Pan's Labyrinth

How this film uses it

Del Toro gives the brutal realism of fascist Spain and the lush unreality of Ofelia's fairy tale the same intensity all the way through. Neither world softens the other. The fairy tale is beautiful, and the Captain's violence still hurts just as much. The real world's horror is concrete, and the fairy tale stays just as dangerous.

Where to see it

The Pale Man's banquet table and the Captain's dinner party. The Pale Man sits at the head of a laden table just as the Captain does, so the 2 worlds run side by side and each is horrifying in its own way.

How this film uses it

The underground kingdom has specific laws. The tasks come in a fixed order, the pale man guards a particular feast and the faun's instructions have to be followed exactly. Del Toro's world rewards you for paying attention. Inside that world, the rules are real and breaking them has real consequences.

Where to see it

Ofelia breaking the rule at the pale man's table. She knows this is the 1 rule she cannot break, and the punishment comes at once and is completely real.

How this film uses it

The fantasy world is full of warm golds and deep greens, so it feels organic, alive and ancient. The real world has its color drained down to cold greens and military grey, so it feels artificial, institutional and dead. The colors make the film's point before anyone speaks: the fantasy is more alive than the reality.

Where to see it

The first descent underground. The image shifts from the grey Spanish landscape to the golden space below, and the color tells you which world has life in it.

How this film uses it

Del Toro gives you evidence for both readings throughout. The mandrake root seems to physically affect the Captain's wife, and Ofelia's death happens at the same moment as her fairy tale coronation. The film never confirms whether the underground kingdom is real. As cliche as it sounds, leaving it open is a moral stance. The fantasy is true whether or not it is real.

Where to see it

The final sequence. Ofelia dies in the real world and is crowned in the fantasy world at the same time. The film leaves the link between the 2 worlds open on purpose.

How this film uses it

The chalk door, the book of tasks and the mandrake root each stand for something specific. The chalk door is Ofelia's power to act, the ability to make an opening where there is none. The book shows that her story has already been written. The mandrake root ties the fantasy to the physical body, and neither world can fully explain how.

Where to see it

Ofelia drawing the chalk door on her bedroom wall to reach the Pale Man's lair. The fantasy gets into the real world, and she creates her own power to act by drawing it.

How this film uses it

Del Toro and cinematographer Guillermo Navarro use warm amber and gold for the fantasy sequences and cold blue-gray for the real world. The color tells you where the film's sympathies are. The fantasy world is dangerous and still feels warm. The real world is orderly and still feels cold. When Ofelia chooses between them, she is also choosing between warm and cold color.

Where to see it

The cut between the cold blue of the military outpost and the warm gold of the labyrinth's entrance. The color shift tells you which world you have entered.

How this film uses it

Whether or not the labyrinth is real, it lets Ofelia survive a world where she has no power. The fairy tale gives her tasks, an identity and a say in what happens to her, which she can't have in the real world. Del Toro treats the fiction as morally necessary. Imagination is the only place where a powerless child gets to make a choice.

Where to see it

Ofelia's conversation with the mandrake root beneath her mother's bed. She makes a private world there where she can care for someone and act for herself, and the film treats it as real.