Pan's Labyrinth Style and Themes

Style

Guillermo Del Torro has a fasination

Themes

1. Rebellion
2. Imagination
3. Power
4. Imagination
5. Escapism
6. Fantasy 

Brief Context in 3 Films

German Expressionalism and Tim Burton

• German Expressionism is the artistic movement in Germany after World War I. It embodied the mental and physical wounds inflicted after the war was lost.
• The German Expressionist movement carries a legacy that still holds to this day, especially with film makers like Tim Burton. 
• The Expressionist movement as a whole began in the late 19th century through various artistic media. The movement picked up in Germany and heightened with a new medium of art -film.

• Above: A still from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1920. The movement is often characterized with dark, stylized sets, with characters whose movements reflect their environment. 
• In the above movie still, both characters shown are twisted and contorted, almost identical to their surroundings. 
• The entire scene (mise en scène) appears chaotic, possibly representing the feelings of the German people at that time.

• Edward Scissorhands was one of Tim Burton’s first major films. 
• His fan base became much of what it is today because of this movie. 
• Burton’s films have always come with the expectation of a unique experience. 
• Burton’s films also often quietly attack social normalcies and question his viewers of what they believe is acceptable, by creating loveable characters. 
• Most of Burton’s movies and productions involve a socially awkward lead who is able to find love or acceptance from someone in society or society itself.
• Using dark humor and unusual examples, Burton tells his stories in a way that only he can. 
• Burton pays homage to The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari in Edward Scissorhands by essentially recreating the 1920s film.

In Edward Scissorhands, Johnny Depp plays a character (Edward Scissorhands) who looks similar to Conrad Veidt (Cesare). Both characters are rather awkward and manipulated throughout both films. Edward by society, Cesare by an evil hypnotist.

When Tim Burton had massive commercial success with his 1992 Batman Returns, it was obvious that Danny DeVito’s Penguin character derived direct inspiration from Dr. Caligari himself, as more of a dark, homicidal, and mentally unstable character as opposed to the intelligent, calculating, and wealthy renditions of the Penguin character in the Batman comics.

SOURCE: https://storify.com/StrangeMixtie/the-influence-of-german-expressionalism-in-tim-bur

French New Wave

In this video, we played with the idea of the French New Wave style of filming, in which we used jump cuts, hand held cameras. However we could've improved our clip with natural lighting and sound. We also could've improved upon the length of the clip, however we didn't have enough footage to put together a longer clip. If we had another chance to make the clip we would manage our time more wisely so that we have more footage to use. I used a black and white filter to give the footage an aged look, as well as a vintage filter to darken the edges.

Magical Realism

In this video I played with the idea of Magical realism and how someone is affected emotionally into thinking that something is there when it isn't. Our idea was that the man is dreaming about his lost lover who he is seen with in his dreams but she isn't there because they are no longer together. I faded the beginning black and white footage into the dream-like footage to make it seem like he's dreaming. I gave the footage a romantic feel to reflect what the man is feeling emotionally. Some footage wasn't useable so it was hard to put together a full clip but I feel that this short clip shows what the full clip would look like. I definitely think theres room for improvement, for example, there could've been more footage at the beginning of the man in reality, perhaps stumbling across items that remind them of his lover. I also think that if we decided on what props to use we could've taken our ideas in a different direction than a romantic relationship. For example, we could've taken a more comical route of a dazed man imaging things are there after being intoxicated; the camerawork, mise-en-scene, editing and lighting could reflect this. For me, it was important to understand the concept of Magical Realism because the film that I am studying, 'Pan's Labyrinth', shows Magical Realism through the main character Ofelia's belief in make belief which distracts her from the struggles she has to cope with in reality.

Styles of National Cinema

1. Magical Realism
2. French New Wave 

Both styles go against the mainstream styles in Hollywood films.

MAGICAL REALISM

An aesthetic style or genre of fiction in which magical elements are blended into a realistic atmosphere in order to access a deeper understanding of reality. Magical Realism is a form of fiction which inspires many unique interpretations.

Examples: 

1. "One Hundred Years of Solitude", when one of the characters is shot and his blood trickles all the way across town to his mother.
2. "House of the Spirits" is when a girl with green hair floats away into the clouds because she is so pure.

A professor from Colombia said that "magical realism exists because for us it has to. Life is so bad so often that we can only be happy with the hope of the impossible."

FRENCH NEW WAVE 

A movement in French cinema in the 1960s, led by directors such as Jean Luc Godard and François Truffaut, that abandoned traditional narrative techniques in favor of greater use of symbolism and abstraction and dealt with themes of social alienation,psychopathology, and sexual love. Also called nouvelle vague.

Examples:

Spanish Civil War

BRIEF BACKGROUND

• In the 1930s, Spain was a deeply divided country that was politically torn between right-wing Nationalist and left-wing Republican parties. 
• The Nationalist party was made up of monarchists, landowners, employers, the Roman Catholic Church and the army. 
• The Republicans consisted of the workers, the trade unions, socialists and peasants.
• Economically, the country had been deeply hit by the Great Depression after the Wall Street Crash. 
• Partly due to this turmoil, in 1929 the military dictatorship that had ruled Spain since 1923 collapsed.
• In 1931 the King abdicated after the Republicans came to power.
• There followed a period where the two political rivals had periods in power as the elected government. 
• The country was so divided and unstable that in 1936 the army rebelled and forcibly removed the Republicans from power. Civil war ensued.

IMPORTANCE OF SPAIN IN EUROPE

• If Spain fell to the Nationalists, France would be surrounded by Fascist powers (Germany and Italy). 
• If France was invaded by Fascist nations, the alliances between other anti-Fascist nations would be weakened. 
• In effect, there would be one less nation to resist Fascist plans to expand their borders - one less army to stand up to them.
• Spain also had strategic naval bases on the Mediterranean Sea and Atlantic Ocean that could be used by the Fascists to control shipping and for setting up submarine bases.
• These could be used to put military and economic pressure on other European nations.

THE RESULTS

• The better organised and better equipped Nationalist forces won the war after Madrid was captured in March 1939.
• Hitler's position in Europe was now strengthened since he had another potential ally in the right-wing dictator of Spain, General Franco.
• Participation and co-operation in the Spanish war strengthened the bond between Italy and Germany. As a result, the Rome-Berlin Axis was formed. Italy and Germany were now firm allies.
• By ignoring the Non-Intervention Committee and its chief architects, France and Britain, Hitler had shown his strength in European affairs.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/higher/history/roadwar/spancivil/revision/1/