Pan's Labyrinth Essay - Excellence

To what extent is the use of fantasy crucial to the success of Pan’s Labyrinth?

Thesis Statement: the fantastical world is crucial to opening up a new angle in which to see the real world, heightening the controlling and truly evil aspects of fascism and human desire for power without losing focus. It also succeeds in allowing us to explore our imagination with freedom not readily available in the typical cinematic experience.

Fantasy in Guillermo Del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, morphs between eerie fairytale interpretations and a horrific reality to effectively create a film that expresses convincingly the value of imagination when faced with Ofelia’s sadistic adversaries, and that “we live in a moment where choice and disobedience are necessary” in order to survive and defend our own individuality as Del Toro decidedly . That the fantastical world opens up a new angle in which to see the real world, heightening the controlling and truly evil aspects of fascism and human desire for power. The correlation between Ofelia’s desire to rebel against the dictatorship of Vidal (and the faun) suggests a human desire to strive for independence and individuality. The imagination is one of the most unique tools utilised to achieve a better reality in both Pan’s Labyrinth and in part, the world around us. In what could be seen as a noted the director’s specific style, Pan’s Labyrinth convincingly portrays these ideas and messages with constant reference to gothic fairy tale allusions, motifs and techniques such as a combination of colour, lighting and transitional links to establish a seductively foreboding tone that both warns us as an audience and draws us further into the twisted depths of Pan’s Labyrinth. Guillermo Del Toro establishes a piece of cinematic art that traces horror right back to the essentials of our childhoods and human tradition; fantasy and fairytale. Fantasy explores our imagination within the film with freedom not readily available in the typical cinematic experience.

The presence of fantasy is apparent in Pan’s Labyrinth from beginning to end. Del Toro utilises fantastical elements -commonly seen in traditional folklore- in the real world. This merges both worlds and causes them to remain inseparable throughout the film. The transformation of real creatures into fairies, and the noting of time in both create a bridge between the worlds that reflects the freedom of Ofelia’s underworld in comparison to the vulnerability she experiences in reality. The insects’ transformation to the three fairies of the underworld act as a links between fantasy and reality, indicating that the insects are fairies in disguise, waiting for the right person to awaken their true identity. This happens to be Ofelia as she exclaims that she “just saw a fairy”. Further along, the same insect is shown transforming into the fairy from Ofelia’s book, thus transfusing the novelist quality of the fantastical and creating it literally. This happens once Ofelia has entered the farmhouse; Vidal’s lair. In such a hostile setting there is a need for an escape from the brutality that resides there. This need for imagination heightens the danger of the real world. The bugs are to the audience’s eye sickening to look at, but Ofelia turns to hideousness with the potential to be imagined away rather than the hideousness of Vidal that cannot be obliterated. She reverts back to her imagination in order to escape the horror that she feels is to come, foreshadowed by shaking Vidal’s hand. He tells her “it’s the other hand” as she has shaken with her left hand, the secret signal rebels used during the Civil War. Vidal’s emotionless nature is further seen through the verbal motif of clocks ticking. Del Toro constantly refers to time in the fantastical and real worlds. The moon is a heightened symbol of time running out in fantasy, its natural marking of the passage of time is indicative of the good earthy feel to the underworld. It is right. It contrasts hugely to the efficiency of Vidal’s regime, everything serves a purpose and is done to exact specifications. Keeping to Del Toro’s emphasis and auteristic symbolism, Vidal’s pocket watch is indicative of this. The noting of time in two different ways suggests the coming of death for Ofelia and even the fascist regime. Vidal’s insistence that his son “know the time of his father’s death” is again remaining consistent with the fairytale element of time signalling the beginning and ending of all things and both worlds take advantage of this. Various close ups of the moon’s constant presence and the references to Vidal’s watch and being punctual are reference to the transference of time in the real world to Ofelia’s imagination telling her the same thing in a different form. All leads up to her climactic death. Even the narrator in the opening sequence says that Princess Moanna’s (Ofelia) father would wait for her “until the world stopped turning”. As her blood falls into the labyrinth, a reflection of the moon is seen in the water, separated by part of the stone carving, showing her separation from life and the real world. But the new ripples forming as a result of her blood sacrifice could be seen as a new circle of life being made available to her in the underworld. The moon is also commonly seen as a symbol of womanhood, appropriate in Pan’s Labyrinth as it keeps consistent with the fairytale female character’s journey from child to adult. However, the male dominance of Vidal’s steely watch triumphs over this as Ofelia’s life is cut short by him before the moon has passed its cycle. The real world and fantasy world still reside in a patriarchal system, right down to the difference of Del Toro’s portrayal of time. This merging of symbols in both worlds suggests that one cannot exist without the other; Del Toro has created a stylistic bond between them and viewers distinguish the difference mainly in plot and physical setting as opposed to technique. An inspiration for Guillermo Del Toro was the symbolist artist movement of the 1800s, taking the artistic licence of Felicien Rops and reflects the same dark elegance in his caricatures of the Pale Man and the Greedy Frog. His stylistic telling of Ofelia’s underworld is surrealist. Neither the fictional nor the real world in Pan’s Labyrinth could be seen as a realistically portrayed plot. This brings up the idea that our imagination simply translates the realities we live into surreal symbols reflecting not only events but emotion and connotations. Del Toro introduces and resolves Pan’s Labyrinth in fantasy, hitting home the importance of fantasy. The content of the fantasy world allows Del Toro to make a political comment that through Ofelia – a child with an active imagination – hits us at the core of our own upbringing; through fairytale conventions and the magical solidity of tales centuries old.

