Cinematography
In the ending of Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth lighting is used to convey meaning to the audience in different ways. One way is to control how the audience feels. Aesthetically, when the lighting is low-key and blue, the audience feel fear and the coldness of the character Vidal due to blue having the connotation of coldness. This has links to fascism as Vidal is a fascist character who is portrayed very negatively throughout the movie which links to the Spanish Civil War which the film was set shortly after. The blue low-key lighting is used when Ofelia is running away. Due to her being a child the audience worry a lot for her as Vidal could easily overpower her. The blue lighting fits well with this scene as it’s a dangerous scene for the main character, meaning that lighting with connotations of fear is suitable.
This scene is also when the two-colour pallets in this film collide. The director Del Toro is known for his use of colour in movies, it’s one of the reasons why he can be described as an auteur. In Pan’s Labyrinth the colour pallets are red and gold against blue and green, but lighting is usually blue against the yellow. During the ending scene when Ofelia is running away from Vidal although the lighting is predominantly blue, the longshot of Vidal running into the labyrinth after Ofelia shows the collision of blue and yellow in the sky which represents the collision of the fantasy and real world.
After Ofelia has been shot by Vidal a flood of yellow takes her away from the real world and into the fantasy world. In the fantasy world the lighting is high-key and yellow which makes the audience feel happy as they no longer have to worry for Ofelia, they know that she is safe. This lighting contrasts to the blue of the real world but is similar to the lighting in her first and second task, the tree and the paleman, which are also part of the fantasy world. The lighting is mainly used to separate the two worlds, but audiences can question whether the fantasy world is even real. For example, the yellow light could appear like ‘the light at he end of the tunnel’ and that Ofelia has died and had then entered the fantasy world which is actually real due to innocent blood being spilt which was her third task to complete.
Editing
The editing in the Pale Man sequence in Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth is used to create tension. The paleman is a character that Ofelia could easily overpower, he is slow moving, and Ofelia has a dagger. But Ofelia not using the dagger speaks to her character and could have links to her not being a villain and turning to violence when it’s not necessary like Vidal does which separates her from fascism; fascism was explored because the film was set after the Spanish Civil War. The fact that the paleman is easily overpowered means that things like sound and editing need to make up for it and build the tension in the audience, make the audience feel fear and concern. The action reaction shots of Ofelia and the paleman when Ofelia is running away help build the tension, they give the illusion that the paleman is closer to her than he actually is and the cuts back and forth build tension anyway. Especially when paired with the non-diegetic sounds of animal noises that the paleman has which add to the fear he causes within the audience.
The parallel action of the hourglass running out and Ofelia completing her third task also builds tension. When we first see the timer, it is to establish the scene and what is going to happen, the audience learns that it is a timed task and Ofelia must act quickly which builds tension. The shots of the hourglass then turn into parallel action as we see the hourglass during her task to remind us that she is being timed and must escape the danger and when Ofelia is running to build the tension. Seeing Ofelia running away from the Paleman with parallel action of the hourglass makes the audience scared and tense because they don’t want her to be trapped with him as she would be killed. When know she would be killed from the mise en scene such as the pile of children’s shoes which can be interpreted as the shoes of the wrong princess’s but also have a contextual link to the pile of clothes in the holocaust during world war 2.
Sound
In Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, one way the sound is used in the pale man scene is to make the scene feel fantasy like to the audience. When Ofelia gets the key and runs her finger along the dagger that she collects, there is an exaggerated and fantastical, non-diegetic sound that gives the impression of fantasy and fairy-tale. This could link to Pan’s Labyrinth having many genres, one of which being fantasy, but it could also suggest that this task is happening inside of Ofelia head. The film leaves whether or not the fantasy place was ambiguous, relating the second task to fantasy through fantastical sounds could be a way of associating the other world with fantasy.
The sound is also used to build tension. There is non-diegetic drumming when Ofelia is running away from the paleman which could be interpreted as a heartbeat. This ties in with the theme of morality which is first introduced at the beginning of the film when the audience see’s Ofelia’s death reversed which causes dramatic irony for the rest of the film. Hearing a heartbeat like sound reminds us that Ofelia is mortal and that she can/is going to die, but it also reminds the audience themselves that they are mortal too. The close sonic perspective of Ofelia’s breathing which is a diegetic sound also helps build tension as it’s another way that the audience gets told that Ofelia is in danger causing them to feel fear and concern.
There is also an exaggerated foley sound for the fire which empathises the links to religion. The fire links to hell and the room through mise en scene links to a church. Having a symbol of hell makes the audience anxious for Ofelia to leave the room but having it in a church like room is a link to the negative attitudes towards the church during the Spanish Civil War which ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ is set shortly after. This is done earlier on in the film when the person who works at the church is putting lots of food on his plate while talking about people starving due to the effects of the war.
