Genre and theme (C2)

• Del Toro preferers genres to be mixed, Pan is a...

  drama rooted in the context of war with fairytale my mythological elements 
• There is a vital connection between genre and theme in Pan, key quote from Del-Toro on this:


  “Fascism, the absolute lack of imagination...the most masculine expression of power, juxtaposed with the most feminine, which is the most beautiful expression of power, which is imagination”
• Pan as a fairytale:

  -Series of 3 tasks/tests, each becoming more challenging

  -Intertextual references to fairytales
• What are the intertextual references to fairytales?

  -The tree Ofelia climbs into --> Alice in Wonderland

  -Ofelia’s green dress --> Alice in Wonderland 

  -Ofelia entering the woods --> Snow White, Little Red Riding Hood etc. 

  -Ofelia’s red shoes at end --> The Wizard of Oz
• Pan as a fantasy:  

  -Series of trials convention 

  -Archetypal fairy-tale roles (princess, villain)

  -Macabre creatures (the Pale Man)

  -Mystical settings (the forest, labyrinth)

  -Allegorical narrative

  -Opens with an unnamed narrator and ‘once upon a time’ (Brothers Grimm films began with opening of a book and ‘once upon a time’)
• What's an allegorical narrative?


  A symbolic narrative which departs from realism to convey universal themes
• Monsters in Pan - Vidal:

  Represents the right-wing fascist ideology and those who follow/ enforce it (Franco) --> Sadistic, brutal, controlling, order
• Quote on Vidal as a 'machine man':


  "Machine man with a machine mind’ who forces the world into mechanical motion"
• Quote from Dr. Ferreiro on Vidal:

  "Obeying simply for the sake of obeying is something only a man like you can do"
• Monsters in Pan - The pale man:

  -Represents the Catholic Church --> "a hunger to eat innocence, a hunger to eat purity"
• What was The pale man inspired by?

  The Cronos figure of Greek mythology, a father who devoured his children to prevent them from usurping his throne
• Pan's monsters - The pale man's lair:

   -Churchlike --> gothic, vaulted, grand, wall murals 

  -Banquet --> shrine to greed and excess, table full of food and nobody to eat it

  -Pile of children’s shoes --> referencing the holocaust 
• Pan's monsters - the Mandrake:


  -Sold to infertile women to have children as Greek mythology said it brought fertility 

  -Feeds on blood to survive -->represents political system feeding on innocent to survive
• Pan's monsters - Faun:

  Unreliable as to whether it is a friend or foe --> represents the attractiveness/ temptation of fascism itself
• Pan's monsters - Toad:

  Represents social and economic inequality --> fascist government feasting on the small and getting larger 
• Pan's monsters - Fairy:

  Represents the resistance fighters living in the forest fighting for Spain
• Pan's monsters - the labyrinth:


  Represents obedience and navigation --> learning your own political opinions