Aesthetics:

The aesthetics are the ‘look and feel’ of the film, during the ending scene, the film form elements all work together to make the audience feel certain ways as well there being links to other movies that Del Toro has taken inspiration from. Del Toro is an auteur, the input he put into the scene shapes everything that you see, hear and feel and it was like this throughout the film.

The mise en scene and visual style of the final scene, when Ofelia is in the afterlife place is golden and red. Ofelia’s dress is red and gold (contrasting to her usual green dresses) links her to the fantasy world in the audiences minds and gives a warm and comforting feeling in the audience as they are the opposite of cold colours such as blue, which is associated with the real world; the yellow high-key lighting of the afterlife contrasting with the blue low-key lighting of when Ofelia is dying also does this; it also combines the magical and real world as parallels and the contrast between the fantasy and horror elements of the film. The colours from the mise en scene and lighting (and the high-key lighting) makes the audience happier, and we feel a sense of relief as we know that Ofelia is safe; it also gives a sense that Ofelia has been reborn. As well as this, Ofelia’s red shoes which are a part of mise en scene link to The Wizard of Oz and the idea of going home, suggesting that Ofelia is now home with her family and that everything is okay.

The room with her parents is church like. Their are stained glass windows and the people sit on what looks like pews. This contrasts to the church symbolism in the paleman scene, where the negative views to the church during the Spanish civil war was portrayed. The positive church design, suggests to the audience that Ofelia is going to be happier, therefore making the audience feel happy. This religious symbolism is a del Toro aesthetic/ a Del Toro-ism, he often includes religious symbolism in his movies; one other movie where he uses religious symbolism is in The Devils Backbone, which is described as a sister film to Pan’s Labyrinth as it covers similar topics such as the Spanish Civil War and uses similar techniques such as the low key lighting.

The only off-putting feeling that the audience would get is from the height of the chairs being different which we see through a long shot. The king, Ofelia’s dad, has the highest chair. Possibly suggesting that the patriarchy system still exists in the afterlife and possibly some sexism as well. This could link to the after effects of the Spanish Civil war, and how even though it ended in 1939, issues were still existent. Another audience interpretation of the high chairs is that the representation of age has come to a positive conclusion, Ofelia was greeted like an adult and not a child (linking to the bildungsroman genre) suggesting that Ofelia was finally not spoken down upon because of being a child again making the audience feel happier. The chairs could also be tall because of the narrative and plot, a suggestion of how Ofelia has proved herself, the chairs to the audience appear impossible to sit on, but Ofelia has proven herself as the lost princess and therefore is not troubled by this.

The motif of the lullaby that Mercedes sings and is used throughout the film gives a sense of how peoples choices have been taken away from them because of the war, as the song has no words suggesting they had no say (and specifically the effect that war had on children which Del Toro wanted to explore). The film highlights how people should disobey and have their own choice, and it’s shown to the audience that Ofelia has this now as the lullaby stops after the she enters the fantasy world until the sound bridge of her coming back into the reality world. This again makes the audience happy and feel comforted knowing that Ofelia will have a better life now.

While running away from Vidal, the blue low-key lighting makes the scene cold, harsh, and emotionless, it makes the audience feel afraid and sad. This has links to fascism and the Spanish Civil War as throughout the film, the blue low-key lighting has been linked to Vidal and therefore fascism, the connotations of the colour blue present fascism negatively and as something that has lack of morals (cold). Normally, the reality world is presented as being just as dangerous as this fascism filled and dark world such as in the paleman scene, but the final fantasy scene suggests that Ofelia is now safe and going to be happy. However, the cinematography is also used to show how Ofelia is not alone, the mid-shot of her and Mercedes when Ofelia is dying contrasts to the mid-shot at the beginning of the film where Ofelia is dying alone, giving a bitter sweet feeling as we are glad to know that Ofelia isn’t alone, but she’s dead so it’s too late and almost meaningless. However, this does provide a circular structure to the film as it ends leaving the audience feeling as though the film is definitely concluded.