Del Toro’s fantasy world further enhances the vivid brutality of Vidal’s fascist regime through the use of shadowing the fantastical to the real. Throughout Pan’s Labyrinth, Del Toro purposefully creates Ofelia’s world to be a stylistic reflection of the fascist regime. There are many symbols and repeated shots that indicate this. One such technique used by Guillermo throughout Pan’s Labyrinth to enhance the mythical telling of the story is in the use of threes. In fairytales generally, a rule of three is used; three tasks, three fairies, three doors. Del Toro uses this to his advantage creating for Ofelia as many threes as possible in the real and fantastical world. Three heroines are created, each representing a stereotypical image of the woman; Carmen as the meek wife, Ofelia as the child and Mercedes as the shrew. It’s an interesting thought that the women in this film are all under the power and control of Vidal: the open symbol of fascism. It suggests that women are creative and weak, subject to the efficiency and rigidity of fascism, and that “the real world isn’t like [Ofelia’s] fairytales”. Mercedes however triumphs over this, slicing Vidal’s shoulders and mouth declaring that Vidal “isn’t the first pig [she’s] gutted”. Del Toro forms Mercedes to be an openly rebellious individual, in comparison to Ofelia’s closet rebellion and Carmen’s apathetic nature. They also represent the three degrees of reaction to fascism that we should expect to feel and see. This could also be seen as an interpretation of what lies behind the three doors in the Pale Man’s lair. She chooses the door that the fairies do not point to. She is refusing to conform and therefore picks the door that sets her future for rebellion. Furthermore, the rule of three is further shown as three fairies assist the faun in the underworld (also called the Pan in the westernised translation, however Del Toro thought that ‘Pan’ was a name with too strong a history) to help Ofelia complete her quest. There are three tasks Ofelia must complete “before the moon is full”, shown to her in a blank book; three representative villains in the fantastical world. All three tasks are overcome by Ofelia in a symbolic quashing of fascism on a scale she can battle out. She is, in her way a younger version of Mercedes just forming her own ability to snatch out at injustice and fight bravely against the metaphorical Vidal. She is fighting the fascist regime in the fantastical world as she could not fight it in reality. However, Ofelia is killed by Vidal and she does not live to see the fascist regime overcome by the rebels. Although she dies, it is only in the real world. She is resurrected in the underworld to remain forever in the paradise she dreams so passionately about. We are encouraged to think about why she had to be sacrificed. No other outcome would have affected us. Bittersweet films always linger in our minds far longer than happy endings do. Her innocent sacrifice also makes us loathe the sadistic man and the regime he represents who could kill a child. This rule of threes further emphasises the presence of fantasy in the vicinity of the Labyrinth. The “rule of three” fairytale structure helps keep the structure within Pan’s Labyrinth that syncs perfectly with the affect of the fascist regime in Spain at the time. Ofelia’s rebellion against Vidal and fascism is also clearly seen in the caricatures that Del Toro creates in the fantasy world. These are foes which Ofelia can overcome in stages. It is interesting to note that the more fantastical villains Ofelia overcomes the weaker Vidal’s hold over his territory becomes. The toad that resides in the fig tree “consuming it with his greed” shows the simple and unruly need to consume anything and everything around it. The toad consumes the bugs that make the fig tree fertile as Vidal consumes the natural harmony that should reside around him. He uproots the land that is not his (it could be seen as the sacred land of the Labyrinth) and plants his own –as Sergei Lopez calls his character – “deranged and psychopathic” self into the land around him, poisoning it with his fascist ideals and choking Ofelia’s freedom. The claustrophobic feel to the camera shots within Vidal’s house is indicative of this in opposition to the wide shots in open spaces with symmetry and clarity in the forest surrounding Vidal’s farmhouse. Ofelia overcomes the toad though and declares that she is “not afraid of [him]”. We can see the Pale Man’s consumption of innocents similarly to Vidal’s consumption of Ofelia’s and Carmen’s lives. The orchestration of the music accompanying the Pale Man in his lair is similar to that of Vidal’s; unsettling and suspenseful. We know that something is about to go wrong. The composition of the table in the Pale Man’s lair, a table laden with all sorts of tempting fruits while the Pale Man sits dormant at the head is then cross cut with Vidal in a similar position in his own house. The parallel between reality and fantasy is undeniable. Ofelia though, escapes again and Vidal is unable to harm her. Finally, the dictatorial aspects of the Pan faun are also able to be seen as Vidal-like characteristics. The faun is uncompromising and the dark lighting the constantly surrounds him highlights a mystery and fear of the unknown in which he resides. But Ofelia rebels against him and refuses to sacrifice her brother. The faun is not seen in the resolution when a point of view shot from Vidal looks at Ofelia; the faun is missing. Transference has taken place where it could be said that Vidal has become the faun in his anger. His weaponry (gun, knife; killing tools) can be seen as indicative of this as well as the sole point of view shot from Vidal. This time the Pan is too strong for her, and he leaves her fate to the real world; to Vidal. His cold and heartless extinguishment of Ofelia is the final show of fascist prowess. But it is not prowess, it is cowardice and shows fascism to be an idea without morals or principles. Del Toro makes the fantastical villains vital to Ofelia’s rebellion. She cannot physically harm or rid herself of Vidal in the real world, so she attempts to obliterate him in a medium that she can control; her imagination. Without this, Ofelia would have been set an impossible task and we would not believe Del Toro. The fantasy creates a distortion of reality that symbolises the oppressive and truly evil aspects of fascism and advises us to rebel in any way we can. Guillermo Del Toro uses characters and visual and verbal links in order to educate his audience about his specific attitudes towards fascism and on a more general scale, to humanity’s desire for power and control over the circumstances we live in. Through this we forget to live right, and instead live in greed and heartlessness. Del Toro aims to drive that out of our system in a way that connects with the essence of our childhood; fairytales.

