Scene: The last ten minutes

Throughout the movie, the contrast of yellow to blue lighting is used for several different meanings. During the last ten minutes of the film, the colours are not only used individually, but also collide. Blue lighting is typical linked to Vidal (and therefore fascism) throughout the film. This is because blue has the connotation of coldness and possibly gives the audience a sense of danger when paired with the low key lighting. During this scene, Vidal physically comes around from the corner with his men, from where there is blue lighting. The scene also plays out largely in blue lighting, such a when Vidal is chasing Ofelia through the labyrinth. It gives the sense of danger and coldness to Vidal, it matches the actions taking place in the film as well. The blue is typically used to show the reality world, however sometimes this changes. When Ofelia is with the faun both at the beginning and at the end, the lighting is blue. Some viewers may believe that this is because the faun is untrustworthy until the end and therefore fits the blue lighting, rather than have a connection to the fantasy world which is red and yellow/gold. Due to the faun pushing commands on Ofelia, he is linked to the theme of obeying and fascism, which is another reason for him to have blue lighting and why the blue lighting may not indicate the fantasy world.  Ofelia being young and a woman, contrasts the adult male’s (Vidal’s) opinions and ideas about women and children, as they are more independent and powerful than he chooses to believe.

The yellow lighting contrasts the blue. The yellow is often used to show the fantasy world, at the end, a golden light fills up the screen to take Ofelia into the fantasy world with her parents, where the mise en scene is red and gold. It’s also used when Ofelia opens up her book (as it highlights her face), and during tasks such as the toad and the paleman scene. Plus, at the beginning with Carmen in the car, when Ofelia first discovers the fairy. During the ending of the movie, the yellow lighting is also used with Mercedes. This could be because Mercedes is worthy to know about the magical place as it’s said previously that she used to believe in fairies (I find this a bit ironic as in the Narnia Chronicles, one of which Del Toro was offered the  opportunity to direct, Susan, isn’t allowed back to Narnia when she stops believing which is the opposite to Mercedes). However, it could also have reference to Mercedes being a mother figure for Ofelia after her mother’s death. Del Toro said that red and yellow were used partly because they were internal colours that, paired with the fallopian tube imagery, shows Ofelia’s desire to be back inside her mother (hence why she gets ‘reborn’ at the end of the movie). I think this is because of her loneliness due to the effect that war had on her which is a theme explored throughout as it’s set during the Spanish civil war. Mercedes having the yellow lighting, like her mother at the beginning, shows to me that Mercedes has become a mother figure. Especially since the camera shot at the end when Ofelia was dead included Mercedes, unlike at the beginning, possibly suggesting that she’s not alone.