1^st impressions 

8/10 

Big fan of the faun. Only complaint is that the whimsy was less prevalent in the last 3^rd, but I can deal with that because the story that takes place in the real world was also engaging and made me feel more attached to the characters. 

I feel this is a memorable scene because it has possibly the most iconic character from Pan’s Labyrinth in it. It also is able to encapsulate the fear and tension in the is scene by having the Pale Man blurred In the background due to the shallow depth of field reflecting how Ofilia has no knowledge of him being awake is very effective.  

• 10 things that the viewer knows in the 1^st 10 mins. 

1. They know Ofelia will die (she is lying on the ground and bleeding) 

2. It’s a fantasy movie (the opening is suggesting it through its language.) 

3. She is a princess (it is stated in the opening) 

4. Ofelia reads (she has book)

5. Carman is pregnant (she is pregnant)

6. They are moving out there because the mother married the soldier guy (tells Ofelia to call him father)

7. Mother is sick (car has to stop)  

8. Either Ofelia has a strong imagination, or magic is real in that world. (the funny statue and little creature)

9. Soldier guy is the father of baby that is making the mother sick (he touches her on her stomach)

10. Ofelia does not like the soldier guy, and soldier guy probably doesn’t like her (hand shake goes wrong gasp). 

(IN Spain, captain is NOT a loving husband, after Spanish civil war, Ofelias dad is DEAD, Mercedes is spy) 

• Cinematic breakdown of the 1^st 3 mins. 

Zoom in on Ofelia that changes to an exterior shot of her kingdom. 

The establishing shot shows the kingdom in darkness, it is quickly panning over most of the landscape before focusing on a doorway. 

In the doorway you can see a small girl running through a large door, it then transitions from the large staircase of the castle into the staircase in the portal at the middle of the labyrinth. 

The camera then pans up from the bottom of the stairwell and looks up into the light to a fade to white.  

Micro-elements:  

• Sound 

The Sound Design of the effects that accompany the violence is very realistic. This is most likely enhanced in post-production by Foley artists. As parts of this film fit a horror genre this adds to the horror and emotional impact of those violent actions on the viewer. There is also a music motif in the Lullaby that is sung to Ofelia. It can be diegetic when sung by an on-screen characters (the Mother or Mercedes) but it becomes the theme tune for the film taking on a number of different musical forms (orchestral) adding to the suspense in places or the emotional state of Ofelia (rather like the ‘Time Goes By’ tune is manipulated in ‘Casablanca’.) 

• Cinematography 

Cinematography was used the most effectively used when Ofelia was with the Pale Man. The use of the shallow depth of field was extremely effective in showing the audience how she was unaware of his presence, let alone his movement. This helps build suspense in the audience by showing them what’s going on behind Ofelia but keeping it still slightly a mystery because of the shallow depth of field. When Ofelia is runing away from him in the following scene, the camera follows her down the corridor, shaking slightly as she runs, which reinfoces the idea to the audience that this situation is stressful 

• Mise-en-scene 

The mise-en-scene is used very successfully in Pan’s Labyrinth to highlight the fantasy aspect in its genre. An example of this is the beginning of the film when they get out of the car because the mother is sick. Ofelia finds a statue of the Faun, the way that there is plants and foliage growing on it and extreme damage to one of its eyes shows that it has been there for many years. As well as this, the costuming of the fantastical creatures also helps immerse the audience. The best example of this is the Faun’s costume. They are made to look as if they are the statue that Ofelia came across, with the grey skin and the plants on his body. They also have very rigid body language. The set pieces used for these fantastical moments are also very well thought out. An example of one of these pieces is the tree that houses the Toad. The shape of the tree could be seen as mimicking the shape of the Faun’s horns, which are featured on the entrance to the Labyrinth. 

• Editing 

In the opening scene, a very beautiful effect is used, where a model has been built of the underworld, and the child playing Ofelia is seen running up the stairs. There is no clear place where it may cut from model to set. The way that the movie keeps the audience engaged in both sides of the story, real and fantastical, is very effective. Which works in the movies favor when during the last third, there is very little of the fantasy aspect of the movie so that the audience gets the same idea as Ofelia, that magic is not real in this world.  

Representation (Gender) 

How are men and women represented differently and how does this position the viewer? 

Ofelia – she is a princess. Very feminine. She is a small girl so is shown as naïve, as well as being perceived as such by Vidal.  

Carmen – not a great mother. Is very clearly important to Ofelia. Meant to be sympathized with, because of the fact she had to marry Vidal. 