Some audience members may argue that the ending shows how it’s all in Ofelia’s head. The editing means that Ofelia is dying (which is a Gothic/horror element), then she and the audience see the afterlife, then she dies, suggesting that she imagined it to herself. Plus, the world is too perfect, all of the fairies are there despite some of them being dead, suggesting that the flood of yellow light that took her into this fantasy was her beginning to imagine rather than being “the light at the end of the tunnel”, and that she was imagining a happy place that she’d rather be in. Some audiences may also feel that the entire film has been in her head as she dies, because the film begins and ends with her in the same place. These are ways that the film is left ambiguous, causing the watcher to rethink the movie and be curious.

Representation:

In the opening sequence of Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth the audience learns about representation of gender, age, ethnicity and about fascists.

In terms of gender, the film sets up gender stereotypes and then tears them down later in the film to show issues with sexism against women and toxic masculinity. One of the first things we see is Carmen, an adult pregnant woman, needing help from a man with her pregnancy issues. This presents the stereotype that women are in need of men’s help and cannot cope alone. The character Vidal, only cares about his son. He removes his glove to touch Carmen’s belly which is more personal than with Ofelia as he puts his gloves back on before greeting her and crushing her hand. He also doesn’t great Carmen lovingly, he forces her to do things she doesn’t want to such as sit in the wheelchair, ‘Do it for me’, for the sake of the baby being okay. This controllement  is also a stereotype of men with women, that women are more passive. He gives the baby bump, a better greeting than the other characters and throughout the film he makes it very clear that when it comes to trouble in the pregnancy, the doctor should save the baby. Suggesting, that Vidal views women as baby making machines and only cared about passing down his family name. Plus, he never considers that the baby might be a girl, he always assumes that it’s a boy, showing the stereotype that boys are more desirable and the one that should pass down the family name like Vidal wants. Therefore overall, women have been shown to be the weaker, more passive and the undesirable gender and that men have control and are more aggressive. This stereotype is broken in the rest of the as women such as Mercedes, surpass expectation and have a key role in taking down Vidal and breaks all gender stereotypes and Ofelia, is able to do the three dangerous tasks as a female also breaking down these stereotypes.

The audience immediately knows about Vidal and his men as fascists because of mise en scene,  the cars have the fascist symbol on them. Plus, the cars themselves are expensive suggesting the title of Vidal as a captain and how he, a man, has power. We learn immediately through Vidal’s performance that he is a leader and punctual as his first line is ’15 minutes late’ and he’s watching his watch rather than the car with his wife and child in it, which  presents him as a cold character. It also suggests that the people in this film feel that men are fit to be leaders and women aren’t as Vidal as a man is captain but the lower down workers such as cleaners and cooks are women (such as Mercedes). Showing this unfair treatment and the real side to women throughout the film .breaks these gender stereotypes.

The representation of age in the opening scene shows the impossible standards that children are supposed to meet. Ofelia has to help take care of her sick mother, which is an adult responsibility. Plus, her mum Carmen doesn’t want her to be reading the fairy tale books suggesting Carmen wants her to act more grown up in-front of Vidal. However, Carmen also talks down on Ofelia and Ofelia is presented as having the curiosity of a child as she wonders off immediately to explore. Therefore, Ofelia acts both childlike and mature, and is treated both like a child and an adult, suggesting the impossible standard that has been placed upon children. This has links to one of the film genres being bildungsroman, Ofelia is becoming a woman and more mature and therefore has to overcome this complicated boundary between child and woman.

Ofelia, a child, suggests the hope that children are to the future of Spain by rejecting fascism. We know that Vidal is a fascist and that his men are fascists, and we learn that Ofelia instead is more left wing. When she greats Vidal, she goes to shake his hand using her left hand suggesting that she is more left wing, contrasting to the fascist Vidal who says she’s supposed to use her right hand, linking him to fascism. This could be the film suggesting the end to the Spanish Civil War aftermath and the toxic views such as fascism coming to an end with the next generation.

Although Vidal is evil, he is a victim of toxic masculinity. This is one reason why he treats women as though he is above them in status just by being a man. His father, would have given him the idea that he needs to act like a man and die like a man, he gave Vidal a watch that he smashed when he died so that Vidal would know when he died. Vidal goes on to try and do this during the ending, showing that the toxic masculinity had been passed down to him. He also tries to pass it down to his son, by asking Mercedes to tell him when he died, Mercedes refuses marking the end to the passing of toxic masculinity. Vidal trying to give commands throughout the film and be punctual all the time is a suggestion of how he believes he has to act like a man.

