Pans Labyrinth: Opening scene 1000 word essay
Pans Labyrinth: Opening Scene
The scene begins with with a black screen briefly explaining the context of the film, this fades into a rotating shot of the main character Ofelia on the ground bleeding. The camera shows Ofelia's nose bleeding in reverse which tells the audience that we are seeing the end of the film and the film will take place before the current events. The lighting is low key which tells us that the theme of the film is dark and mysterious as the audience are wondering what this is about and the top lighting is the first of our circle imagery as this is obviously taking place in the night so the light source must be the moon which is a circle, this also creates a bluish light which makes us feel cold. As the shot is rotating into zooms into her eye which once again gives us that circle imagery shown through the film and possibly suggesting that the cycle never stops and it just keeps going round and round. this could also link to after the Spanish civil war Spain stayed in a dictatorship until 1975. The scene then fades into ruins telling us more about the back story which helps us to understand the reasoning for the following events taking place.
There is then a lens glare which transitions to outside where we see an establishing shot of two black cars and a trucks. All three vehicles are dark colours so we then relate this to ideas of death and evil and they are also very modern in a natural setting so they are opposites so we naturally begin to see these as a negative thing and foreshadows something bad will happen. This then cuts to a shot of Ofelia reading a fairytale book now this tells us that this is going to be a fairy tale with a twist. We know this because most fairy tales start with a book opening but this is slightly different as the beginning is Ofelia's death in rewind and when it gets to the book its not opening and its in the middle of it. These small references try to get us to think about those fairy tales and relate them to this story and as there is already small differences we can predict that this is not going to be as happy as fairy tales and it will be twisted. It also gives Ofelia that innocence of a fairy tale princess or protagonist so w want to route for her. Then we hear our first diegetic dialogue from Carmen Ofelia's mother. This is significant as she's the second character we see which shows she has more authority then Ofelia as she tells her she has too many books so we learn that she is her mother and in charge of Ofelia and this works in an order as we then see a male who works for the Captain and he is shown to have more authority over Ofelia and then later we see the Captain he obviously has the most authority in this patriarchal society.
Ofelia's mother is obviously pregnant and she feels sick and she tells Ofelia to ask the male driver to stop the car which once again shows the patriarchal society. When the car stops she gets out and we see Carmen rush out the car in a tracking shot and then vomit which is a metaphor for the sick world she's living in. We the see Ofelia wonder off which once again tells us she doesn't care if she puts herself in danger she just wants to get out of the world that she is currently in. This is shown through a Forwards tracking shock so the audience feel as if they are in the movie and engages us more. The lighting is also much brighter and natural than in the car so it re-enforces the idea that she wants to get out of the sick world she's living in and already shows a contrast between two worlds. We then see a close up shot of a rock and Ofelia's feet as she reaches down and picks it up. We then see an over the shoulder shot of her holding the rock which has an eye engraved in it. This is the second eye we have seen and this is symbolic because at the time in the Dictated society people saw things going on but they weren't aloud to speak up about it so this may be referencing this and be symbolic for this idea. We then see a backwards tracking shot of Ofelia look at something and walking towards what she is seeing this intrigues us as we want to know what she is looking at and we become curious like Ofelia is. We are then shown a close up shot of a Statue like rock with a face engraved on it missing an eye which is followed by a reaction shot from Ofelia to show she is intrigued and it also gives the audience time to work out the eye piece she found fits in the missing part. This idea is reinforced when we see a close up of her holding the missing piece. We see her a close up of her hand slotting the eye in place and when this happens A bug which we later find out is a fairy appears from the mouth. This is symbolic for people seeing things but not being able to say but as this creature is from the fantasy world it tells us that they are very different worlds and will contrast and this will draw Ofelia in more as it already seems better than the world she is in where she can't speak. This idea is reinforced by a reaction close up shot of her being surprised and then the next shot after seeing the creature her smiling. She also ignores her mother in a tracking shot where she is more interested and happy looking at the fairy creature. When she then tells her mother she saw a fairy she changes the subject to her shoes ignoring about the fantasy she has seen and talking about the reality. In the tracking shot we can only see their backs and this tells us the story will follow Ofelia as the camera is following her as well as the creature.