Captain Vidal – clear binary opposition to the mother. He is very clearly pushing a very masculine ideology onto both his wife and their unborn child. He clearly wants someone to be his successor (which is why he is so adamant about having a son). 

Mercedes – much more motherly than Carmen, does most of her rebelling for her partner. She states that she knew she wouldn’t be suspected of rebelling because she was a woman and that Vidal doesn’t see women as people so took no mind to her. 

Doctor – maybe a little non gender confirmative? While yes, a doctor is a very male centric profession, The Doctor is seen as very caring about the people in his care and is very careful with particularly Ofelias mother.  

Officers and Soldiers in Franc’s Army – all men. Follow the orders. 

Communist / Left wing rebels – mostly all men.  

——————————————————————————————– 

Fantasy characters: 

Pan (a faun) – Very caring for Ofelia but does abandon her once things don’t go along with their plan. This could make them fit in both a motherly role, but also play into the same kind of aggression that Vidal shows.

Fairies (x 3) – they take on a female form once shown the picture of the female fairies in Ofelia’s book. They are like guides for Ofelia. 

The Pale Man – Pale they. They are more violent towards children which links to a masculine presentation of them.

The King and Queen of the Underworld – shown in a regal gold, links to the warm tones that Ofelia is shown in throughout the whole movie. As they are meant to be better parents to Ofelia, the golden warm light contrasts with Vidal’s cold light

Aesthetics 

What is the ‘look of the film’? How has this been achieved?

Consider colour palette / music, realism v fantasy, magic realism (find out what this means in literature), Lighting.

the colour pallet is very important tot he story of the film, again showing the movies clear binary opposites in Vidal and Ofelia. While Ofelia has a very warm, golden colour palette to complement her role as a princess, Vidal’s colour palette is cold to reflect his feelings and his occupation as an Officer.

History and Social Contexts 

Remnants of conflict. The rebels are shown as the caring ones while the fascists are shown as care. Not as realistic because in real life, the fascists won rather than the rebels. The movie is visually very historically accurate. The society is very historically accurate. The scene with the food is accurate because they are having lots of food but rationing out the food for everyone else. 

Watch video embedded into last slide on powerpoint (in RED) 

Combination of practical effects and CGI. It has like puppetry.  The mandrake was a puppet, making its movements and look more realistic, while the frog was CGI. (that was due to complications about the weight of the animatronic originally made for the scene.)

Spanish film, because made in Spain with Spanish film crew/cast. The film was a passion project. Del Toro put his own money into this so he was able to cut out the studio from this, so they can’t change the story to westernize it or change the story in any way, so he gets full creative freedom for this movie. The movie was a good investment because it cost 19m and made 83m in box office. It won 3 Oscars (in best cinematography, makeup and art direction.)  

1^st impressions: 10/10

This movie is fantastic. The story writing is done so well and the “real life” and “fantasy” storylines gel together really well. A lot of other films would have struggled balancing these two stories, leaving the audience too invested in one story to find the switch annoying, but Del Toro uses pacing so well that both stories are engaging and neither feels like they are intruding. The practical work is also astounding, as Del Toro’s practical effects usually are. The Faun and Pale Man costumes are so stylish, and the set design is always incredible.

MEMORABLE SEQUENCE: VIDAL EXECUTES THE HUNTERS

Of all the monsters in Pan’s Labyrinth, Del Toro takes great care in making the audience fear Captain Vidal, and this scene is was cements him as a villain. Vidal is brought two men, a father and a son, who claim to be hunters but the soldiers suspect they are rebels. The men are introduced in a mid shot that shows they are surrounded and outnumbered by soldiers. They are also visibly dirty and cowering, showing they are much lower status than the soldiers around them. The camera tracks closer as Vidal begins to inspect their bag and they are manhandled by the soldiers around them. They fidget nervously as Vidal inspects the bag and give explanations for what he finds, obviously terrified of him. Their fearful explanations clearly annoy Vidal, and because of this he draws a glass bottle from the bag, moves in closer to the son as the camera also tracks towards him, before bashing his face in with the base of the bottle, the camera cutting to a low angle shot periodically, showing the son’s point of view. This murder is brutal, and was achieved with a combination of practical effects with digital effects to get the blood spurts right. After the son is dead, Vidal turns and calmly shoots the father twice. he then goes back to the bag and finds two rabbits, proving they were just hunters after all. He chastises the soldiers for not searching them properly and wasting his time, even though he himself was looking through the bag and was obviously aware he hadn’t finished when he killed the two. This scene sets Vidal up as irredeemable and a horrible person, showing the audience that he will be the antagonist for this movie.