Mise En Scene
In the pale man sequence of Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth there are many links to the church. The reverse tracking shot allows the audience to see how big the room is, but it also shows the pillars which remind the audience of churches. There’s also a fire with an exaggerated foley sound which links to hell causing fear. Plus, there are pictures around the room which look like murals/decoration you’d find in a church. These pictures are of dying babies and have a contextual link to Goya’s painting of Saturn eating his son; this then has reference to the second world war as Nazi’s targeted children due to them believe they were the source of Judaism and Saturn ate his son because he was afraid he would grow up and overpower him. This is presenting both the war and the church’s actions during the Spanish Civil War (which the film was set shortly after) negatively as the films links negative and fearful thigs with the church. The paleman himself even links to Jesus as he has the stigmata on his hands which are where his eyes go, but links to Jesus being crucified. Again, linking something so dangerous to the church is a way of presenting the negative attitude towards the church’s actions during the Spanish civil war. This was also done earlier in the film when the person who worked at a church piled lots of food on their plate while talking about other people starving.
The dagger that Ofelia uses helps to bring fear in the audience as the prop is sharp. Despite Ofelia having something dangerous and being a life-threatening situation, she lives which has links to the representation of age. Typically, audience members might assume that Ofelia will do worse at the task because she is so young, but the film proves that children can be strong with throughout the film. Children are also represented as the source of a good future as she is shown to be more left wing than right and against fascism. One example of this is in the paleman scene when in the picture in the book her left hand is used to cover the middle keyhole but she opens the left keyhole anyway to show she is more left wing than fascist characters like Vidal who favours his right hand. This also has links to disobedience and how Ofelia refuses to follow Vidal’s rules, again showing how the children are to key to fighting against fascism after the Spanish Civil War.
Performance
During the final scene of Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth Vidal’s performance shows the audience the nature of his character. Even though he is heavily wounded due to Mercedes and is clearly defeated with the rebels surrounding him, he straightens his posture and walks more powerfully when he see’s the rebels because even when he knows that he is defeated he does not want to lose his dignity or sense of superiority over them; he is a captain during the time after the Spanish civil war. This is also supported by the proxemics as he chooses to stand tall in the middle of them instead od cowing in the corner to make him seem more powerful and try and keep his dignity. This links to the representation of gender and how his father would have passed on toxic masculinity to him which is why he feels he needs to “die like a man”; this links to him grasping his watch when he knows he is going to die. The watch is a metonym for Vidal, the cracked face represents Vidal as a broken person due to toxic masculinity. The watch was given to him by his father so he would know what time that he had died (which links to the theme of morality), Vidal wants to pass down this toxic masculinity and have his son told what time he died but Mercedes stops this from being done, showing that the children are the source of a positive future. It could also give a reason as to why he treats women so badly and why he see’s himself as above everyone else, it does not excuse him but the audience would feel a little sympathy for him.
Context
The mise en scene during the paleman sequence in Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth has many contextual links. For example, the pile of shoes in the paleman’s room can be interpreted as the shoes of the incorrect princesses but they are a contextual reference to the second world war and the holocaust. This has links to the horrific pictures around the room of children dying as these images are linked to Goya’s painting of Saturn eating his son which links to the holocaust because the Nazi’s targeted children because they thought that were the root of Judaism and Saturn was eating his son because he was afraid he would overpower him when he grew up. These pieces of mise en scene make the audience feel afraid for Ofelia because she is a child and in danger, however she does survive which shows that the representation of age is that children are stringer than the adults in the film think.
The paleman room has many links to a church such as the horrific images, the pillars we see during the reverse tracking shot and the paleman having stigmata on his hands linking him to Jesus being crucified. The room is also portrayed as dangerous with mise en scene like the red food as red has the connotation of danger. Linking such a dangerous character and horrible room to the church represents the negative attitudes towards the church during the Spanish Civil War which the film was set shortly after. This idea was explored earlier in the film when a man who worked for the church was eating at a table with Vidal and was piling food on his plat while talking about how there were people out there starving.
Because the film is set after the Spanish Civil it explores the effect that war has on children which is something that Del Toro often does in his movies such as with ‘The Devils Backbone’. It’s also why the film explores fascism though characters like Vidal. Vidal is shown favouring his right hand which links him to right wing politics and as an evil and violent character fascist are portrayed as bad people. To contrast, Ophelia is shown to be more left wing and to be disobedient against fascism (disobedience being a theme throughout the film). During the paleman scene, the book (prop) which the faun gave Ophelia shows her what she must do. In the book, she is shown using her left hand (left wing) to cover the middle key hole. Despite this, and despite being told by the fairies to open the middle one, she opens the left key hole which shows her disobedience against fascism and her leaning towards left wing politics. This representation of age shows children as the future after the Spanish Civil War.
Aesthetics
During the ending of Pan’s Labyrinth when Ophelia is running away from Vidal there is blue low-key lighting that makes the audience feel cold and fear for Ophelia as blue has the connotation of coldness and because blue is associated with Vidal, who is a dangerous fascist character, throughout the movie. The lighting is also blue and low key when Vidal shots Ophelia. This lighting shows that Ophelia is surrounded by the danger of fascists like Vidal and the effects of the Spanish Civil War that the film was set shortly after, the effect that war has on children is something that Del Toro often explores in his films such as Pan’s Labyrinth and The Devils Backbone. The church non-diegetic choir singing sound when Vidal walks into the labyrinth is not the only church reference in the scene, when Ophelia is greeted by her mother and father in the magical world the mise en scene looks like a church with stained glass windows and pews, this contrast to the previous negative attitudes towards the church that were presented throughout the film.
