1.

Slide 1: Pan’s Labyrinth

2. Slide 2: Opening shots show time running backwards as Ofelia lays dying. Camera moves from vertical to horizontal view as we shift into
the story world.
3. Slide 3: Cars and military vehicles move across landscape still ravaged by civil war. Just before the Civil War, the Spanish constitution was
anti-church; Franco’s fascists, on the other hand, were supporters of (and supported by) the Catholic church.
4. Slide 4: Historical Context One of the pivotal events of the 20th Century, the Spanish Civil War of 1936–39 could be seen as a test- bed for
the global war that followed. While ostensibly a civil war, it attracted radicals from around the world.
5. Slide 5: The Two Sides ★ Republicans ✤ Nationalists ★ Included moderate liberals, ✤ Anti-communist, anti- communists, & anarchists.
separatist ★ Supported by Soviet Union, ✤ Wealthy landowners, Mexico, Socialist movement monarchists, authoritarian and International
Brigades fascists ★ Also supported by Basque ✤ Supported by Nazi and Catalonian separatists, Germany, Fascist Italy, because of vague
promises Roman Catholic Clergy, of independence... and Portugal.
6. Slide 6: International Brigades • Communists and Trade Unionists in the main – all volunteers. • Around 30,000 troops from 53 nations
fought on the Republican side • Volunteers included George Orwell and Ernest Hemingway. • Survivors of the war felt a sense of betrayal
for the rest of their lives, and were often seen as “prematurely anti- fascist.”
7. Slide 7: Franco • Though not originally the lead general, Franco’s involvement was pivotal. • He ruled Spain as Dictator from 1936 till his
death in 1975. • He received assistance during the Spanish Civil War from Hitler and Mussolini, and provided some help to them during
WW2. • When he died, US President Nixon described him as “a loyal friend and ally”!
8. Slide 8: MI6 involvement • The British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS aka MI6), anti-communist to the core, helped Franco by flying him
from the Canary Islands to Morocco in 1936. • Kim Philby, notorious communist spy and later a head of a Section in SIS, was reporting the
war for the London Times. He even received a medal from Franco when he was wounded by a mortar round. • The Russians ordered Philby
to assassinate Franco, but he wasn’t brave enough to go through it.
9. