Pan's Labyrinth - Star obsession II

Pan’s Labyrinth tell us the story of a little girl who seeks refuge from the violence and misery of her life in a fantasy world that turns out to be just as menacing. This film is not quite like anything you’ve seen before.

Pan’s Labyrinth centers on Ofelia a girl whose mother has married a brutal Civil Captain, Vidal. With her pregnant mother bedridden and her stepfather busy hunting down insurgents, Ofelia sets about exploring the grounds of her new home: a remote mill that has been converted into Vidal’s military headquarters. It doesn’t take her long to uncover the magical features of this environment. Chief among them is the labyrinth out back, where a towering faun guards a portal to the underworld. According to the faun, Ofelia just might be a long-lost princess, and before she can be whisked away to her rightful domain and leave the sadness of her earthly life behind, she must prove herself by completing three tasks — and she must do so before the moon is full.

Pan’s Labyrinth is Navarro’s fourth collaboration with Del Toro, and the picture shares themes and visual motifs with their other works, the Spanish productions Cronos and The Devil’s Backbone. Navarro and Del Toro are comfortable on the same visual wavelength: they share a love of darkness and stylized color, and of letting the images carry the narrative burden.

A strong visual concept was especially crucial on Pan’s Labyrinth in order to establish the parallel narratives and then bring them together. As the film progresses, the question of whether what’s happening is real or only in Ofelia’s imagination arises with increasing frequency, and becomes more complicated to answer.

According to Del Toro, the key element in the design of Pan’s Labyrinth was color. The initial color differentiation between the film’s two worlds was simple: Ofelia’s fantasy world would feature mainly warm colors, primarily crimsons and golden ambers. This warmth also infuses the worlds of the rebel fighters in the nearby hills and the friendly housekeeper who secretly aids the rebels and befriends Ofelia. By contrast, the harsh reality represented by Vidal and his troops is coded in cold hues of blue and green, and many of their environments feature sharp angles.