A analysis of a scene from Pans Labyrinth

1. Pan 3

2. • Can hear Carmen crying and non-diegetic emotional music, Mercedes
walks towards the door and swings them closed, shielding us from
what is happening.

3. • The woman leaves the room
carrying bloodied sheets and
Vidal and Ofelia both watch her,
you then hear Carmen stop
crying but the baby crying
instead. Vidal looks at the door
but Ofelia doesn’t as she is
thinking about her mother.
Ofelia is in a green dress which
links to life, nature and fertility.
• Ofelia only turns when she hears
the doctor say that her mother is
dead, you then get a medium
close up of Ofelia in tears. She is
surrounded by darkness, even
darkness on half her face. You
then hear the man talking from
her mothers funeral but doesn’t
show you that, it shows you
Ofelia walking, as if the speech
not only applies to the funeral
but also applies to Ofelia herself.

4. • Then there is a dissolve to the shots of
the actual funeral, Ofelia is stood
away from her mother, Vidal the
closest to Carmen holding the baby,
looking at the baby instead of the
coffin, the camera then pans to Ofelia
and Mercedes stood behind her.
Despite Ofelia wearing dark clothing,
her veil still seems to look dark green
which links to nature and fertility.
“The earth takes in only a hollow and
senseless shell,” is heard which links
to how at the end Ofelia dies – but
doesn’t actually die she goes into the
fantasy world.
• Dissolve into later in the day, the
funeral service is still heard but
instead Ofelia is packing up, it then
shows a close up of Ofelia brushing
her hand over the medicine she used
of Vidal in the future, foreshadowing.
The camera switches to her face, and
then back to her hand picking it up

5. • She holds up the medicine and the camera focuses on the bottle rather
than on Ofelia. “Because God, in his infinite wisdom, put the solution in our
hands,” this could be taken literally as she is holding the medicine used on
Vidal in the future, but also how she makes her own choices instead of
obeying what people say.
• Then there is a different shot of Ofelia walking around the room, looking at
the wheelchair that was her mother, and birds fly past the window, this
could be interpreted in many ways like her mother soul flying away etc. The
wheelchair is left in shot, but Ofelia walks away and it fades to black, along
with the non-diegetic emotional music dying away too.

6. • Shot of Mercedes holding the baby, the lighting looking
golden and warm which could link it to the fantasy world.
• The music then gets low as you hear Vidal confront
Mercedes about her working with the rebels. They have the
conversation and the audience suspect that Vidal could
become violent with Mercedes, as we know what happened
to the Doctor. This heightens the audiences emotion.
• He goes behind her, but the focus remains on him as he is
taunting and playing games with her, but you can still see her
reactions. He is looking at her right behind her back. He has
politeness to her, and high pitched dragged out strings are
heard, this is because the audience knows what has
happened with Mercedes and are expecting something to
happen like what happened to the doctor. Mercedes sits
down, making Vidal much higher than her, his uniform
immaculate. He is trying to be polite whilst interrogating her
as he pours her a drink etc, he is always looking at her whilst
talking. Half of his face is in darkness and the other half in
light, this could link to how he is acting nice but in reality he
is harsh and cold hearted. Mercedes is clearly nervous and
you can see her breathing heavily. Mercedes isn’t facing
Vidal but her eyes are pointing towards him.

7. • Mercedes gets ordered to go to the store room, as
she gets up he turns away as he is aware that she
hasn’t asked for the key. He only looks at her when
asking about the key, he is still the only person in
focus. As he picks up the key, low tones are heard as
if there is something coming up.
• The audience expect him to become violent as Vidal
talks about the break in and how the people that
broke in used a key.
• When handing Mercedes the key, he puts his hand
over hers, this has happened before to show he is in
control, he did it when meeting Ofelia also. Long
note, “be very careful,” and Mercedes reply, “good
night, sir.” And then Vidal puts his record on, and he
looks and turns away into a medium long shot, as if
he knows he has set the trap. The music he plays is
quite romantic, which completely juxtaposes the
scene we just saw and highlights how much of a
horrible man he is.

8. • When leaving the room Mercedes
is nervous and is shot through bars,
as if she is trapped. Medium shot
as she goes down the stairs and the
camera tracks her, this time must
be later but Vidal’s music is still
playing through even though there
is a cut to Mercedes getting letters
from under the floor. There is a
parallel to earlier in the film where
she is getting the medicine for the
rebels and she gets caught by the
doctor, it builds suspense and
makes us think will she get caught.
• Romantic music is still playing in
Ofelia’s room, and tells her that she
has to leave. Ofelia is lit in a much
brighter way, possibly to align her
with the fantasy world. Ofelia
becomes afraid and demanding to
go with Mercedes. There is a sound
bridge of Mercedes holding Ofelia
and thunder is heard, and then the
shot changes to Ofelia and
Mercedes out side.

9. • Vertical wipe, going from leaving the house then into the woods. The
mise-en-scene is dark and thunder is still heard, surrounded by the
blackness of the umbrella. Ofelia says, “I heard something,” and you
can see that there is no one behind her, the camera zooms in close on
Mercedes face, “its nothing don’t worry,” and then there is a reveal
accompanied by a low tone of music as Vidal and his men are
revealed. Lots of green around them so this could link to the idea of
the rebirth being soon etc.

10. • Low angle on Ofelia, she is
looking up at him as he looks
down on her.
• Parallel of this scene, as
Mercedes gets a reveal of the
rebels when she meets up with
them.

11. • “How long have you been laughing at me?” Vidal gets violent to Ofelia and immediately
brushes his hair back and straightens his hat. “if anyone comes for her, kill her first,” and
the camera angle looks down on her so she looks weak, and then a track out and Ofelia is
small and alone in her large room, and you expect the Faun to come but he doesn’t.
• Next scene with Mercedes, Vidal is looking through the bag of things Mercedes had, and
then a zoom out so Vidal is behind and Mercedes is stood with the other guard, there
seems like a large threat of a sexual assault etc but that doesn’t happen, even though
Vidal unbuttons a button his shirt and takes down his suspenders, “she’s just a woman,”
he says as he smirks towards her, although Mercedes is looking into the distance, she is
talking about how she got away with it and how she was invisible to him. Vidal grabs her,
almost like a forerunning of a sexual assault, but it still doesn’t happen. And then he
repeats what he said to the rebel, about how he is going to torture her. A medium close
up of Vidal, against the darkness with a hammer in his hand.