Pans+Labyrinth

Pans Labryinth, a 2006 film, set in fascist Spain. We follow a young girl as she escapes from reality to enter a her fantastical fantasy world.

Lighting In Pans Labyrinth, the lighting is very interesting. Most of the time Vidal is shown in his chambers, and his face is always heavily contrasted. One side is very warm and bright while the other is dark and almost impossible to see, making him look, not in this case mysterious, but more menacing. You never know what he will do next. That is definitely the case with him, when he bashed beat a man’s face with a wine bottle for no reason, you could tell there is something seriously wrong with him. On the other hand Ofelia is often portrayed with very soft lighting, making her skin seem soft her facial features almost blurred. Making her seem more innocent and almost unaware of the tragedy and horror around her. This ties in with each characters actual and symbolic role in the film. As it is set in a fascist time period, one can easily compare Vidal’s and Ofelia’s reality to that of a fascist world and a non-fascist world. Imagination plays a big part in the film, Ofelia’s imagination is vivid and fantasized, while contrasted Vidal has no imagination. Besides he only cares about time (his stopwatch). His first words were “They’re 15 minutes late.” There are two man colors shown in the lighting. It is usually a bright warm color or a dark green color. Often shown in night sequences. Even outside it is often seen as though Ofelias face has a light softly shown on her every time she sees a mythical creature (fairy and the Tree that leads to the toad). This helps push the theme of the importance of maintaining an imagination, because without it we lose a part of our freedom and life is not as enjoyable.

Cinematography The cinematography in this film is fantastic. The cinematography is perfectly in-sync with the editing, making the pace of the film that much better. Longer shots are shown during the talking sequences, which in my opinion is perfectly fine because I tend to focus more on what they are saying then being distracted by various cuts. Vidal, I noticed, is also mostly shown looking down at the camera, the camera is almost always looking up to him. It is however very slight, but it creates a more powerful presence on screen. There also are many fluid camera motions in the movie. When going from the underworld to Spain, and when Oefelia tells the story of the blue flower it goes from the thorny mountains back to her bedroom in one shot. This makes it easier to transform, and bring you into her imagination. This wonderful world she has created, to her at least, is simultaneously connected to our own. She has taken the dull, fascist life, and turned it into a much more enjoyable world. The underworld is in sorts a ideological fascist state. Bereft of pain and imagination. The very first shots show Ofelia with a book and Vidal with a watch. Comparing her imagination to his logic and “reasoning.” Ofelia has brought that pain and imagination to life. The cinematography helps push the theme, through: fluid motions between Ofelias world and the real one, keeping the pace of the scene perfect, to the point of complete integration of the fantasy world to the harsh reality of The Mill, and makes the fantasy world seem larger than life, revealing things with slow pans and revealing shots, many a time I have been mistaken of the scale of these places/creatures.

Sound What’s on the screen of the film tells you what to think, but the music tells you how to feel. The music in this film is very magical and epic. Many gospel voices are going on in the magical world with high violin and bass scores, while few if not no sound in the real world. This does a masterful job of taking us out of The Mill and into the fantastical imaginations of Ofelia. The films sound almost matches every sequences pace as well. The only criticism that I would have would be during the Monster sequence (the one that has hands for eyes and eats children). The music isn’t very intense, you can here bells and flutes going on and it takes away the intensity of the film. Once again the sound perfectly enhances the theme of imagination.

Editing I said earlier the pace of the film is fantastic. Each edit is completely well done and each scene benefits from it. When a new part of the magical world is revealed it is shown in a long fluid shot, while Vidal’s scenes are often shown with quicker cuts making his decisions seem more sporadic. The films editing and cinematography work perfectly together. The magical world is perfectly intertwined with the real one, creating a better theme of this imagination is essential in a society.