Guillermo del Toro | Auteur Theory

Directed by: Guillermo del Toro

Cast: Ivana Baquero [Ofelia], Doug Jones [Pale man, Fauno], Sergi López [Vidal]

The Allies have invaded Nazi-held Europe in 1944, wherein Spain, a troop of soldiers are sent to a remote forest to remove the rebels. Captain Vidal, a murdering sadist, leads them, along with him are his new wife Carmen and her daughter from a previous marriage, Ofelia. The young girl, after witnessing her stepfather’s brutality, is drawn into Pan’s Labyrinth which is a magical world of mythical beings.

My rating: 9/10

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Narrative aspects

Guillermo del Toro, a genius with the art of fairy tales, created a brilliant film called ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’, following an 11-year-old girl facing the trials of the real world and the spiritual in order to reach goals from a guiding faun, a mythical creature. Being a film completely in the Spanish language, it applies well to the setting of the story as well as accompanies the characters and their backgrounds. The film starts with a shot which comes again at the end of the film, where Ofelia lays on the floor after being shot by her stepfather. This foreshadows a tragic ending and also signifies that the whole film is a flashback that leads up to that point. Moreover, an audience would not put together the fact that the first scene is, in fact, something that occurs later in the film until they see the shot once again.

The film uses the medium of ‘storytelling’ to convey its message and plot. Quite literally, a film is an art of storytelling so within the film’s story there are various stories, making it a little paradoxical. To add on to this effect, the film has an omniscient narrator at the beginning and the end which gives it the oral sense of reading a storybook. What is more is that throughout the film, characters use the medium of storytelling to cope with their life and it’s tragic calamities and brutal realities. Ofelia, a young girl forced into accepting a person who she despises to be her father, reads fairytales to escape from her sad and demanding lifestyle, while her mother Carmen is seen telling a rather romantic story version of her meeting Captain Vidal, her second husband. Also, the faun uses storytelling to convey the message that Ofelia is a princess and that she needs to complete three tasks to become immortal in a way that would be easier for a young girl who likes the fictional fantasy world to understand. Since this film follows the form of how many stories and fairy tales from books are structured, the Hero’s Journey theory could be applied to Ofelia and her encounters, where she becomes aware of her secret identity, is called to a mission that she feels intimidated by then complete successfully one step at a time.

‘Pan’s Labyrinth’, as the title would suggest, combines many mythical elements to form the story, like the guiding Faun and the Pale Man. While these characters bring about a heightened tension in the film, filled with suspense and dread as to what would happen to young Ofelia next, each of them has a purpose to serve in the story. The reason for these elements is that it brings the stories Ofelia reads in her leisure time to life, in a world where mythical creatures would be thought of not existing. Moreover, it adds the element of surprise and the imagination a child would have in perceiving the world around them. The various mythical entities in the film are:

Faun – In Roman mythology, Fauns are creatures that are part human and part goat, who love the forest, music and good to the people they encounter. They are closely associated with the Greek god Pan. Fauns are merry creatures, who would lure anyone into joining their festivities. Being creatures of nature and showing loyalty to their superiors, it is no surprise that Ofelia, a secret princess called Moanna, stumbles upon finding a Faun in the labyrinth. The good-nature of the Faun is seen throughout the scenes consisting of him, where he even gives Ofelia a second chance after she disobeys him and eats two grapes from the Pale Man’s table of food.
Pale Man – While the film does not name the Pale Man with a mythological creature’s title, the being bears a strong resemblance to the Tenome from Japanese folklore, with eyes in the middle of the palms. The word ‘Tenome’ literally translates to “eyes on hands”, which helps to confirm the origin of the Pale Man in the film. Tenomes do not have a larger purpose to fulfil but they had come around from a tale of a blind man wanting to have a glance at life, only to be reborn as a yokai (a class of supernatural monsters, spirits, and demons in Japanese folklore) with eyes on his palms. According to the lore they are much more carnivorous, compared to the tempting feast put on the long table in the Pale Man’s lair.
Fairies – A magical creature who resembles a human being, with quick wit as their most common trait. Fairies can fly, make flowers bloom and help things grow. In the film, they guide Ofelia in the right direction and advise her on what to do, like many of the mythical elements in the film. They are the ‘pets’ of the Faun, helpers for his goals.
Magical objects – These objects aid Ofelia to progress in her journey given by the Faun:
- Fortune-telling Book – Ofelia makes use of a magical book that tells her what to complete next on her mission in the form of a story, with pictures and colour. This book also shows the fortune of the near future, like when Carmen was bleeding and fell sick while Ofelia was looking at the book in the washroom.
- Chalk – Ofelia uses a white chalk given to her by the Faun to open a doorway into the Pale Man’s lair. This object looks like a regular piece of chalk but completes what every child’s imagination would want. Ofelia uses the chalk at multiple occasions, with the second time being when the sand timer runs out and the door which she entered through closes, making her draw a rectangle on the ceiling. The third is when she wants to reach her stepfather’s room without bringing any attention to her. Again, it is another tool that helps her out of the darkest of situations and makes sure she complete the three tasks from the Faun before the time is up.
- Mandrake root – Being a member of the deadly nightshade family, plants that contain toxins. While the Greeks used to use it as an anaesthetic, and in the Middle Ages, they used it for its fertility powers (‘those having trouble conceiving would sleep with them under their pillows’). Referring to www.wired.com, “According to Anthony John Carter, writing in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine in 2003, medieval folks carried mandrake roots around as good luck charms, hoping the plant would grant them not only wealth and the power to control their destiny but the ability to control the destinies of others as well”. These ancient believed traits could apply to the use of the Mandrake root in the film as it was intended to aid Carmen, Ofelia’s mother, through her difficult pregnancy.

In terms of character portrayal, Captain Vidal is a personality that would be despised by an audience from the beginning. His brutality and lack of hesitance towards torturing and killing people are horrifying for the characters in the film as well as the audience watching. Being a dominating and aggressive person, he is Ofelia’s stepfather but the audience would want him to be far from it. While Ofelia tries to escape the reality she hates, Vidal is seen as being a pure villain of the story. This film generally seems like a children’s fantasy story yet juxtaposes and displays the real gruesome reality of life in a rather graphic way. It is an adult film throughout but follows a young girl on her journey with a mythical creature in a fantasy land.

Infer & Deduce: There has been discussion over the film’s title and whether it is the right name to give it. ‘Labyrinth‘ is defined as “a confusing set of connecting passages or paths in which it is easy to get lost”, which would apply to the maze seen in the forest near the soldier base camp. Moreover, labyrinths have a spiritual significance as well. According to www.crystalinks.com, “A labyrinth is an ancient symbol that relates to wholeness. It combines the imagery of the circle and the spiral into a meandering but purposeful path. It represents a journey to our own centre and back again out into the world. Labyrinths have long been used as meditation and prayer tools”. In this sense, the labyrinth could be both a literal one present in the film as seen and also carry a symbolic meaning, where Ofelia’s journey from discovering that she is a princess to reuniting with her royal family is a maze of trials on its own.

Another point of discussion is the question of ‘Who is ‘Pan’ in Pan’s Labyrinth?’ since there is no character called pan in the film. Pan is a mythical Greek god of the wild, and faun-like creature. Guillermo del Toro wrote the subtitles for the film and it was his own choice to use ‘Pan’ in the title, though he has revealed that it is not an accurate descriptor for the film.

Technical Aspects

‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ uses brilliant CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) techniques to create the world of fantasy and fill it with creatures like the fairies that can shapeshift into stick insects. However, many of the non-human characters’ looks are achieved by special effects makeup and costume, like the Faun and the Pale Man. The set design uses materials and props from the 1940s, like vintage cars and soldier outfits that are historically accurate. An interesting point of the film is that even though it is based around a fairy tale story, the colours are not that rich in the film and mainly revolve around shades of brown, black, green, yellow and grey for aspects in the mise-en-scene. The only scene which contains much more than these earthy colours is the last scene where Ofelia is finally reunited with her family in the underworld. This scene has the colour scheme of red and gold, glowing and shining while making the sequence look far more magical than the realistic presentation of the world during the rest of the film. These palette choices, along with the accurate set props and design, all magnify the juxtaposition between the 1940s and modern day 21st Century, as well as the real world and the fantasy world (i.e. the world of others compared to the world of Ofelia).