10 things that the viewer knows in the 1^st 10 mins. 1 – The movie is violent and dark; the first image is a girl bleeding from her nose in reverse and breathing heavily. 2 – the movie contains themes of fairy tales + the underworld. 3 – The movie will have astoundingly beautiful architecture. 4 – The movie will have elements balancing real life and fantasy 5 – The main character is probably going to be the “Princess”, as she is shown first bleeding from her nose before reading the story in a book. 6 – The movie is set in Spain.  7 – They are moving from the town to the country 8 – The mother is pregnant (or some kind of sick).9 – the mother is married to a Captain. 10 – Vidal is set up as a villain 

Cinematic breakdown of the 1^st 3 mins.  – The camera pans sideways along a cobblestone wall, until Ofelia comes into frame, breathing and bloodied. The camera turns to make Ofelia horizontal as it gets closer to her face, before zooming into her eye as we are given the fairy tale. The camera crabs along the underworld skyline, then tracks into the big building with the stairs as the Princess runs into it. It then pans up the spiral staircase to show the sunlight. We then fade into a ruined building. We crab to the right and are shown skulls and more debris, then the camera moves upwards to show more ruined houses before dissolving into the car.  

Micro-elements:  

Sound – The sound design in Pan’s Labyrinth mostly works to emphasize the brutality of the actions characters take. For example, sound design is used to make Vidal’s murder of the wrongly accused hunters much more brutal, adding crunching and splattering noises to the action, as well as the clinking noise from the bottle to add realism. Sound design is also used to make the Pale Man much scarier, adding deep, haggard breathing to the Pale Man and making the sound of the fairy being eaten crunch and squelch to make the action more visceral.  

Cinematography – The cinematography during the Giant Toad sequence works to put the audience in Ofelia’s shoes. The audience is given a lot of close ups as Ofelia crawls through the tunnel, creating a claustrophobic atmosphere. This sequence contains a very inventive mid-shot showing the toad and Ofelia facing each other, with the ceiling and floor of the tunnel closing in on the shot, giving the shot a border, which creates a claustrophobic atmosphere.  

Mise-en-scene – The mise-en-scene in Pan’s Labyrinth often serves to tell the audience whether they are in the fantasy world or the real world, as well as telling the audience information about the characters. For example, during the sequence where Vidal has dinner with some of the Spanish elite, the dining room is spotless and well furnished, a fire is burning in the fireplace and the table is lavishly covered in food. This tells the audience that Vidal is on par with these dinner guests in terms of status and spares no expense trying to impress his wealthy guests while he talks with them about cutting rations. Mise-en-scene can also be used to create parallels in the real and fantasy worlds, for example the lavishly set table headed by a terrifying figure is mimicked during the Pale Man sequence.  

Editing – the movie uses a lot of stylish transitions between scenes, particularly incorporating wipes into the camera movements themselves, such as the transition during Ofelia’s story from the real world to the story itself, where the camera pans down from Ofelia and her mother on the bed and transition to visuals representing the story. 

Representation (Gender) 

How are men and women represented differently and how does this position the viewer? 

Ofelia – The primary characters in Pan’s Labyrinth are female, the main character being Ofelia, a 10-year-old girl obsessed with fairy tales. Ofelia shows strength and defiance, speaking negatively about Vidal to Mercedes and bravely puts herself at risk in order to fulfil the Faun’s wishes and to protect her mother. Despite her strength, she also does not want to upset her mother, as shown when she tries to avoid her green dress getting dirty when she goes under the toad tree. Ofelia is shown to be selfless and brave, but also vulnerable, as she depends on Mercedes and her mother a lot and is shown to be frightened of Vidal. 

Carmen – Ofelia’s mother does not do much in the film as she is heavily pregnant. From the scenes we get with her, it is suggested that she does really care for Ofelia – she embraces her and tells her to talk to her brother in the womb. However, Carmen is shown to disregard Ofelia’s wants in terms of Vidal, whom she prioritizes, as she scolds Ofelia for getting her dress dirty despite her best attempts to keep it clean and takes Vidal’s side when he is verbally and physically attacking her.  

Captain Vidal – Vidal is the main antagonist of the film. He serves as a complete binary opposite to Ofelia, as while Ofelia performs her actions with the best intentions, and uses her cunning to thwart her adversaries, Vidal deals with issues with extreme violence.  

