Pan's Labyrinth Analysis

The opening scene of Pan's Labyrinth starts with a shot of darkness this is then followed by the camera panning up to show Ofelia who is lay on the ground covered in blood, it shows her death which is filmed in reverse. This creates a sense of enigma for the audience and by showing the ending of the film in the opening scene, gives it a circular narrative. We then start to hear a narrative that gives us some information on what the storyline is about, at the same time, the camera zooms in on Ofelia's eye to cut to the next shot. The use of eyes is a recurring motif throughout this film to represent the type of world they live in – one where they see things but cannot say anything because of the fascist society. The next shot shows a dark fantasy world that the narrator is describing, the duration of this shot is very long because the camera pans to show the setting. The fantasy world that is shown is very different to what the audience would expect because it is a dark and gloomy setting, we would normally associate a fantasy world as bright with high key lighting. The setting also contrasts with the narrator as he says "There are no lies or pain" in the underground realm but the atmosphere of this world tells you the opposite. The camera pans up to follow the princess running up the stairs and out of the fantasy world, the tower-like building is circular and at the top we see the moon which is also circular, the use of circles is also a constant motif throughout to match the circular narrative.  

The next scene shows us an establishing shot of the countryside with the black cars driving down, it then cuts to a close up of a fairy tale book that Ofelia is reading, this is significant because it shows the audience that she takes an interest in fairy tales which links to the narrative of the princess whose soul will return in another body. The next scene shows Ofelia's mother taking the book from her and telling her that it's all nonsense which we see later in the film that it is not. When the cars stop because Ofelia's mother is unwell, Ofelia decides to look around and wander off, this tells the audience a bit about her and that she is a very curious person. We get a high angled shot of the tree tops and the sky, the lighting in this shot is a lot warmer toned than the previous shot, we get a constant change between more high-key shots with Ofelia and shots with low key lighting with everyone else. This shows the difference between the political/real world and the fantasy world. As Ofelia walks through the trees she comes across a stone with an eye engraved into it, she then looks around to find a stone monument with a face and realises that the stone with the eye in it has come from this. She places the stone in it and the camera zooms in on the mouth of the statue and out comes a strange bug. As the cars start driving again, we get a close up of the bug on the tree with the background out of focus, the camera pans to follow the bug as it crawls around the tree to follow the direction of the cars. This opening scene helps the audience to establish characters and to give us ideas of what the storyline is about.  

The scene with the pale man is also a significant scene to this film. It starts with Ofelia drawing the door with chalk and as it opens the camera zooms out to show a dark long corridor. It also uses red lighting which signifies danger. The small door that Ofelia draws links to other fairy tales such as Alice in Wonderland. We get a close up of the sand timer which signifies a recurring theme of time which is shown all throughout the film with shots of clocks and watches. As Ofelia walks down the corridor we see a mid-shot from behind her which shows a banquet table which is similar to the one in the scene before where Vidal is holding a dinner for his friends and family and he is head of the table. We can see in this scene that the pale man is at the head of the table which shows comparisons between Vidal and a monster. The camera pans around the room and zooms in on murals on the wall which show the pale man eating children, as the murals are shown the audience can hear children screaming which shows the pale man's intent and shows that Ofelia is in danger. Also, there is a pile of children's shoes in the corner of the room which the audience can guess is from his last victims. The pile of shoes could also be a reference to the holocaust to show the danger and cruelty of the pale man. Ofelia decides to disobey the orders from the fawn and eats two grapes, the food on the table is desirable just like her desire to become princess of the fantasy world. As Ofelia does this the camera pans over her shoulder and zooms in on the pale man as he starts to move. We can see from reaction shots of Ofelia that she starts to become worried and sees the consequences of her actions as the pale man eats two of the fairies. After she has ran down the hallway back to the chair she stands on it, we get a close up of the bottom of the chair to show how unstable it is which could also represent how unstable Ofelia is as she is standing between life or death.  

All through the film the audience can see constant references to other fairy tale films and books. The film uses lots of imagery of doors, locks and keys to reinforce the idea of secrets which links to the society that Spain encountered during 1944 which is when the film was set.