Pan's Labyrinth (Del Toro, 2006)

• Released in 2006, by Del Toro
• Set in Spain during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939)
• The styling of the editing is conventional

  although a number of diegetic wipes are

  used or cross-dissolves to and from black –

  thus forging a link between the real and the

  fantasy world. One example of this is when

  Ofelia, in close up lying on her mum’s tum,

  tells a story to her as yet unborn brother and

  the shot literally tracks into the womb.
• There are many examples of foreshadowing throughout the film that hint at what will happen later on. For instance, when Ofelia first meets the faun he tells her “you have three tasks to complete” - these tasks are similar to those given to heroes in mythology such as Hercules.
• The use of fairy tale elements can be seen as an attempt to give meaning to the horrors of war and fascism through fantasy. The fantastical creatures in the film represent the evil forces of Franco’s regime and the cruelty of his soldiers. This is particularly evident with the Pale Man who has no eyes but instead has them where his hands would normally be. He represents the blindness of the regime towards its own brutality.
• The use of fantasy elements allows Del Toro to explore themes of fascism and oppression without being too explicit about it. The fantastical creatures can be seen as metaphors for the horrors of war and the cruelty of Franco’s regime.
• Pale man is synonymous with Vidal. The duality of the two worlds allows Del Toro to criticise society by showing the evil nature of these characters: the pale man's frightening appearance mirrors Vidal's personality. They also both kill innocent people and are both blinded by the amount of harm they cause, the Pale Man literally blind & Vidal figuratively blind.
• Sound:

  Captain Vidal executes two farmers (possibly rebels). The

  first is killed brutally with the base of a glass

  bottle – supposedly based on a bar fight Del

  Toro had once witnessed. Shot in sinister low

  key light this is our first insight into Vidal’s

  brutally violent and psychotic character
• Prior to this we have seen him as an emotionally cold

  man, austere and stiff, but this level of violence

  comes at the spectator from nowhere and is

  profoundly shocking. It is also a harbinger of

  the extreme violence that will follow in some

  scenes – in particular those involving Vidal.

  As with all scenes of violence it is the sound

  design (sweetened in post-production) that

  adds to the horror of the event depicted.
• Vidal’s self-loathing (never quite able to step

  out from the shadow cast by his father) is most

  evident in the scene above where he commits

  metaphorical suicide by cutting his reflection’s

  throat. The broken face of his watch (which

  he has just glanced at) is also suggestive of

  his own broken identity – an immaculate and

  precise mechanism but flawed. The fact that

  Mercedes will later slit his mouth open, and

  that he will be shot just below his right eye,

  are all mirroring scenes, reflecting the precise

  deconstruction of the watch face and his own
• The main women in the film, Ofelia, Carmen and

  Mercedes all suffer at the hands of patriarchy.

  When Mercedes is caught by Vidal towards the

  end of the film Vidal laughs at the suggestion

  that he should not be left alone with her – ‘She

  is just a Woman!’ Mercedes then replies that

  she was able to support the rebels precisely

  because she was ‘invisible’ to Vidal.
• Later Ofelia is killed by her Vidal for stealing his son

  and defying him and Carmen dies in child birth

  unmourned by her new husband. Only Mercedes

  triumphs in the end through her ingenuity and

  bravery and through her love for her brother.

  However her final scene is one of profound

  grief as she holds the dying Ofelia in her arms

  and weeps for the loss of childish innocence

  at the hands of a brutalising patriarchy.