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PAN'S LABYRINTH (PALE MAN SCENE (As Ofelia is entering the place where…
PAN'S LABYRINTH
AESTHETICS
Franco’s army unit is represented as a brutalising force and its commanding officer, Captain Vidal, as a sadistic epitome of evil: cruel to everyone including his wife and step-daughter. His evident pleasure in torture is straight out of a psycho-horror film
The film is a magical realist text – combining beautifully constructed but very dark fantasy sequences, some verging on horror, with a graphically violent fighting in Northern Spain in the early years of Franco’s dictatorship.
The ruling elite who attend a banquet given by him are equally corrupt and Del Toro clearly has little empathy for the priest and the organised Catholicism he represents. In contrast however we find characters like Mercedes and the Doctor presented as honourable and caring people.
• The two worlds are different fantasy is warm and real world is cold, but this begins to change and as the fantasy world seeps into the real world, signified through the colour palette.
• Parallels between the 2 worlds through settings and props – the key, the knife and dining table
• Wipes are used to relate the two worlds of fantasy and reality 31:51 directors cut
• Costume of the girl in the frog scene and guerrillas are the same linking the 2 together
• Sound also links the 2 worlds the key removed from the frog and the knife Mercedes has 38:08 directors cut
• Square lines used to signify masculinity and yonic symbols used for femininity
• Dining table for the captain and the pale man’s table the same as they are both monsters.
• The magic root is also an example of the fantasy seeping into the real world, as it represents the mother’s health.
• Shot of the captain with flames behind him signify him as the devil, as the flames look like horns (137:22)
• The quests also represent the real world, curing the tree/curing her mother, the Pale Man a representation of Vidal in the real world
PALE MAN SCENE
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- As Ofelia is entering the place where the Pale man lives, the camera is moving away from her, establishing the room she’s about to enter to the audience.
- This technique is used to emphasise how small and insignificant Ofelia looks compared to the large, unfamiliar place she has to venture into
- non-diegetic eerie music playing in the background signifies the anticipation of horror that Ofelia is going to encounter. From the beginning of this scene, it is indicated that this is an unsafe place, suggesting it’s just like a lair.
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- A tracking shot is used as she walks by the table, her gaze not moving from the food at any point - shows her desire for it, despite how she’s been told to stay away.
- The way Ofelia is lured by the food represents the desperation of the people of Spain living under fascism who were starved of something so simple like their freedom, yet they still yearned for it.
- The moment when Ofelia stops looking at the table is when she takes notice of the creature sitting there: the Pale Man.
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- The Pale Man is positioned at the head of table with food, mimicking the previous scene when Captain Vidal is holding a dinner party.
- Like the Pale Man, Vidal is sitting at the head of the table. By placing these two similar scenes close together in the film, the link between Vidal and the Pale Man is further emphasised, and is once again strengthened by their similar actions
- At Vidal’s dinner party, he cuts off chatter at the dinner table, showing his need for order, however the Pale Man demonstrates this need through violence when Ofelia eats some grapes from the table.
- Just like other totalitarian leaders, the Pale Man rules with fear and violence, punishing any act of defiance or freedom.
- Del Toro grew up with an extreme Catholic grandmother, so the Pale Man also represents the Catholic Church at the time in Spain.
- The paleness of the creature resembles the colour of the Pope, but he also has a feast food in front of him, but he still chooses to eat the innocent fairies, linking with the idea of the Catholic Church in Spain being really wealthy, but still going after the people in Spain with violence and threats.
- After Ofelia eats a grape, the Pale Man begins to wake up, inserting his eyes from the platter into his hands. The Pale Man's eyes on a plate are associated with St Lucia, who is represented in Catholic art by her holding her eyes on a platter.
- The wounds in the Pale Man's hands are suggestive of stigmata, which is a term used to describe body marks or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Christ.
- These both hint at the graphic Catholic iconography that characterised Franco's Spain, and also the extreme beliefs del Toro was taught as a child by his Mexican grandmother which he criticises in the film.
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As the scene progresses the camera pans across the wall mural which includes pictures of the pale man eating and killing young children. Del Toro is heavily influenced by the Spanish artist Goya (1800s), which is demonstrated by these pictures on the wall and also the action of the Pale Man eating the fairies.
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- The Pale Man eating the fairies is inspired by Goya’s painting ‘Saturn Devouring His Children’, where Saturn eats his children in fear that they will become more powerful and overthrow him.
- This is used in order to criticise the Fascist society which breeds people like Captain Vidal, who are obsessed with power, and creates cruel leaders who ‘eat’ their children while having banquets on their tables.
- Both Vidal and the Pale Man act as the destroyer of fantasy, as he kills Ofelia’s innocence by ripping off the heads of the fairies.
- By the end of the film, del Toro’s position on Franco’s Spain is clearly evident as relying on unnecessary violence and fear to control the people of Spain.
- By using real life villains, like Captain Vidal, and fantasy villains, like the Pale Man del Toro shows audiences how Franco’s Spain crushed the Spanish nation's innocence, imagination and freedom.
REPRESENTATIONS
Gender
- clear binary opposites in representation of gender
- Vidal refuses to believe his child can be anything other than male
- the health of his wife is only pf secondary importance
- he scolds his wife for discussing their romance in public & is dismissive of Ofelia
- final scene when Vidal tells rebels his son must know about him (ref. to own father) shows final exhaustion of patriarchy he represents, as Mercedes tells him his son will never know of him
- Vidal's self-loathing (never able to step out of father's shadow) is evident when he commits metaphorical suicide by cutting reflection's throat
- the broken watch suggests his own broken identity - immaculate and precise, but flawed
- mercedes slitting his mouth open & being shot in the eye are all mirroring scenes - reflecting deconstruction of the watch face & his own
- main women in the film (Ofelia, Carmen & Mercedes) all suffer at the hands of patriarchy
- when Mercedes is caught by Vidal, he laughs at the idea of not being alone with her as "She is just a woman!"& Mercedes replies that she was able to help the rebels as she is 'invisible' to him
- Ofelia is killed by her step-father for stealing his son & defying him while Carmen dies in childbirth, unmourned by her husband
- Only Mercedes triumphs in the end through her bravery & love for her brother. She holds the dying Ofelia in her arms & weeps for the loss of childish innocence at the hands of brutal patriarchy
Age
- shallow focus close-up of victim's shoes in Pale Man's lair
- compares with images from Nazi camps & murals of Pale Man eating children, the banquet which can't be touched
- a critique of the ruling elite (the Church) which crushes innocence & life
- youth is clearly at odds with the adult world - fantasy is the only escape
Ethnicity/Nationality
- The Falangist's (supporters of Franco) are aligned to corrupt officialdom, a morally bankrupt church, and a brutal & sadistic military
- Spanish rebels are depicted as more humanist, freedom-loving & empathetic group of democrats
- Del Toro is clearly outraged by fascism, dictatorships, militarism, propaganda & patriarchy - all enemies of the imagination
- As the Dr says to Vidal before he kills him "To obey for the sake of obeying, without questioning, that's something only people like you can do"