The scene begins with with a black screen briefly explaining the context of the film, this fades into a rotating shot of the main character Ofelia on the ground bleeding. The camera shows Ofelia's nose bleeding in reverse which tells the audience that we are seeing the end of the film and the film will take place before the current events. The lighting is low key which tells us that the theme of the film is dark and mysterious as the audience are wondering what this is about and the top lighting is the first of our circle imagery as this is obviously taking place in the night so the light source must be the moon which is a circle, this also creates a bluish light which makes us feel cold. As the shot is rotating into zooms into her eye which once again gives us that circle imagery shown through the film and possibly suggesting that the cycle never stops and it just keeps going round and round. this could also link to after the Spanish civil war Spain stayed in a dictatorship until 1975. The scene then fades into ruins telling us more about the back story which helps us to understand the reasoning for the following events taking place.
There is then a lens glare which transitions to outside where we see an establishing shot of two black cars and a trucks. All three vehicles are dark colours so we then relate this to ideas of death and evil and they are also very modern in a natural setting so they are opposites so we naturally begin to see these as a negative thing and foreshadows something bad will happen. This then cuts to a shot of Ofelia reading a fairytale book now this tells us that this is going to be a fairy tale with a twist. We know this because most fairy tales start with a book opening but this is slightly different as the beginning is Ofelia's death in rewind and when it gets to the book its not opening and its in the middle of it. These small references try to get us to think about those fairy tales and relate them to this story and as there is already small differences we can predict that this is not going to be as happy as fairy tales and it will be twisted. It also gives Ofelia that innocence of a fairy tale princess or protagonist so w want to route for her. Then we hear our first diegetic dialogue from Carmen Ofelia's mother. This is significant as she's the second character we see which shows she has more authority then Ofelia as she tells her she has too many books so we learn that she is her mother and in charge of Ofelia and this works in an order as we then see a male who works for the Captain and he is shown to have more authority over Ofelia and then later we see the Captain he obviously has the most authority in this patriarchal society.
Ofelia's mother is obviously pregnant and she feels sick and she tells Ofelia to ask the male driver to stop the car which once again shows the patriarchal society. When the car stops she gets out and we see Carmen rush out the car in a tracking shot and then vomit which is a metaphor for the sick world she's living in. We the see Ofelia wonder off which once again tells us she doesn't care if she puts herself in danger she just wants to get out of the world that she is currently in. This is shown through a Forwards tracking shock so the audience feel as if they are in the movie and engages us more. The lighting is also much brighter and natural than in the car so it re-enforces the idea that she wants to get out of the sick world she's living in and already shows a contrast between two worlds. We then see a close up shot of a rock and Ofelia's feet as she reaches down and picks it up. We then see an over the shoulder shot of her holding the rock which has an eye engraved in it. This is the second eye we have seen and this is symbolic because at the time in the Dictated society people saw things going on but they weren't aloud to speak up about it so this may be referencing this and be symbolic for this idea. We then see a backwards tracking shot of Ofelia look at something and walking towards what she is seeing this intrigues us as we want to know what she is looking at and we become curious like Ofelia is. We are then shown a close up shot of a Statue like rock with a face engraved on it missing an eye which is followed by a reaction shot from Ofelia to show she is intrigued and it also gives the audience time to work out the eye piece she found fits in the missing part. This idea is reinforced when we see a close up of her holding the missing piece. We see her a close up of her hand slotting the eye in place and when this happens A bug which we later find out is a fairy appears from the mouth. This is symbolic for people seeing things but not being able to say but as this creature is from the fantasy world it tells us that they are very different worlds and will contrast and this will draw Ofelia in more as it already seems better than the world she is in where she can't speak. This idea is reinforced by a reaction close up shot of her being surprised and then the next shot after seeing the creature her smiling. She also ignores her mother in a tracking shot where she is more interested and happy looking at the fairy creature. When she then tells her mother she saw a fairy she changes the subject to her shoes ignoring about the fantasy she has seen and talking about the reality. In the tracking shot we can only see their backs and this tells us the story will follow Ofelia as the camera is following her as well as the creature.
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