Film Studies

In ‘Pan’s Labyrinth’, Guillermo Del Toro conveys political and social messages to the audience throughout the film by loading each scene with multiple dimensions of contextual and implicit information through the constant consideration of cinematography and mise-en-scene. Del Toro crafts almost every scene in the film to hold some greater meaning both to the narrative and to the context of General Franco’s fascist Spain in which the film is set. Being set during this time in 1944, five years after the Spanish Civil War, the film constantly makes references towards the social and political environment as well as what it was like to be somebody living in Spain at this time. Early in the film, Ofelia meets The Faun after being led to the labyrinth by one of the fairies, who tells her that she is the lost Princess Moanna of the underworld. At this point, The Faun tells Ofelia that she must complete three tasks before the moon is full, giving her ‘The Book of Crossroads’ which will show

Towards the beginning of the film, one of the most shocking and disgusting scenes takes place to establish the desperation and extreme lengths that the drug addicts will go to in order to feed their heroine addiction. In this scene, Renton is forced to retrieve a bag of heroine from a toilet with his bare hands. Just before this scene begins, a close-up perspective panning shot is used of Renton walking through a pub in order to get to the toilet whilst almost every other person in the pub stares at him judgementally. This shot was filmed from Renton's point of view, a fish eye lens was used to make the faces of every person he passed seem more distorted and large to suggest that Renton is unwell as his vision and perception on reality has been altered, perhaps due to drug use or poor health. This shot shows the audience how Renton may feel and be treated by society on a daily basis; he is shamed and alienated in a way that furthers his own label of being an outsider or outcast