Mercedes – Mercedes serves as sort of a secondary protagonist in the “Real World” story, working as a double agent for the rebel forces, collecting intel and fighting against Vidal. When she is captured by Vidal, she berates and taunts him by telling him the reason that she was able to get away with it for so long was because of Vidal’s own prejudice, as because she was a woman Vidal didn’t expect she could do anything of her own agency or do damage to him or his image. It is also Mercedes who takes Vidal down in the end too, by shooting him in the face. Mercedes is shown to be stronger and far more capable than Vidal despite being seen as lower than him in society. 

Aesthetics 

Del Toro insists on original creature designs that have not been seen in o0ther movies. His creature effects are done through a combination of practical and CG effects, for example the faun being mostly a costume with animatronic ears and tail, but the legs were achieved by creating stilts for the actor and using greenscreen to key his legs out. Del Toro has been fascinated with fairy tales and monsters for a long time and uses them in his movies frequently. His team also uses ingenuity in the CG aspects, such as using pictures of crushed leaves to texture the fairies. The film uses a Magic Realism aesthetic, combining a realistic story with a fairy tale inspired world.  

Set Design 

Del Toro puts a lot of work into his sets so they capture the feeling of fantasy and fairy tales as well as differentiating the magic world from the real world. For example, the Pale Man’s lair creates an area of fantasy, using a lot of pillars, warm colours, and lavish decorations to create an environment separate from the real world. On the other hand, the Real World sets also have a lot of care put into them, such as Vidal’s office. Vidal has converted an old mill into this military base, and in the background of his office a giant wooden cog left over from the mill is clearly visible. This plays into Vidal’s character trait of being obsessed with time, as he is always seen with a pocket watch and often criticizes people for being even a few seconds late. 

History and Social Contexts 

1939 – Franco takes power over Spain 

The film takes place after the military coup of Spain, within an army encampment run by Vidal where they are trying to crush rebel forces. The film takes care to be historically accurate, through costume and mise-en-scene and such. The film also goes out of its way to portray social life accurately for the time, with a standout scene where the fascists have a feast while talking casually of cutting rations. It does differ slightly from real life as at the end the rebel forces defeat Vidal, murdering him outside the labyrinth. 

Other context 

Despite Del Toro being Mexican, the film is regarded as a Spanish film, because it was made in Spain and used a Spanish crew. According to some sources, Del Toro and his friends put their own money into making this film. It was a passion project for Del Toro.  

Budget: $19 Million 

Box Office: $83 Million 

The film was nominated for many awards, and won best art direction, best makeup and best cinematography at the 79^th Academy Awards.  

FIRST RESPONSE:

8/10

The mise-en-scene when we’re introduced to the Pale Man stood out to me the most; it’s almost opulent with the decorations and the architecture of the hallway leading to the dining room. A lot of food, good food, to try and get Ofelia to give into her impulses, given that in the real world she isn’t allowed the chance to indulge due to being under Captain Vidal’s control. Consequences for her own impulses, when she eats the grapes, it quickly becomes unsettling, the Pale Man looming behind her. 

Micro-elements:   

SOUND

The Sound Design of the effects that accompany the violence is very realistic. This is most likely enhanced in post-production by Foley artists. As parts of this film fit a horror genre this adds to the horror and emotional impact of those violent actions on the viewer. There is also a music motif in the Lullaby that is sung to Ofelia. It can be diegetic when sung by an on-screen characters (the Mother or Mercedes) but it becomes the theme tune for the film taking on a number of different musical forms (orchestral) adding to the suspense in places or the emotional state of Ofelia (rather like the ‘Time Goes By’ tune is manipulated in ‘Casablanca’.) 

CINEMATOGRAPHY

The cinematography makes good use of diegetic wipes. As established within the first 3 minutes of the film, it’s clear that Del Toro likes to keep the camera moving, keeping us as the spectator within the loop of the film. This is shown in the scene where Captain Vidal is shaving, the camera is constantly circling him, using the pillars within the room to pass by, fill the screen with black, and then cut to a new shot of him. That montage in particular, where he’s getting ready for his day, highlights to the spectators that everything does revolve around him – depending on how he’s feeling dictates how everybody else feels, a controlling aspect of his character; from the disciplined morning routine to the abuse of power. 

MISE-EN-SCÉNE

Framing and composition used in this film is designed to make the audience immerse themselves into Ofelia’s experience. Consistently utilizing symmetry and tight framing to highlight Ofelia’s isolation within her environment, whether that be from her mother disregarding her interests in fantasy books, often conforming to Vidal’s wishes – making sure Ofelia follows suit. Or from Captain Vidal himself, when the two first meet he’s dismissive and chastising without a second thought. Del Toro made the decision for the camera to frequently follow her gaze, drawing the audience into her perspective and emphasizing the subjective nature of her experience. 

