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Pans Labyrinth Analysis

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Pans Labyrinth Analysis
Visual Cues, Harassed Symbolism and the Grim Fantasy

Unlike other blissfully enchanted film genres, this evocative fairytale becomes a surreal escape into the work of Guillermo Del Toro. This chilling story confines make believe verses reality through the eyes of a young girl. Two worlds are represented within Pan’s Labyrinth, a cold hard fascist regime in Spain, and a captivating fantasyland both conveyed through visual story telling. The striking surrealism of the fantasy world becomes reflections in reality, providing small visual cues that increase as the story unfolds, unveiling a grim interaction between Ophelia and the new world she has encountered. The style becomes the narrative within the film, and the use of mise-en-scene assists the films explicit meaning, by providing connections between the merging worlds. Del Toro uses standard and non-standard approaches in film, which speaks to the audience either intentionally or through the sub conscious, so the contrast of reality and imagination is rendered. The style throughout Pan’s Labyrinth is essential for creating dramatic dynamic throughout the film; the attention to detail becomes a fierce component to mise-en-scene, and harasses symbolism. In the beginning of the scene, Ofelia walks toward the camera in pursuit of the little creature she seen during her travels. The facial expression is bewildering, however she wants to learn more. The aspiration to study new ideas can be seen physically while she seizes onto her books, meanwhile helpers unload her other items. The grasp on her books becomes the distinguisher between make believe and reality. As Ofelia moves towards the camera, she drops her stack of books, implying that she has let go of her reality to track the small inquisitive creature. During this, men are walking around in uniform, emphasizing the strict, bleakness and harsh reality of Ofelias new circumstance. Men lined in a row suggest that this new place is in order, with routine that

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