Pale Man Scene Analysis
Choose one scene from Pan's Labyrinth to explore the cinematography and mise-en-scene, and how they create meaning.
My chosen scene is the scene where Ofelia eats the grapes from the Pale Man's table, the mise-en-scene of costume/prosthetics of the pale man makes him extremely underweight with white, sagging skin and his face is without eyes or a nose, just nostrils and a mouth, he is completely hairless, this design makes him appear like a grotesque monster, but since he was made with prosthestics he looks real to the audience. The mise-en-scene of setting is in the fantasy world, so the design is with warm colours like red and brown, the pale man is sat at the head of a table covered in food - mimicking an earlier scene where Vidal was sat in the same position at a similar table in the real world, thus creating a link between Vidal and the Pale Man.
In my opinion, Guillermo Del Toro is representing the Pale Man as Vidal to illustrate Ofelia's feelings about him, because she isn't allowed to speak how she feels, both as a woman, a child and as someone under fascist rule, which Spain was during 1942 when the movie was set. Though, this scene is also about the disobedience of Ofelia which almost results in her death, this links with the end of the film where her disobedience of Vidal causes her death.
The scene is shot using a telephoto lens, which we can tell because of the shallow depth of vision, since the foreground is out of focus. It starts with a medium close-up on Ofelia, swatting the pink fairy away conveying to the audience that Ofelia is going to be breaking the rule of no eating from the pale man's table (before the start of my chosen scene Ofelia already looked from the Pale Man to the grape, so the audience already knew what was going to happen), this is an intertextual reference to Alice in Wonderland except twisted, since rather than being told to eat the mysterious food, Ofelia is told not to. There is then a cut to a close-up of grapes on the table panning left slightly with Ofelia picking one up, before they cut back to the medium close-up of Ofelia and the fairies as she eats the grape, the camera then pans over Ofelia's shoulder to the Pale Man, shifting him into focus, behind him you can see the fire, which is reminiscent of the fire during Vidal's scene, but also looks like a face with menacing teeth, showing the fantasy world is a mirror of the real world, which could imply that the fantasy world is just in Ofelia's mind to help cope with reality. The scene then cuts to medium close-up of the Pale Man's hands and eyes, the hands have black finger tips and sharp nails similar to an animal or a monster and it's eyes are red which an audience links to evil.
As he moves the camera pans right, then once his hands have moved it starts to pan upwards quicker than before to his face, the speed of the panning slows as his head moves and he growls. There is a cut to a close-up of his hands picking up his eyes, with a tracking shot of his hand moving with his eye as he places it into his hand where they show has an eyelid for the eye to be placed in, this could be linked to Vidal ignoring Ofelia until she disobeys him or does something wrong. The scene cuts to a medium close-up shot of the Pale Man lifting his hands with his eyes on them to his head where the eyes of a usual human would be. Again they cut to a close-up of the grapes, this time with a tracking shot of Ofelia's hand when she picks a grape and brings it her mouth, then the camera stops at a medium close-up of Ofelia, no longer following the grape. In this medium close-up shot of Ofelia, the green fairy tries to take the second grape from Ofelia, which if the Pale Man represents Vidal, then the fairy could represent Ofelia's mother trying to make Ofelia obey Vidal. In the foreground of the scene the Pale man can be seen standing up and moving very strangely out of focus, as Ofelia eats the second grape, the Pale Man approaches menacingly building tension in the audience, the Pale Man takes up half of the screen showing his overbearing presence.
Since Ofelia eats two grapes, this could insinuate the Pale Man's eyes, or it could represent castration of the Pale Man, because as he stands up in the foreground, we can see he lacks any genitalia, this metaphorical castration of the Pale Man could link with Ofelia at the end of the movie stealing Vidal's baby boy from him. When Ofelia looks back noticing the Pale Man, it cuts to a medium close-up of him while the fries try to attack him. Then there is another cut to a high angle, mid shot of Ofelia watching the Pale Man flail around to defend against the fairies - this could be a reflection of reality where Ofelia's family fights to protect her. There is a cut to flip perspectives from the Pale Man to Ofelia, with a mid shot of the Pale Man, then the scene cuts to a medium close-up of the Pale Man, as he grabs the fairies. The scene then cuts to another high angle, mid shot of Ofelia's reaction to the Pale Man bringing the fairy up to his mouth to eat. As the Pale Man eats the pink fairy, there is a cut to a close-up of the Pale Man showing the audience the horrifying death - this could foreshadow the death of Ofelia's mother or it could imply that Ofelia has a fear of losing those who are protecting her from Vidal like her mother and Mercedes.
My chosen scene is the scene where Ofelia eats the grapes from the Pale Man's table, the mise-en-scene of costume/prosthetics of the pale man makes him extremely underweight with white, sagging skin and his face is without eyes or a nose, just nostrils and a mouth, he is completely hairless, this design makes him appear like a grotesque monster, but since he was made with prosthestics he looks real to the audience. The mise-en-scene of setting is in the fantasy world, so the design is with warm colours like red and brown, the pale man is sat at the head of a table covered in food - mimicking an earlier scene where Vidal was sat in the same position at a similar table in the real world, thus creating a link between Vidal and the Pale Man.
The scene is shot using a telephoto lens, which we can tell because of the shallow depth of vision, since the foreground is out of focus. It starts with a medium close-up on Ofelia, swatting the pink fairy away conveying to the audience that Ofelia is going to be breaking the rule of no eating from the pale man's table (before the start of my chosen scene Ofelia already looked from the Pale Man to the grape, so the audience already knew what was going to happen), this is an intertextual reference to Alice in Wonderland except twisted, since rather than being told to eat the mysterious food, Ofelia is told not to. There is then a cut to a close-up of grapes on the table panning left slightly with Ofelia picking one up, before they cut back to the medium close-up of Ofelia and the fairies as she eats the grape, the camera then pans over Ofelia's shoulder to the Pale Man, shifting him into focus, behind him you can see the fire, which is reminiscent of the fire during Vidal's scene, but also looks like a face with menacing teeth, showing the fantasy world is a mirror of the real world, which could imply that the fantasy world is just in Ofelia's mind to help cope with reality. The scene then cuts to medium close-up of the Pale Man's hands and eyes, the hands have black finger tips and sharp nails similar to an animal or a monster and it's eyes are red which an audience links to evil.
Since Ofelia eats two grapes, this could insinuate the Pale Man's eyes, or it could represent castration of the Pale Man, because as he stands up in the foreground, we can see he lacks any genitalia, this metaphorical castration of the Pale Man could link with Ofelia at the end of the movie stealing Vidal's baby boy from him. When Ofelia looks back noticing the Pale Man, it cuts to a medium close-up of him while the fries try to attack him. Then there is another cut to a high angle, mid shot of Ofelia watching the Pale Man flail around to defend against the fairies - this could be a reflection of reality where Ofelia's family fights to protect her. There is a cut to flip perspectives from the Pale Man to Ofelia, with a mid shot of the Pale Man, then the scene cuts to a medium close-up of the Pale Man, as he grabs the fairies. The scene then cuts to another high angle, mid shot of Ofelia's reaction to the Pale Man bringing the fairy up to his mouth to eat. As the Pale Man eats the pink fairy, there is a cut to a close-up of the Pale Man showing the audience the horrifying death - this could foreshadow the death of Ofelia's mother or it could imply that Ofelia has a fear of losing those who are protecting her from Vidal like her mother and Mercedes.
Comments
Post a Comment