Guillermo del Toro also explores the idea that fantasy and imagination is crucial to the expression of rebellion. The characters that Del Toro has cast in a sympathetic light all rebel against the fascist regime that takes place in the real world. To simply obey and apathetically do as the fascists dictate is said to be “something only people like you can do Captain”, only fascists who live to serve one ruler and ignore the core of humanity; individuality and independence of thought. Both events and uses of sound can affirm the idea that Del Toro wishes to see this. The artistic inspiration Del Toro draws his cinematography from were rebels in their time, bending away from the norm of artistic works and relying heavily on symbolism and warped realities as opposed to realism and beauty. Del Toro also drew out the beauty that exists through and between the darkness. His opposite use of lighting shows a rebellion to other generic film styles concerning lighting. Throughout the film, notably during Ofelia’s first encounter with the faun, the natural world is cast in low key lighting and blue filter. In a general sense, films tend to use blue filters and darkness to represent fear and evil. Ofelia however, sees these warped and abnormal creatures as beautiful. We are taught to ignore the general rules that we subconsciously associate with good and evil for the sake of rebellion and the unexpected. Darkness here is a reference to the moon’s cycle and the depth and mystery that can be so alluring about the darkness. We are first introduced to the faun in darkness and shadow. The blue filter casts out most of the background behind him and exaggerates the mystery about Pan. He claims to be “the mountain, the forest and the earth”, and that he is Ofelia’s “most humble servant”. At first we distrust him for this, but as we gradually adjust to the portrayal of light and dark as Vidal – the epitome of evil, is cast in the light (combined with high angle shots and a noticeable lack of two shots) we see the faun as Ofelia does, as he visits her room, still in darkness he is a welcome sight for Ofelia who has been locked away by Vidal. This showing of light plays with our expectations, rebels against the classic film making habits that we see generally and emphasises the beauty that resides in the dark earthy places in the world. Ofelia is often cast in darkness, with backlighting to indicate who our allegiance as viewers lies with. We associate her rightfully with the free-roaming darkness.

