17 majestic moments in Pan’s Labyrinth – 10th anniversary

Unlock some of the inspired visual ideas in Guillermo del Toro’s brilliant adult fairytale Pan’s Labyrinth, which first screened in Britain exactly 10 years ago.

25 August 2016

By Leigh Singer

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Hard to believe that it’s 10 years since Guillermo del Toro released what is arguably his masterpiece, Pan’s Labyrinth (2006). Described by the director as “in many ways the most personal movie I’ve made”, it’s a wondrous merging of history – war-torn Spain, 1944 – and fantasy, del Toro weaving an adult fairytale of a young girl’s coming-of-age amid fascism, full of horror and hope, loaded with allusion and allegory. Here are just some of the numerous techniques and strategies del Toro employs to make Pan’s Labyrinth such an unusually rich feast of visual storytelling, so fitting for a story about resisting imposed conventions and wielding the power of imagination.

  • Spoiler warning: This feature reveals plot details.

1.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

A daring, mysterious beginning. Blood from an injured young girl, Ofelia, flowing back into her body…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…as the camera moves closer, within her,

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…setting up an alternative, magical reality repeatedly juxtaposed with the real world.

2.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Del Toro uses symbols powerfully throughout, starting with eyes. Only when Ofelia replaces the statue’s missing eye…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…does her insect guide appear, to help her start seeing the world in a new light.

3.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

A seemingly continuous shot and vertical wipe takes us from Ofelia telling a story to her heavily pregnant mother…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…to her unborn brother, introducing a fantasy world…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…whose warm, golden colours contrast with…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…the real world’s cold, muted colours and the rigid lines of Captain Vidal’s oppressive fascist regime.

4.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Del Toro’s love of insects goes back to previous films like Cronos (1993) and Mimic (1997). Here his matter-of-fact approach to fantasy…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

… comes with the insect’s transformation into Ofelia’s book fairy, to lead her into the labyrinth.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

5.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Ofelia’s entrance into the underground labyrinth ushers in more elaborate camerawork, again connecting her with more rounded, organic forms, in contrast to Vidal’s linear world…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…and another new colour palette, emphasising fecund greens…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…where the ancient faun, force of creation and destruction, lives.

6.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Del Toro has described how the tree, Ofelia’s gateway to the fantasy world, is shaped to match not just the fawn’s curled horns, but also female fallopian tubes..!

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

(also shown in the images appearing in her storybook)

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…and fittingly Ofelia divests herself of the real world’s clothes to begin her journey of rebirth.

7.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Another example of precise visual storytelling. This wipe…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…using the tree to go from Vidal’s marauding soldiers…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

… to Ofelia’s storybook immersion, shows how the magical world begins to encroach on reality.

8.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Del Toro uses visual repetitions to make telling parallels. Here the lavish banquet of Vidal’s guests…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…echoes the table and fireplace of another nightmarish host, The Pale Man.

9.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Similarly, del Toro mirrors shots to different effects. Firstly…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…Mercedes and the doctor are met in the woods by their resistance soldier comrades…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…but later, Mercedes and Ofelia are ambushed…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…by Captain Vidal and his men, framed the same way and thus increasing the element of surprise.

10.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Del Toro’s storytelling teems with references to other stories (Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz among many) and artwork. Here, The Pale Man attacking a fairy…

Francisco Goya, ‘Saturn Devouring His Son’, c. 1819–1823

…directly echoes Goya’s famous painting of Saturn Devouring His Sons.

11.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

As the narrative continues, real and fantasy worlds become increasingly entwined. Here the faun appears in the real world (and its colour palette) to admonish Ofelia.

12.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

In contrast to an early, gruesome scene of Vidal murdering two poachers, when Vidal kills the doctor…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…we are spared graphic images. And when Ofelia’s mother dies…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…it occurs off-screen, the only evidence her bloody sheets. Death itself becomes far less important in a story of rebirth and renewal.

13.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Del Toro is unashamed in his respect for genre cinema and Vidal sewing up his own cheek is a nod to the unstoppable bad guys of horror.

14.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Magic directly impacting reality. Ofelia’s magic chalk discovered by Vidal…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…and the rebels attack reveal Ofelia in the colours of a fantasy world.

15.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Some viewers question whether fantasy really has the power to change reality, as Vidal’s point-of-view shot later in the labyrinth…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

… suggests the faun is merely in Ofelia’s imagination. Yet remember that Vidal was drugged earlier and is perhaps now unable to ‘see reality’ himself.

16.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

If one reads Pan’s Labyrinth as a story of resistance – against a tyrannical system or any unreasoning authority…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…it includes even the faun, whose demand for a blood sacrifice from her infant brother Ofelia ultimately rejects.

17.

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

It’s also a story that resists a conventional ending. Returning to the film’s opening scene, with Ofelia now clearly dying – through her own choices…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…we no longer need to run it in reverse…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…to show it as a story of Ofelia’s rebirth…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

…into immortality within the fantasy world…

Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

… and the hope that a better reality can also emerge, in the film’s final words, ‘visible only to those who know where to look.’

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