Pan's Labyrinth Mise En Scene Analysis

Pan’s Labyrinth – Mise En Scene Guillermo del Toro contrasts two worlds with mise-en-scene, the romantic world compared to the realistic world. He accomplishes this with a distinguished use of lighting as well as objects, changing the styles based of which world he aims to portray. He paints reality has unforgiving and harsh while the romantic world receives a more fantastic, lighthearted tint. He also uses German Expressionistic qualities of mirroring internal landscapes of the characters with the external settings. Sharpness plays a major part in Pan’s Labyrinth, from the architecture to the props. With the props, Del Toro places emphasis on keys and knives. Keys posses an obvious denotation of being able to unlock things that previously stayed out of reach. In the film, they are used as a means of breaking into the military camp, a literal example of unlocking. However, they also hold the connotation of being able to unlock deeper, more meaningful things, such as emotion. Knives also carry symbolic weight within the context of the movie. While keys act similarly, knives even more so act as phallic symbols. They entail power. This can be clearly seen with Ofeila, whom as a woman, lacks phallic quality on her own and therefore the viewers find her more helpless, but with the knife she
holds some level of power. She can protect herself. Again sharpness comes into play with the architectural qualities of the setting and helps to create two different worlds.
The realistic side of the world in the film is portrayed as harsh and unforgiving with the lack of smooth edges or surfaces. Throughout the film, Del Toro invokes German Expressionism in the use of landscapes, which mirror internal emotions. The harsh nature of realism shows itself in the hard edges and sharp lines when Del Toro depicts scenes with the Captain. Ofeila’s scenes demonstrate romanticism. They exhibit smooth, curving sets, which give a looser feel to the scenes. The viewers feel a more abstract element when watching her
scenes. Lighting also plays a role in separating worlds as well as in creating a sense of unsettledness and mystery. Blocking also plays a role in mystery. The latter is accomplished with Del Toro’s placement of people in positions where parts of the set, or props obscure or cut of part of the viewer perception of them. Not being able to see them completely creates a sense of obfuscation and mystery. Lighting also contributes to this in some scenes, especially those with Ofeila and the fantasy based scenes. In these scenes, low-key lighting is used to create a sort of veil or place f hiding. It also makes the viewer uneasy. High-key lighting is used in scenes with the Captain to externalize his desire to be kept in the light or in the-know. These qualities effectively separate the Captain’s realistic, harsh world without mystery with Ofeila’s fantastic reality of vagueness and ambiguity.