Pan's Labyrinth

Pan’s Labyrinth written and directed by Guillerimo Del Toro is an amazing film that captures the violence and cruelty between the Spanish after the war and a young girl’s fantasy world full of magic and mystical creatures. Watching the film was breathtaking in itself. The film is one of a darker nature and thus has darker lighting and mainly blue hues. I associate blue with coldness or feelings of sadness. I noted when the lighting was significantly blue and found it’s blue when the Captain murders the innocent rabbit hunters, when Ofelia is about to enter the magic world, and near the end of the film when the faun is trying to take Ofelia’s baby brother as a sacrifice to the Labyrinth. Ofelia is the main character in the movie. She was referred to being similar to Alice, as from the movie “Alice in Wonderland” by Kim Edwards. Edwards refers the Labyrinth to be similar to the “rabbit-hole” and says that Ofelia’s stepfather Captain Vidal is the white rabbit because he always carries a watch and is very punctual and task-oriented. Edwards mentions that the most obvious relation between Alice in Wonderland and Pan’s Labyrinth is the Mad Hatter’s tea party in the two dining rooms. “The hypocritical, greedy, devouring adults at the Captain's dinner table are visually doubled with the luxurious and horrific temptations of the Pale Man's banquet hall, complete with the two hosts at the head of the tables framed by fireplaces with leaping hell flames.” (Edwards 144) I didn’t realize the connection between the two movies until I remembered the faun yelling at Ofelia for breaking the rules and then disappearing into the background like the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland.

During the time of the post Civil War in Spain gender roles are very obvious. Women serve the men and do not speak up for themselves. Del Toro had a rather ironic scene in which one of the female workers, named Mercedes, helped the rebels right under his nose and then overtook him in the torture chamber. She straight up tells him that he doesn’t pay attention to women and that’s how she got away with it.

Cinematography and camera editing is creative and interesting. As noted, “Del Toro tilts down from the tub to show her descending the fantasy staircase to the Faun’s lair, once more in a single shot. This technique of the masked cut is vital to the fluid texture of the film: the camera is always tracking behind tree trunks only to emerge unexpectedly in another place, another time.” (Smith 8) I noted that while Captain Vital is introducing his torture tools the camera is lower than him angled up, as if it were showing that he was superior or powerful.

Important scenes in the movie where the real world and fantasy world are interrelated are the feast scenes. The captain holds a large feast and Ofelia is not allowed to eat from it and then the next scene is in the fantasy world with the pale-man monster and Ofelia is again instructed not to eat from the feast. “The visual comparison of the two as brooding demons in hellish dining rooms relocates the site of true horror, for the war atrocities we witness are far more distressing than the fantasy monsters, and the Captain is revealed to be far more frightening and deadly to Ofelia than anything she faces underground.” (Edwards 144)

I noted a certain song that was played multiple times throughout the film. It was first heard when Mercedes was asked by Ofelia to sing a lullaby. Mercedes said she only knew one but forgot the words and proceeded to hum the lullaby. The lullaby is again heard when Ofelia dies and when she appears as a princess reunited with her family, ending the film.

Edwards, Kim. "Alice's Little Sister-Exploring Pan's Labrinth." Film as Text. 141-146. Print

Smith, Paul. "Pan’s Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno)." 4-9. Print.