Technological – Pan’s Labyrinth uses a combination of practical effects and CGI in order to add a sense of verisimilitude to the fantastical characters in the film. For example, The Pale Man’s appearance is mostly made from prosthetics, however his eyes on his hands and legs are enhanced by digital effects.

Historical – Del Toro deciding to set the film in the 1940s, in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War, allows for the audience to connect with the characters, who have been personally impacted by conflict, such as Ofelia who had lost her dad and was essentially forced to treat the captain as a father figure.

Social – Due to the periodic setting of the film, women such as Mercedes are mistreated and looked down upon as a result of the patriarchal society that was in place at the time.

Political – The character of Captain Vidal, a fascist, is clearly the villain of the film. On the other hand, the rebellion that Mercedes and Doctor Ferreiro assist are the ones the audience are intended to be supporting throughout the narrative, since they are anti-authoritarian.

Institutional – Pan’s Labyrinth was produced by several international companies, and premiered at the 2006 Cannes film festival. It made $83.9 million on a budget of $19 million, therefore becoming a box office success.

Sound
The sound in Pan’s Labyrinth consists of diegetic and non-diegetic sound. The diegetic sound being the fantasy world sound effects, like the Mandrake rout when it was crying, the faun and the labyrinth itself. The non-diegetic sound consists of the Foley sound effects and just typical sound effects used, like the footsteps and the killings that the Captain does, the stitching of the Captains face, the scarping of the knife that Mercedes does to the Captain, etc. I think the scene in the beginning in which Carmen and Ofelia are on the way to the Captain in the car, is a very significant scene, because its all quiet and contrasts to the havoc where the Captain lives. It impacts the spectator because the audience can sense the tension in the car from the calmness, until they get a bad sign from Carmen getting sick from the baby, this foregrounds the bad events that will occur at the Captains place.

Mise-en-scene
Pan’s Labyrinth is filled with many various aspects of mise-en-scene. The costumes are very impactful, for example Ofelia’s dress that her mother made her created a meaningful scene, in which she gets her dress and shoes dirty, making her mother very disappointed. Her clothes are used to showcase Ofelia being an innocent child, interested in fairy-tale stories and fantasy worlds, which makes the audience feel more for her when she is forced to grow out of it because of her new living situation with the Captain. The lighting in the film add onto the effect of the mise-en-scene because the fantasy world, involves lots of colours that have been darkened my mysterious lighting in order to make them appear more ominous and show the difference to the natural world. The set design of the fantasy world also creates effect and impacts the spectator, because it is made much bigger and better and more fake in a way because its all magic. The props also contribute to the film because they show the time in which the film was portrayed. An example of the props impacting the spectator is the grape scene, in which Ofelia eats the grapes in the fantasy world that she is instructed not to eat. The audience feels tension as Ofelia tries to run and escape the mysterious creature with eyes on their hands. The grapes are significant because they suggest that if she changes or takes things from the fantasy world, there will be consequences.

Cinematography
The film uses a lot of handheld camera footage to capture the realism of the natural world in the film, so when it switches to the fantasy world we see a change and more wider shots to showcase the unnatural elements. The film also uses a lot of close ups to show each characters thoughts, emotions and feelings towards what happens in the scenes. The wider shots, often are used in this film to establish the setting and characters in the scene.

Editing
The editing in Pan’s Labyrinth consists of bright and vivid elements featured in the fantasy world, while in the regular world it switches back to dark and gloomy colours. The scenes throughout the film are usually cut quite regularly by switching between the characters when speaking, then showing reactions of the characters too. One particular scene that comes to mind when speaking about the editing is the scene where Ofelia goes into the tree and leaves her dress on the branch, and when she comes out there is nothing on the branch, on purpose to create panic and distress, the editing is the camera panning round the woods as Ofelia is looking round for her dress.

In Pans labyrinth, Ofelia is treated as inferior for her gender. Having to follow the captains instructions without question having all aspects of her life being controlled down to her cloths. The captain also obsesses over having son as he feels as he would have more power than Ofelia. However in the magic world, Ofelia is seen as a powerful princess who is integral to the world with her return being extremely important opposing her status in the normal world sowing how gender doesn’t really matter

the context in the film, the historical context. we can clearly see that woman do not have rights and that they are all maids while the men are more soldiers.

the politics behind the film are that the captain is the boss and that he can do whatever he wants without getting punished and without getting judged because he is the leader and there is no one above him.

