...NAME May 31, 2015 SPAN 2322 Critical Film Essay: Pan’s Labyrinth El laberinto del fauno, the original name given to the Mexican-Spanish film was both written and directed by Guillermo del Toro in 2006. This film takes place after the Spanish Civil War and covers the Francoist period we have discussed in class. After carefully watching this film a second time, I have a better understanding of the many elements portrayed in the film that I found confusing after watching it the first time. The biggest element for me being fantasy vs. reality (documentary) and the idea of “two Spains” that it portrays. As a representation of the effects of the Spanish Civil War, there are clearly two sides, the Popular Front and the Francoists. The Popular Front consisted of socialists, communists, Marxists, republicans, and even communists who formed a coalition and demanded an independent judiciary free from government control. Although the labyrinth is most associated with the idea of fairytale or fantasy in my opinion the Popular Front represent the “fantasy” aspect of the film, because what they were trying to accomplish would be seen as something improbable or unattainable to an outsider looking in or someone who associates themselves as a member of the Francoist movement. The Popular Front was portrayed as very poor throughout the film, depending heavily on the captain and his military for sources of food and hospitality. This preceding statement is exactly why the Popular Front...
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...Fairly Real Tales Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth is about the power of fairy tales. As del Toro discusses, for Ofelia, fantasy compensates for the horrors of reality. Throughout the film, she struggles to reconcile her two worlds: the real and the imaginary. Furthermore, her imaginary world can be seen as one in which she has the agency that she is denied in the real world. Ultimately, Ofelia’s fairy tale world offers her insight into the real world and salvation from the horrors of the real world. In an interview, Ethan Alter asked Guillermo del Toro whether Ofelia’s fantasy world is real or all in her mind. He answered that it’s true: “There’s a very clear instance in the movie where there is no other explanation” (Ethan 14). He says that “in my mind, the movie tries to say that if you don’t know where to look, you won’t see these creatures. Like Vidal—he’s unable to see them” (Ethan 14). However, he does say that other viewers may see the film in different ways: “there are two kinds of audiences for this movie: one that will believe it’s real and the other that will think it’s imaginary. For me, the movie is like a Rorschach test. It defines you as a glass-half-empty or glass-half-full person. Which is fine, I like the idea of that being your choice” (Ethan 14). Del Toro’s comments prove that Pan’s Labyrinth attempts to show a world in which fairy tales offer insight into reality and a means of saving oneself from its daily...
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...Though the film seems most obviously about a child's nightmare in an unrelenting world of pain, violence, and death, Pan's Labarinth joined realism and fantasy through cinematogrsphy. One aspect that made this film different was that one side of the story, the realism, was violent, fierce, and forceful, while the other followed the main protagonist through her mystical quest to become queen of a distant world. With the use of cinematography in Pan's Labrinth, through dolly shots, over the shoulder shots and pans it connects the fantasy with the reality. Ofelia, enters the fantasy relm where the thin, pale man lives. She must retreave the daggar from one of the three locked compartments in the wall. She is introduced as a camera is following her through the use of a dolly shot the audience is seeing what Ofelia sees, the table displayed with lavish foods, in a time when food in reality is being rationed, so as the camera is following her it creates this sense of forbidden atmosphere, The thin man is at the head of the table as though he were guarding it. Ofelia knows she must not eat but through this technique, tension arises because the audience knows that she might not be able to resist. More tension and anxiety is generated when Ofelia is face to face with this grotesque creature. With the use of this over the shoulder shot of Ofelia looking at the thin man, because she is out of focus the audience can observe the crese and folds that the pale man has, but...
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...Pan’s Labyrinth is set in Spain, during 1944 at the time of the Resistance. The setting takes place at a house, known in the movie as a mill, surrounded by the forest. The movie shows two worlds; the real world and the fairy tale world of a little girl, Ofelia. The music in this movie is mesmerizing, as it comes around mainly when Ofelia is present and has to do a task assigned to her that the book reveals that is given to her by the faun, known as Pan. Ofelia is the developing character, because the movie surrounds her in the world of fantasy. Ofelia is traveling with her mother, to go live with her stepfather, when the car has to stop. Ofelia gets out of the car and wanders off, when she come across a stone and picks it up. The stone is a piece of the stone statue, and then Ofelia places it in the statue and a bug appears. The bug later appears in the mother’s room, and reveals that she is a fairy, and there is a close-up of the bug crawling out of the statue. This scene revealed the importance of the fairy as well as the part she plays in the movie. The Captain is a stock character, because he is portrayed as being mean, even to Ofelia. The only reason Ofelia is there at the mill is to be with her mother, who is pregnant with Ofelia’s brother. In one scene, you can see the Captain’s hand on Carmen’s belly, which is an indirective/subjective point of view. In another scene, there is the Captain with his men questioning an old man and his son about what they are doing out in...
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