Pans labyrinth essay done in class

 Discuss how one or two contextual factors have influenced he aesthetic of pans labyrinth.

 

Guillermo del toros pans labyrinth 2006 is set in 1944, five years after Franco’s victory in the Spanish civil war. the film can be interpreted as a modern-day fairy tale, set against the backdrop of Franco’s Spain. The protagonist a ten year old Ophelia and her pregnant other travel to meet her mother’s new husband captain Vidal in his woodland headquarters. Vidal is a francoist who ruthlessly hunts down remnants of the republican forces who survived the civil war and now wage a guerrilla war against the regime. The entire film is set in the outposts surroundings which act as a microcosm of the wider situation in Spain.Pan’s Labyrinth features a large concentration on the magical fantasy world that Ofelia creates however, the aesthetic is very much real and humanised. The fairies obtain humanistic characteristics; when they die, we see a lot of blood and guts for example. Perhaps the realistic aesthetic is due to Guillermo Del Toro’s love of practical effects over CGI, so the physicality makes it much more real.

Del Toro also heavily relies on colour palettes and lighting to establish different worlds. The captain’s world is defined by blue and grey cold colours like those of a machine and steel metals; these aesthetics are used to present the mechanical rule of the fascists. The nature world (the forest) is dominated by the greens of the natural and this intermediate world is intertwined with the rebels as they are seen wearing brown clothing and hiding out in the forest. The fantasy word is always coloured with yellows, oranges and gold colours to present a magical and ethereal place where Ophelia will end up at the end of the film. In this other world all these scenes are mostly shot with a steady cam in order to give the world a more fantasy feel almost as if we were gliding across the scene in a dream like state. the fantasy world also features a darker and more dangerous unknown element presented through the fear Ofelia faces that contextualise the horrors of her real life; maybe this is a coping mechanism for her to make sense of the real world by exploring and making sense of the fantasy world. Pan’s Labyrinth also highlights the cruelty of the Spanish war by using small canvases to tell bigger stories. The props and scenery are authentic to the 1944 time period that it takes place in. Scenery is effective in this film as a great level of detail is put into the intricately constructed scenery such as the captain’s room featuring clocks and machinery in the background to reflect his structured way of life.

 Another aspect in terms of aesthetics that is repeatedly explored in Pan’s Labyrinth is facial trauma. Early in the film we see an innocent peasant’s face smashed with a bottle by the captain which ultimately ends in his death. Later in the film Mercedes cuts Vidal right at his mouth and then towards the end he is shot in the head. Facial trauma is commonly used by Del Toro in his other films as well; The Devil’s Backbone frequently shows Santi, a ghost boy with a bleeding hole in his head, and Crimson Peak shows a similar head injury through the character of Thomas as well as a scene in which a character’s head is smashed violently against a sink. The re-occurring theme of facial trauma is used by Del Toro to emphasise the brutality to the audience as well as provoking empathy.

The pale man represents more than just the violence of Franco’s regime. He hoards food and forbids others from eating, mirroring captain Vidal as he also keeps a locked stockpile of food and medical supplies at his base.