Mise-en-scene in Pan's Labyrinth

Mise-en-scene in Pan's Labyrinth

1. Conveying messages and values

   • The message is about the savage nature of humanity and so when in the real world there are weapons shown which connote death and torture and the colours differentiate between the real world and the fantasy, the real world being full of blue tones and the fantasy being golds and yellow
   • There are multiple connotations that can be interpreted from the toad and the tree for example, the toad could represent Ofelias mother and how the toad is her son and is slowly killing her as the toad is eating the tree and it is slowly dying and is in the shape of a womb but can also be interpreted in the way that it could represent how the spanish upper class is killing the lower class by hoarding spains limited resources
   • Constantly shown women who do not participate and in a patriacal society where a womens main role is to bear children

2. Principal elements

   • costume
     • The pale man is in full prosthetics, no CGI was used in the scene and it made him look extremly weird and evil so the audience realsie that he is apart of the fantasy world and is a villain looking to kill Ofelia
     • Ofelia is generally dressed in simple attire which could help portray how innocent she is, she also wears a lot of green giving her a natural vibe and ties in with nature and the natural world
     • The uniforms of the Spanish Military is a cold, grey-blue, icy colour and contrasted with the clothing of characters that stand in opposition to them
     • Mercedes dresses in dark neutrals, mostly browns and beiges which clashes with Vidals cool blues
     • The grey-blue colours of the uniform corresponds to Vidal's cold and frigid personality
     • Also the costumes help tell the audience the time period the film is set in
   • props
     • Ofelia and her mother travels ina Rolls-Royce Phantom model III model which is a characteristic of the period of the spanish war
     • The truck that carried their luggage was rusty and dirty, fitting the role of a warlike transport vehicle
   • make-up
     • The makeup of the pale man is very important as it contributes to the magical theme the movie has and makes the pale man more effective on the audience
     • The faun is made up of makeup to show the mystical creature and make him stand out from other characters as he is the main character within the fantasy world
   • setting
     • The internal setting is related to the 2 parallel worlds
     • The reality world happens during the the Spanish civil war in spain and women are subordinate to men. It is set at a time of suspicion and paranoia
     • The fantasy world is closly connected to an old and abbandoned labyrinth and the underworld kingdom existing a long time ago.