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PAN'S LABYRINTH - CONTEXT - Coggle Diagram
PAN'S LABYRINTH - CONTEXT
GUILLERMO DEL TORO
GDT is a Mexican auteur born in Guadalajara in 1964
He was raised in a strict Catholic household, but later dropped the religion as he described his upbringing as "morbid"
His anger likely helped when writing the pale man scene
Other films included The Shape of Water, Hellboy 1 and 2, Nightmare Alley and his own Pinocchio
He studied makeup when he went to university, and continued as a makeup artist for 10 years. Later on in his directing career he started his own makeup production company, the Tequila Gang
The idea for the faun came from GDT's mind when he had constant lucid dreams as a child where a faun would appear from the side of a grandmother clock
Common trademarks include the grotesque, fairytales as backdrops for violence and personal sacrifice, daddy issues and troubled adolescence, the supernatural and catholic iconography
Pan's Labyrinth is a MAGICAL REALIST FILM
THE WORLD, 1944
The fascists had won in Spain around 1944 after a 3 year long civil war, and while there wasn't many conflicts in that scale happening in Spain until fascism fell, there were plenty of brutal displays of violence from authority figures in that time that went unnoticed for most of the world
Vidal is a reflection of the leader of fascist Spain, General Franco
Ofelia's death is a reflection of the hundreds of thousands of children (eg Anne Frank) who faced horrors that most adults couldn't bear
The catholic church were supportive of the fascists, and fully endorsed their regime
GDT also reflects how the monstrous fascists and the church were one in the same in the pale man scene
The holocaust
The large piles of shoes in the pale man scene are a reflection of the holocaust, and how the brutal fascists and the church are one in the same
A strict patriarchal society, where women were second class to the man
THE WORLD, MID 200S
War in Iraq
The film is a cautionary tale about the consequences that war can have on the people, the children, and the overall state of a world
"War is the ultimate intolerance... there are no winners - only alive victims and
dead victims." - GDT
Untrustworthy authority - Bush lied about Saddan Hussein having weapons of mass destruction
Both eras had untrustworthy authority figures
Hurricane Katrina
"George Bush doesn't care about black people"
Divided society, tensions because of war, and untrusted authority
PRODUCTION CONTEXT
Many US studios loved PL and was willing to give GDT double the budget for what he got in the end, but GDT refused because he wanted to keep the film in Spanish, with GDT wanting to maintain creative control and not to compromise "marketing needs"
Budget: $19m
Gross: $83.9m - financial success
Filmed and produced in Spain
QUOTES
"The coexistence of these two worlds [,fantasy and reality,] is one of the scariest elements of the film." - Roger Ebert
"[Pan's Labyrinth] is the culmination of [del Toro's] career, a Citizen Kane of fantasy cinema" - Mark Kermode
"[The film is about Ofelia] learning about
CHOICE
and
DISOBEDIENCE
" - GDT
"Her fantasy world is as harrowing and challenging as the real world, but it's her world"
"Fantasy literally has saved my reality"
"I believe film is very much like painting"
"I am friends with the monsters"
"The tyrant's reign ends with his death, but the martyr's reign starts with his death. I think that is the essence of the movie; it's about living forever by choosing how you die." - GDT
"The coexistence of these two worlds [,fantasy and reality,] is one of the scariest elements of the film." - Roger Ebert