Ofelia neglects the real world as she rebels against her mother’s wishes (and does not attend the banquet), Vidal’s regime (escaping with Mercedes) and eventually refuses to sacrifice her brother for her own gains. Guillermo del Toro also uses the ethereal lullaby in both diagetic and non-diagetic instances in order to assist this showing of fantastical rebellion in all its mythical magnificence. Its adjustment from a delicate strings arrangement to the rich and suspenseful viola signals the transition from reality to fantasy. Mercedes introduces the theme as an old folktale that she has “forgotten the words” to. The ancient lullaby is as the soul of the ancient Princess Moanna’s, stretching out beyond fascism and man. It gives strength to the character and, as what del Toro refers to as a younger version of Mercedes, she begins to refuse to conform as her mother did. This lullaby also serves to empower us. Its original purpose (songs that sung us to sleep in the time of our childhood) serves as a reminder of our own childhood when anything was possible, as our imagination was not tamped down by the propriety of adulthood and sensibility. As Carmen points out, we are “too old for [fairy stories]”. Pan’s Labyrinth however, rejects this thought and sees Ofelia triumphant in the end inside her underworld of fantasy. The lullaby is played in all its grandeur rising above the painfully sharp strings that ring out in the approach of Ofelia’s death. Ofelia has overcome death as she overcame the fascist will of Vidal to dictate wherever and whomever he chose. Ofelia proves to the audience that there is beauty in rebellion and the mystery that lies within the incomprehensible depths of our imaginations can serve to overcome our mental battles, helping us to rebel outside ourselves. Ofelia’s age and inexperience does not hinder her bravery and trust in the shadows and ancient moss-covered magic around her, rather her youth allows her to rebel against the warnings of her mother and fulfil del Toro’s image of the necessity to disobey and follow one’s own moral compass rather than the cold and efficient watch of Vidal.

The fantastical mirror image of the real world in Pan’s Labyrinth is crucial to understanding the essence of the human imagination as it inspires rebellion and suggests to the viewer that the imagination is necessary to escape the horrors around us. Del Toro further uses the imagination to symbolically assure his audience of the brutality of fascism. Although not all his viewers have been exposed to fascism, we are educated through allusion and symbolism in the fantastical world to loathe the fascism Vidal represents. Ofelia’s fantastical world leaves so much to the audience’s imagination (such as whether or not the underworld is in fact real) within Pan’s Labyrinth, that the exploration of it becomes a surrealist window that allows the audience to delve into the perverse nature Del Toro makes fascism out to be. He shows it to be suppressive and almost non-human in its antagonistic representation through the character Vidal. His symbolising fascism and real events in Ofelia’s world inspires a link between both fantasy and reality that makes them unable to be separated without hindering the film’s true auteristic quality that Guillermo del Toro succeeds in using to make Pan’s Labyrinth a truly unique and affecting piece of work. The logic and necessity for the fantastical world enables Ofelia to defeat Vidal and fascism in a believable way. We would not believe Ofelia capable of truly succeeding over Vidal in reality, until she has done it in the realms of her imagination. The fantasy world allows us to explore the aspect of rebellion and time as well as the reflection and hints of it in reality. Her sacrifice for her brother, who “has caused [her] so much pain and humiliation” is rebellion against the faun and emphasises del Toro’s wish to educate us about the value of morality in the face of obeying “for obedience’s sake” and risking the loss of what we hold dear. He tells his audience about the rewards for assertions of individuality. Guillermo uses stylistic techniques and plays with our expectations concerning the portrayal of light, composition, camera angles as well as characters and sounds to make his point. Pan’s Labyrinth is a chilling story about the fight for freedom and the risks that must be taken in order to achieve it. It’s an affecting story that calls into question the very nature of our role in the face of emotionless greed. Guillermo del Toro brings us back to the core of fairytale essentials to hit home the importance of an imagination, making itself available only to “those who know where to look”.