The characters are all Spanish and white, this could have a contextual link  to Spain at the time the film was set, after the Spanish Civil War which ended in 1939.

Context:

In Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, the paleman sequence portrays many different contextual links and has use of themes that run throughout the movie.

The paleman’s room itself is similar to that of a church, it represents the critical view of the church that was held during the Spanish Civil War which the film was set shortly after. When Ofelia firsts open the door, the reverse tracking shot allows the audience to see how big the space is and how similarly designed it is to a church, such as, it has big pillars. In the paleman’s actual room, the horrific pictures on the ceiling are in the same position and designed the same (apart from the actual image) as religious images in church. Plus, the big table that the paleman is sitting on, could also be a reference to the famous last supper table painting, the food being red suggests the negative opinion on the church as red connotates to danger. Plus, the stigmata holes in the paleman’s hands have a link to Jesus being crucified. Therefore, placing such a violent and visually disturbing character (sagging skin, skinny, sharp fingers) in a religious room with connection to Jesus, is implying the critical views of the church at that time.

The gruesome images around the room not only make the audience feel disturbed but have a contextual link to the Spanish artist Francisco Goya who painted Saturn eating his son. The interpretation of this painting is that the Titan feared that his children would overthrow him and therefore ate them.  This was used in Pan’s Labyrinth as it links to world war 2 and the Nazis. They targeted children because of their alleged membership in political, biological or racial groups. The effect that war has on children is atrocious, and it’s something that Del Toro often wants to explore in his films. In Pan’s Labyrinth, he showed the effect that war had on Ofelia with characters such as Vidal and the many references to fascism and the dangers of it including within this scene. Another film where he explored this was ‘The Devils Backbone’ which is often described as a sister film to Pan’s Labyrinth.  Another link to the holocaust in the paleman scene is the pile of shoes, as it has links to the gas chambers. However, another interpretation of this is that they are the shoes of the incorrect princesses, and instead link to the theme of horror and fairy tale rather than a political and historical link.

In the paleman scene, the mise en scene identifies which door Ofelia should use to get they key in the book that she opens. However, she disobeys this and opens the left door, it was this disobedience that allowed her to succeed in the task; suggesting that obeying for the sake of obeying is morally wrong. Obedience and choice are a theme throughout the movie, and obedience is typically linked to Vidal and fascism, it portrays the idea that having no choice and obeying without considering morals and fascism as wrong. The doctor explicitly tells Vidal, ‘Captain, to obey – just like that – for obedience’s sake… without questioning… That’s something only people like you do.’ supports the message that fascism and obeying is wrong. However, Ofelia doesn’t obey, she picks the left door, which links her to left wing politics and therefore not fascism unlike Vidal and suggests hope in the future for Spain as the children will make positive changes. The book that she found the task in, also had the paleman’s arms in the shape of fallopian tubes which supports the genre of bildungsroman throughout the film.

In this sequence, the barrier between the two worlds is clearly defined. One way this is done is when the parallel action shot takes the audience out of the paleman’s room and into Ofelia’s room where we see that the time has run out. The change from high key lighting with yellow and red to low key blue lighting emphasises the separation between the two worlds. However, the blue low-key lighting does still suggest coldness and dangers because it’s connotations which supports that the two worlds are just as dangerous as one another, which is something Del Toro tried to explore. We also get this separation when Ofelia is climbing out of the paleman room and there’s a mid-shot of Ofelia where her top half is in the real world and her legs are in the fantasy place, this give the sense to the audience that both worlds are real as we see them coexist at the same time. They way that Ofelia climbs up to get out of the paleman’s room gives the suggestion of hell, as well the fire which is emphasised by its loud foley sound. This connects back to the critical opinions on the church during the Spanish Civil War and shows the audience how much danger Ofelia is in, causing worry and tension. This religious symbolism is a Del Toro-ism which also appears in the sister film to Pan’s Labyrinth, ‘The Devils Backbone’.