Representation of Gender – Men are represented in the film through the character of Captain Vidal. Vidal is shown to the audience to be violent (as seen when he murders several people), sexist (“She is just a woman” is what he says when asked if it was safe for him to be left alone with Mercedes) and unemotional, prioritising his legacy as opposed to his wife (he tells his workers to ensure that his son is born regardless what happens to Carmen).

Use of Aesthetics – The golden surrounding when Ofelia reunites with her family at the end of the film connotes wealth, reinforcing the idea of royalty within the family.

The dark, mossy appearance of the labyrinth suggests that it is ancient and has been left alone for an extended period of time.

Key Elements:

Sound –

The use of narration at the start of the film is a key element in helping create a specific impact on the viewer as without the plot being established by the non-diegetic guidance the events of the film would be hard to find meaning for. Overall, without the use of narration, the applicable theory of Todorov, where a story having an equilibrium, wouldn’t make sense as the driving point for Ofelia’s actions wouldn’t have a deeper meaning on the audience. By the use of a narrator, it also adds to that story-telling theme that this film centres itself on with magic-realism such as large beasts, fairies and fauns.

Mise-en-scene –

The use of props and costumes such as with the Fern and pale man, Book of crossroads and key to the dagger are a key part in what drives the narrative and makes an impactful impression on the audience. As McGuffins, they’re only purpose it to drive the narrative forwards, by having tasks performed these props are earned to further allow the narrative and plot to expand such as with retrieving the key from the frogs stomach being then used for the next task Ofelia must complete. This can be said to use Propps theory of spheres of action where types of characters such as Ofelia playing the hero, her mother, the princess, the faun the donor/dispatcher and captain Vadil as the villain. Costumes provide the fantastical element which impacts viewers due to its use of magic-realism.

Cinematography –

Through the use of a canted angle this creates a clearer picture into the fact she is laying on the ground. through this use of this angle it shows that we as a viewer are supposed to feel as if we are on the ground as well.

Editing –

Through the use of a Graphic match/wipe we as an audience can see how one scene changes to another. Overall this provides the information to audience of location and time changes between scenes (ellipsis) allowing us to assume she is really trying to search for the decaying tree containing the frog.

sound

when Mercedes is singing the lullaby the scene gives off an innocent feeling Although this transitions into Mercedes doing something sketchy. as the scene transitions so does the music going from a simple lullaby in a major tone to some ominous minor music

mise en scene

the use of different types of foods on the table tell us a lot about the scene. in the scene with the pale man the room would be fairly hot and so the use of fresh bright fruit is used to make Ophelia want to disobey orders

in the scene with the Capitan in the real world. the food looks more dull and homey giving the impression that this is the real world

cinematography

the use of high and low angle shots shows a clear level of who’s in charge. as Capitan Vidal ises low angle shots it gives the impression that he is looking down at the camera

editing: the use of the wipe makes the 2 scenes seem connected and make it clear to the viewers this is all in the same world.

Sound – Narration is used in the opening of the film to establish to spectators what Ofelia was reading in the car, but also to introduce them to the magical reality they will see throughout the film. The narration foreshadows what the Faun eventually tells Ofelia about how she is the Princess and must “return” to her family.

Mise-En-Scene – The use of a dead rabbit prop in this scene makes clear to the audience that the men that Captain Vidal had killed were telling the truth about why they were armed, as they were simply out hunting. This reinforces the captain’s role as the villain of the narrative, as all him and his men had to do was look inside the bag before killing them.

Cinematography – A low angle of the Labyrinth, when Ofelia first comes across it, is used by Del Toro in order to pull spectator attention towards the head, indicating the significance of the fantasy-related iconography and how it will influence the plot of the film.

Editing – A wipe effect is used as the camera passes a tree, in order to connect two parallel stories in the film together in a natural manner. We see one narrative strand (the captain and his men entering the forest) transition into the second (Ofelia exploring the forest while reading).

Del Toro used a lot of different magic realism in this film. for example the Faun, he was a huge character through the film and he was edited in, same with the fairy’s that would be around him all of the time, it was realistic but it was also fake. it gave a supernatural feeling to the film.

the tone in the film was always dark and gloomy. they did this to show how unhappy everyone was in the village and it was never bright and happy, there was no bright colours it was always dull and lifeless.