Pan’s Labyrinth is the second film we’ve watched this quarter that could be easily classified as a “horror film” (although I would argue that there’s a case to be made for classifying Dr. Strangelove as such), and it is just as packed with symbolism in its technical aspects as Alien.
Editing: Movie Magic
The editing in Pan’s Labyrinth is almost as impressive to watch as the film taken as a whole. The truly magical part about it is that it is almost invisible. For example, “[i]n a single, extraordinary shot del Toro tilts down to inside the mother’s womb, where we see a golden fetus mutely listening, and pans right to the fantastic blossom atop a mountain of thorns. Suddenly the stick insect, clicking and clucking, intrudes into the fantasy landscape and we follow it back to the bedroom” where the shot began (Smith 6). This is a shot that includes almost all the thematic material for the movie, from maternal/sibling bonds to fairytales and violence, but the entire sequence takes place almost as one camera move. This “extraordinary fluidity of movement between fantasy and reality” is what makes Pan’s Labyrinth such a global experience (Smith 5). When you can show that much variety in one shot and you can understand what’s going on even without the subtitles, you’ve created something that can be equally experienced by everyone, i.e. a great film.
Another striking shot, editing-wise, is the opening shot of the film: “[a]s time runs backwards, a trickle of ruby-red blood retreats into the nostril of . . . Ofelia” (Smith 4). This is not a particularly difficult edit, I’m sure, since the film is just running backwards, but the image it creates is powerful. Preceding a movie filled with unimaginable violence and cruelty, it’s almost as though del Toro wants us to put Ofelia back together, put her blood back.
Mise-en-scène: Reinforcing rather than Reducing
Del Toro’s mise-en-scène is used “in such a way as to reinforce rather than reduce the horrors of history” (Smith 6). The mise-en-scène in Pan’s Labyrinth creates two separate worlds: on the one hand, it creates a believable fantasy realm that exists literally right under the nose of the real word, and on the other hand, it creates a very real, very specific location to ground the story and make the audience think, in the back of their minds, “I wonder if this could actually happen?”
Ofelia is granted a moment alone in the real world before the Book of Crossroads can give her instructions (via www.moviesonline.ca)
The feminine circle is clearly visible here in the shape of the Labyrinth and the curve of the Faun's horns. (via kingroom.com)
In this creation of del Toro’s Spain, many symbols become readily apparent. Ofelia’s world, the underworld/Labyrinth, is full of circular imagery that reappears anytime she looks to escape the “real” world. In the course of the film, the “fecund, earthy and maternal underland is juxtaposed with scenes in the ‘real’ world of fascist Spain in 1944, with their steely military colours and sharp cold lines and shapes” (Edwards 142). The Captain’s realm is a perversion of Ofelia’s in many ways, not least of which is his appropriation of the feminine circle shape of the Labyrinth that he has turned into a giant gear in his room, the watch in his pocket, and the cogs in the watch.
Captain Vidal discovers the power of all the suppressed females he has kept under his thumb. (via spitefulcritic.com)
One other incredibly strong recurring symbol in the film is the knife. Knives are inherently phallic weapons, symbols of masculine dominance, but in this film, the knives “become symbols of sacrifice and freedom and freedom rather than violence. While the male weapons of choice are guns and grenades and the Captain’s blunt instruments of torture, the knives are inherently female as tools of the kitchen and relics of the underland” (Edwards 144). This is one of the core points of the film, the inversion of the rules of the world: the real world is twisted into the Labyrinth, rebels defeat the established rulers, and women take power from their everyday tools and defeat the oppressive men.
Works Cited
Edwards, Kim. "Alice's Little Sister: Exploring Pan's Labyrinth." Screen Education. ATOM. 40. Web. 28 Feb. 2010.
Smith, Paul Julian. "Pan's Labyrinth (El laberinto del fauno)." Film Quarterly. 60.4 (2007): 4- 9. Web. 28 Feb. 2010.
Excellent content and delivery here--exemplary work!
ReplyDeleteI thought your blog had a lot of really great insight, especially dealing with gender and symbolism. The part about the knives being feminine weapons really made sense. I also liked your choice of photos to use with your blog. They were good descriptors of what you were talking about. That said, I would have liked to see a picture of the knives and tools your were talking about when you wrote about them. I thought your third picture in did a great job of showing the circular images you wrote about.
ReplyDeleteYour blog is great! I didn't even think about the knife. I also liked the titles breaking up your points. A good idea for a blog for sure!
ReplyDelete