EDITING 

Editing in this film frequently uses cross-cutting to build tension and contrast between Ofelia’s fantasy quests and the harsh reality of the real world she’s living in. For example, the climax of the film cuts between Ofelia fleeing with her baby brother to complete the faun’s request, and Vidal pursuing her, increasing suspense and reinforcing the film’s main conflict between innocence/imagination and an authoritarian cruelty born out of Civil War Spain.  

Representation (Gender) 

The film makes it clear that men and women are binary opposites, physically of course, but they play different roles in propelling the story forward, one is a catalyst for the destruction, the other smooths over the damage. Men have all the agency within the film, from when we’re first introduced to Captain Vidal he’s shown holding a watch, constantly in control and having things revolve around him. When Carmen and Ofelia arrive, he’s already organised a wheelchair for Carmen, no regard for whether she wanted it or not, disregards Ofelia completely – makes no effort to be welcoming, takes the first chance to be chastising. However, women are the binary opposite, they don’t have much agency. But Ofelia and Mercedes are willing to step out of the confines of the controlling environment, willing to disobey. A prime example of this is when Mercedes makes a point to Vidal that he would never expect her, a woman, to turn on him and to scheme right under his nose – his focus was all on the rebels, how much of a threat they were, not on Mercedes. 

Aesthetics 

What is the ‘look of the film’? How has this been achieved? 

Consider colour palette / music, realism v fantasy, magic realism (find out what this means in literature), Lighting. 

The colour palette is split: cool blues and greys encompass Vidal’s world, suggesting oppression and violence; warm gold and green colours fill the fantasy sequences, offering a sense of escape and wonder to the audience. In order to achieve the blurred line between fantasy and reality, the same low-key lighting is used heavily in both worlds to maintain a dark, shadowy tone. 

The magic realism in literature is described as a style that weaves threads of fantasy into a depiction of everyday life, where heroes aren’t mythical creatures but ordinary people, who happen to clash into the extraordinary. This applies heavily to the film, Ofelia is a human girl, getting reeled into a situation that is far from reality – but manages to seamlessly blend fantasy into the real world.

Music also successfully blends the two worlds, creating the magical realism. For example, the film opens with Ofelia, but we’re not in the human world, as the narration tells us the story about the princess, a song titled ‘Long, Long Time Ago’ is playing. Later on in the film, whilst Mercedes is consoling Ofelia, she hums her a lullaby, ‘Mercedes’ Lullaby’, which is reminiscent of the opening underscore.

Set design: 

Del Toro made use of both practical effects and CGI. For example, a lot of the Faun’s costumes are all made by hand and are put onto the actor (Doug Jones), with the exception of his shins which are covered in green to be edited in later.  

These characters were all brought to life using practical effects and CGI:

• Mandrake 

• Toad 

• Fairies 

History and Social Contexts 

1944, Franco was in power, however there were small groups of rebels hiding in the forests and mountains, fighting against the regime (Mercedes’ brother). 

Republicans supported democracy, social reforms and workers’ rights, backed by the Soviet Union and wanted to modernise Spain – reduce power of the church and monarchy. 

Nationalists (led by Franco) included conservatives, monarchists, fascists, and the Catholic Church. Supported by Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy – wished for a traditional, authoritarian Spain. Nationalists won in 1939  

The ending isn’t reflective of history as Vidal is shot in the end, the rebels win in the film and Ofelia somewhat wins because she becomes a princess even though she died. 

Critical score: 9.1/10

I thought that this film was a very enjoyable watch and was extremely made. I like the performances throughout the film, and I thought that the character of Captain Vidal is one of the most evil villains I’ve seen in cinema. I also liked the sound design throughout the film, as I feel it contributed to both tone, tension and pacing within certain moments throughout the scene. Additionally, I thought that the film’ score was also very good and added to the emotional impact of certain scenes. And finally, I thought that it was very well written story and that it was paced very well, as I felt intrigued as to what would happen next throughout the entire film.

Memorable Scene

A very memorable scene for me is the scene in which Ofelia goes into the lair of the Pale Man and mistakenly eats the food on the table, which then leads to him coming alive and chasing her. I thought this was excellently done, as I thought it crafted tension very well through the constant pans back to this image of the still pale man. I also thought that the sound design within this scene, like the rest of the film, was very well done and I specifically enjoyed the bit in which Ofelia eats the grape and the Pale Man comes to life, as I felt all these cracking and gurgling sounds definitely added to this character of the horrific Pale Man.