Pan’s Labyrinth Scene Analysis
In the film Pan’s Labyrinth
there is a scene, where the main character Ofelia descends to see the faun just
after she received the key from the frog in the tree. This scene is effective
because it uses lots of elements of mise-en-scene, for example when Ofelia goes
down to the fauns maze the colour palette changes to green and blues, these
colours suggest illness and cold which could relate to Ofelia’s mother, who at
this moment in time is suffering from illness and could possibly foreshadow
death due to the low key lighting and the use of the blue and green colour
palette.
Another use of mise-en-scene
and also performance is used in this scene because Ofelia is holding the key,
that she got earlier on in the film, is holding it very close to her chest, the
key could represent freedom and Ofelia holding it to her chest could symbolise
that she is trying to keep grasp on her freedom from the Captain and her
freedom is slowly slipping away from her. Ofelia’s action in this scene could
also link to the current events going on in the film which is Franco’s reign
over Spain, Ofelia could represent the Spanish people who are trying to hold
onto their freedom even though Franco is tearing it away from them.
In Pan’s Labyrinth keys are a
repeated theme throughout the entirety of the film, every time the audience see
the key a non-diegetic sound plays the sound is sort of ringing sound which
creates the effect that the key is the most important object in the scene and
draws the attention of the audience towards the key.
In this scene we also get a
shot of Ofelia inspecting a statue, the statue contains markings which consist
of an adult, a child and a baby. The use of this statue could foreshadow the
ending of the film where Ofelia is carrying her baby brother through the maze,
trying to get away from the Captain. This statue could also imply that Ofelia
is going to see her father or mother again after she dies. Faun after Ofelia
inspects the statue says ‘that’s me and you’ this further shows the father and
daughter connection Ofelia and Faun possess throughout the entirety of the film.
Del Toro uses a range of
diegetic and non-diegetic sounds in this scene, he does this to add a sense of disturbance
or fear during this scene, for example he uses non-diegetic sound of the
fairies flying around to simulate bats and to further cause discomfort for the audience.
The Faun himself is scary and
is quite mischievous and the audience gets a sort of barrier between him, we are
made to believe he is a good character and is supposed to be Ofelia’s mentor
throughout the whole film but he does really menacing and direful actions, for
example he starts to make a croaking sort of noise and starts to quiver, this
gives the impression he is quite strange.
In the next shot after this
scene we get a shot of the captain opening a door with a key, these scenes connect
really well because they both feature the importance of a key, in this scene
the Captain is opening the door is to give people rations which shows he is
incredibly evil because he is starving his people but he is also contrasting Ofelia
because Ofelia has the key to set everybody free whilst the Captain is using
his key to keep people under his control.
This scene also adds to the
theme of keys being important in this film along with the theme of eyes and a
mouth.
Later on, in the film we see
Ofelia meet the ‘Pale Man’. The ‘Pale Man’ in this scene is sitting at a table
with a very large banquet of food, he is also positioned at the top of the table
which reflects on something that happened earlier on in the film, where the
Captain is having dinner whilst sitting at the top of the table. Del Toro did
this because he wanted to give a sense of connection to Ofelia’s fantasy world and
the real world, Del toro is also symbolising that the ‘Pale Man’ and the
Captain are very similar and that they both embody evil characteristics.
Mise-en-scene plays a very
important role in this scene, the first thing we can spot is the food on the
table which going back to the idea of the ‘Pale Man’ and the Captain being similar
could imply that the food the ‘Pale Man’ has on his table could be the food
that the Captain is keeping from his people, the food on the table shows greed
which men with more power have.
Another key feature of mise-en-scene
is the fact the ‘Pale Man’ is sitting in front of a raging fire which is
spirting out flames, this could be highlighting the dangerous nature of the ‘Pale
Man’ and could be telling the audience Ofelia is in grave danger.
In the shot when we see
paintings of the ‘Pale Man’ we get non-diegetic sound of babies crying, we also
get to see the ‘Pale Man’ torturing and eating children. Del Toro did this to
make the audience feel uncomfortable and cause distress.
We then get a shot of a pile
of shoes on the floor, this is an example of intertextuality where the film is
making a direct reference to the holocaust and that the Jewish children had to
take off their shoes before they entered the gas chamber to be killed. This
could be Del Toro way of linking Franco actions and dictatorship over Spain to
Hitler’s reign over Germany. This also gives us the feeling that Del Toro is
connecting the real world to Ofelia’s fantasy world by bringing in real life
events.
We then get a shot of Ofelia
picking the key back out of her pocket, the key makes the non-diegetic ringing
sound again, the key in this scene could be acting as a safety blanket for
Ofelia, it is the only thing that is really keeping her safe from the ‘Pale Man’.
The sound the key makes also creates a feeling of accomplishment and is telling
us that Ofelia is one step closer to her end goal.
Later on, in the sequence we see
Ofelia break one of the rules set for her which is not to eat anything, she
eats two grapes of the table, this shows greed which could show a similarity between
the Captain and Ofelia, both of them don’t like playing by the rules and they
end up paying the price eventually. We then cut to the ‘Pale Man’ who has started
moving towards his two eyes on the plate in front of him, he then puts his eyes
in his hands for him to be able to see and to chase Ofelia. The fact the ‘Pale
Man is eyeless, blind and speechless could relate to how the Spanish people
were during the civil war, nobody was ever aloud to speak about current events
or even see current events, everybody was silenced and if they ever broke the silence
they were killed.
Pan’s Labyrinth is an amazing
constructed fantasy film, which manages to tell two stories, one story about a
little girl trying her best to escape reality and find her own freedom and the
other story about a horrible Captain who is cruel to his own people. Del Toro
used Pan’s Labyrinth to share his views on Franco’s Spain and to let people know
it is okay to talk about the horrible events that taken place back then and
that people should forget and let it die just like the Captain in Pan’s
Labyrinth.