The colour pallet in movies is a notable ‘Del Toroizm’, he uses colour in every movie to help get across meaning such as the fear from the blue and to show how the real world is represented with blue and green and the magical world is represented with yellow and red. In the last sequence, the collision between the two worlds is shown with the long shot of Vidal walking into the labyrinth and the sky is blue and yellow, this makes the reader feel tense as the collision of the two worlds means something has to happen which could be bad. Del Toro can be called an auteur because he has input in every aspect of the movie, the park of Bomarzo was a real place that he took inspiration from as well as the initiation wells at Quinta de Regaleira in Portugal these helped him to design the mise en scene in the film.
To contrast, the yellow flood of light that takes Ophelia into the magical world after being shot in which the lighting and mise en scene such as set design is yellow and red makes the audience feel calmer as it feels like Ophelia is safe now, she’s away from the dangers of fascism and the aftermath of the Spanish civil war. In this scene the mise en scene has references to other movies that Del Toro took inspiration from. Such as, Ophelia’s red shows link to ‘The Wizard od Oz’ and therefore the idea of going home, suggesting that Ophelia is home now and will be much happier. Despite it being a much happier place, the mise en scene does provide some discomfort to the audience. The chairs that Ophelia and her parents have suggest a hierarchy as the king is taller than the queen and princess. This represents the gender inequality that also existed in the real world which could be suggesting the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War as the problems didn’t stop immediately – even when Ophelia had entered a magical world/afterlife some problems still carried on making the audience feel sad. However, these chairs also provided closure to the bildungsroman genre/coming of age theme in the movie. Fallopian tubes were shown throughout such as with the fauns horns which was one way of highlighting that Ophelia was growing up and there’s chairs provide evidence to the audience that Ophelia has grown up as she is not greeted like a child but like an adult and must and can get to the high seat herself.
Representation
The representation of gender in the opening of Pan’s Labyrinth sets up female stereotypes and then breaks them down later in the film. Carmen, Ophelia’s mum, is pregnant and very ill due to pregnancy issues. When she needs help, all the people who come to her aid are men suggesting that women need help from men to the audience. This changes as the film progresses with characters like Mercedes whose performance shows that she can stand up for herself. Vidal’s dialogue expresses that he doesn’t need help when he has Mercedes because she’s a woman, but she proves him wrong and her performance shows this as she is smarter than him and is able to physically stand up for herself. The representation of gender here is that the women are stringer than the men think.
However, toxic masculinity is also portrayed in the opening. The first time we see Vidal his performance shows his leader like attributes such as punctuality, the first thing we hear him say is “15 minutes late”. This has links to him being a captain during the time after the Spanish Civil War which the film was set shortly after. He is also shown with his watch which has a foley ticking sound that is louder than you’d expect to emphasise it’s purpose which is that it is a metonym for Vidal. The watch represents Vidal as a person, it has a cracked face meaning that Vidal is a broken man probably because of his father passing down toxic masculinity to him which doesn’t excuse him but is something that happened. His father smashed the watched when he had died so that Vidal would know when he died. Vidal keeps looking at the watch throughout the film which reminds him of the toxic masculinity that his father passed to him with ideas such as ‘dying like a man’. This toxic masculinity is stopped from being passed down at the end of the film when Mercedes tells Vidal that his son won’t even know his name. This representation of age shows that children are key to the future, that during the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War the children will help to make things right again.
The representation of age in the opening scene is that Ophelia is treated like a child. She is told what to do such as she isn’t allowing to walk away, and she’s supposed to not read her fairy-tale books. But she explores and isn’t willing to give up her fairy tales just because her new step dad Vidal wouldn’t like it, which is a reason why the audience can interpret the mum not wanting her reading them. But it’s this disobedience to these rules that make Ophelia succeed in the movie. Disobedience and obedience is a theme throughout the film where obedience is typically linked to obeying fascism and Ophelia goes against this which allows her to succeed in her three tasks and sets her apart from fascism. Ophelia breaks the stereotype of children throughout the film by surviving her dangerous trials such as the paleman and by being clever with her tasks and showing that she considers how everyone is affected, she doesn’t hurt her baby brother. The age representation that was brought up at the beginning, like the gender representation, was brought down. This idea of children growing up/behaving like adults is explored through the genre of bildungsroman/coming of age throughout the movie. There are many references to fallopian tubes throughout the movie such as in the paleman book and the fauns horns’ which all remind the audience that Ophelia is being forced to grow up quickly due to everything going on around her such as the effects of war which is something Vidal does often in his films, he explores the effect that war has children, such as in The Devils Backbone which he describes as the sister film to Pan’s Labyrinth.
Georgia Newman Film Studies 