Pan's Labyrinth Film Analysis

Pan’s Labyrinth, directed by Guillermo (gill-yea-mo) Del Toro, is a visually striking, dark fantasy film compiled of a range of equally gruesome and intriguing scenes that address the grim realities of 1944 fascist Spain through a child’s perspective. Del Toro does not delude nor pacify the cruel reality of the narrative where he displays a society that glorifies a corrupted male-dominated society. In the ‘Final Task’ scene, Del Toro’s intertwining of the camera techniques, colour scheme, lighting, and sounds are used to express the ideas of good vs. evil, reality vs. fantasy, and the effect of war and resistance on innocent children
The scene begins with a high angle over the shoulder shot of Captain Vidal looking down at Ofelia, emphasising her vulnerability and inferiority to him. To create tension between the two characters, Del Toro uses a shot reverse shot of a close up of Captain Vidal’s harshly lit face and a close up of Ofelia who disobeys his commands to leave his son. Unlike the harsh lighting on Captain Vidal’s face, when the camera cuts to Ofelia the background has low lighting, dark shadows and blue hues. Del Toro’s films are commonly known for his utilisation of the primary colours, red, blue and yellow, to tell the …show more content…
The camera is pedestalled upwards forming a high angle long shot of Captain Vidal staggering close behind. Through juxtaposition with his previous positioning within frames, Captain Vidal looks inferior for the first time in the film. The contrasting camera techniques used for Ofelia and Captain Vidal shows a shift in the power dynamic between the two characters, where Ofelia is superior in the fantasy world. The shot also establishes the background where the golden hues and warm tone colours are bleeding into the muted blues and greys, which can suggest that the rebels have overpowered and adds a sense of hope for the