In camera and editing, two techniques create an interesting outlook in the film. The first is where the camera is at many times positioned lower than the average eye-level in scenes, following the gaze of the 11-year-old protagonist of the film. Though it is still at her personal eye-level, this tactic allows the audience to see the world from her eyes without the film being in the first-person point of view and making the fears of Ofelia much more intimidating, like using low-angled shots when she is conversing with the adults in her life, her mother and especially Captain Vidal. Moving forward, another technique used in ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’ is the overlapping transitions where one scene blends into the other while the camera pans or dollys to the right or left. An example of this is the scene involving Captain Vidal and his search team in the forest, where the camera dollys to the right and a tree trunk comes into the shot. Another shot of Ofelia exploring the forest on her own is taken after the camera moves away from the trunk. These two takes are seamlessly edited together to create this continuous movement effect which makes it seem as though both scenes are occurring simultaneously. From a story perspective, it could signify the fact that in the world of the plot, both the real world and the fantasy are taking place in the same dimension and time even though rational thinking would not allow the world of Fauns and magic objects to exist at the same time. It strengthens the sense of escapism that Ofelia is going through, wanting to disconnect from her life that she feels discontented with.

Favourite Scene

Ofelia, after completing the first task set by the Faun, uses a chalk given by her new mythical friend to draw a portal-door to an underground lair that houses a Pale Man sitting at a table like a statue, which boosts her confidence to finish the task quickly before the sand timer runs out. This scene is a famous one due to the presence of this odd, no-eyed creature with large hands and a vicious behaviour, making it stand out from the other scenes in the film. It is a tense moment in the film as Ofelia races against the clock to achieve her goal and make it back to her room in time before the Pale Man traps her in his lair for good. The audience desperately want Ofelia to escape without being harmed, which makes it more enthralling to watch.

This scene sheds light on some small realities of life and the behaviour of children especially. Ofelia, being a young girl, seeks out what every imaginative child would want. Having being bestowed to use a magical chalk that can make portals and doorways appear through a solid wall after drawing with them is filled throughout every childhood dream. The attitude of Ofelia in this scene is like how any child her age would react and interact, excitement and curiosity filling their mind. Moreover, the scene does not glorify the power of the unknown and magical, and Ofelia is faced with a horrifying encounter while being in the Pale Man’s lair. This balances out between the expectations a person would have compared to the reality of it, where one would want a task to be as simple as drawing a rectangular outline on a wall with an everyday item but would then have to face a life-and-death situation. Equilibrium is restored throughout the film, the odds are never completely out of favour for Ofelia. Where she is in a dire situation, there is always a helping hand or a ‘miracle’ that aids her to avoid a drastic future. To add on, this scene also shows the attitude of disobedience, along with curiosity, in children. The Faun warned her not to eat anything from the Pale Man’s feast no matter how tempting the dishes look yet Ofelia, being a young child, sees no harm in ‘only taking one grape’, ‘what could go wrong if I just have a little?’. The temptations in a child are too strong to fight off and the more likely they would do something that they are told not to do, keeping aside how obedient they are normally. The audience sees Ofelia as a natural young child at heart who loves reading books and imagining a fantasy world come to life, while still having the innate attitudes that any child would have.

What would I do differently?

Personally, I enjoyed the film thoroughly mainly because of my love for the fantasy genre. Normally, a story like this would be expected to arise from a novel but the fact that it is an original screenplay is astounding. If this film were to be made now, by me, I would most likely make use of the motion capture technology for the Faun and the Pale Man since it would reduce time spent on makeup and would also be more comfortable for actors to perform in. Moreover, technology has advanced drastically since 2006 so it could potentially look as realistic as the bets makeup would achieve a final effect. To add on, if this film was written and directed by me I would make it in English since it is my strongest language, and I only know basic Spanish. Though the fact that it is set in Spain and is completely in Spanish is quite apt since it is unnatural for everyone in a film to ‘magically’ know English in a country where it is not its first language.