Pan's Labyrinth Analysis

Rating: 10/10 (28 August 2015)

The film is torn between reality and fantasy, it shows us the two verges as true, letting viewers reach their own conclusion: whether, Ofelia has created an Utopian fantasy that helps her escape her harsh reality into a world "without lies or pain" or she is truly a princess trapped in a dangerous and violent situation. Both explanations are perfectly credible:
Long ago, the princess of an underground kingdom escapes, curious to see the world above, but was blinded by the bright sunlight and all of her memories of her past were erased.
Spain; 1944. The Spanish Civil War is on and small groups of rebels continue to fight. A ten-year-old Ofelia, a lover of books and fairy tales, is travelling with her mother, Carmen, to a rural village where Carmen's new husband, Captain Vidal, stationed with his men at an old mill. Carmen is heavily pregnant with Vidal's child. Ofelia's father had died during the war.
It that old mill Ofelia meets a Faun, a supernatural creature that is half-man, half-goat. He explains to Ofelia that she is really the long-lost princess from the underground realm. The Faun addresses Ofelia as Princess Moanna, and explains that he had been sent by the King to bring her home, but that she must first prove herself worthy of returning. The Faun presents Ofelia with a magic book that will detail three tasks which she must complete by the next full moon. With Mercedes, Vidal's housekeeper, as an ally; Ofelia goes through a number of danger situations, both from the magical world and from the cruel Spanish war. Her mother dies in childbirth and her last task is to take her baby brother into the Labyrinth. Meanwhile, the rebels are violently attacking the mill. The Faun tries to convince Ofelia into bleeding her baby brother to open the door to her kingdom (just a drop) but she refuses. Vidal then takes the baby from her and shoots at her. He's later killed by Mercedes brother. Ofelia then seems to have returned to her kingdom with both her parents alive, but then we see Mercedes crying and holding her body. At the end of the film, when Ofelia has died, we see a white flower blooming in the tree, meaning the tree from the first task is alive again. This last intriguing detail lets the audience wonder if Ofelia was indeed Princess Moanna for she was the only one who could 've saved the tree and that she hasn't died, she just returned safely to her own world. The mystery remains, did Ofelia hallucinated or did she really returned to her home?
OFELIA, a 10 years old girl whose father died leaving her mom to marry Captain Vidal. She's innocent and likes reading fairy tales. She seems to have created a world of fantasy in which her true father is alive and waiting for her. Or she's Princess Moanna trapped in a reality she doesn't belong to: On the one hand there's an initial force that reveals the magical world when Ofelia finds a stone that fits in a monolith that looks like a gnome. From it, an insect comes out and Ofelia takes it as a fairy. Later on she discovers the labyrinth and from this her fantasy takes form. We see the insect again at night which then takes the form of a fairy; notice that at the request of Ofelia and that just before she was scared. This could be taken as an element that comforts, that is, as psychological self-protection. Finally, there's another iconic character named "Ofelia", Hamlet's fiancé; which goes mad. Coincidence? Or is the director trying to tell us something?
In both scenarios there is a central figure who governs and who designates the fate of others: in Franco's Spain is CAPTAIN VIDAL, who is presented as a cruel and arrogant character. He is the main villain and could be seen as the monster that devours children, the Pale Man; both present a danger to Ofelia, but only until you are tempted they turn against her. The FAUN is who rules the magical world and looks dark and evil. It emanates a certain danger and sometimes we doubt whether or not he's an ally to Ofelia, sometimes he even seems sarcastic. There is a certain resemblance between him and Vidal, as if the Faun has been "contaminated" by the evil influence of the second. Maybe in her fantasy Ofelia couldn't help but bringing some danger to the magical world.
The colours are mostly cold: blues and blacks. They present the desolation of war and the coldness of the forest and the labyrinth. Whenever there's danger, the colours turn to red and orange. Most of the film takes place at night or indoors, leaving little room for hope. In addition the camera movements (traveling shots following the character) achieve the feeling that something lurks in the darkness, of constant danger and they are being watched.