations of the Pale Man in the book look similar to that of a Goya painting 'Saturn devouring his children', this resembles between the Pale Man and the Goya painting is to have an extra hidden fear of the Pale Man as the look of the character is very 'dead-looking' as the skin drooping down and the obvious pale skin and, lack of facial features fuel fear as its an instinct in humans that when they feel scared the brain attempts to find familiarity whether that be finding something a face. Another element that increases doubt in the questionable task is the number of rules that Ofelia has to follow reflect the 1944 Spain and the fascist state the country was in. The color palette used in the tunnel resembles that of del Toro's previous work, Crimson Peak, this shows del Toro's auteur style to his work and aesthetics. The blood-red color of the walls and low-key lighting create an unnerving atmosphere for the audience as we are expecting to see something out of the ordinary as we are currently in the fantasy world, this is so we can easily distinguish reality from fantasy as there are a lot of parallels as the Pale Mans table and where the Pale man is sat resembles that of Vidal in the dinner scene that occurs previously.

When we see the Pale Man's layer we are presented with high-key lighting and warm tone like red and yellow, the red could imply danger Ofelia is in. The non-diegetic sound that is playing in the background goes from intense violins with exaggerated sounds of heavy breathing within the tunnel layered on top, the over exaggerated breathing and the closeness it feels with the audience again amplifies the dread for Ofelia as the non-diegetic music and sounds and mis-en-scene with low-key lighting and color palette create an unnerving atmosphere which are conventions of horror. When Ofelia enters the room the camera is behind Ofelia creating a long shot which establishes the Pale Man's room, the mis-en-scene of this scene resembles dark side of fantasies that aren't necessarily presented in the many fantasy films. The long shot allows the audience to see what could be dangerous and make assumptions on the safety of Ofelia this allows the audience to be fully immersed in the film, having the camera track Ofelia's as she moves forward towards the table acts like an unknown character following Ofelia and it also allows the audience to take in the eerie atmosphere, as the room is lit in low-key lighting with mainly red being the color we can see. The table could be seen as an intertextual reference to other fairy tales like Alice in Wonderland as Ofelia was instructed to not eat or drink anything by the Fauno, it could also reference Hook as well with the feast in Neverland that is only seen by those who believe and Ofelia believes in the fantasy much to Vidals disgust.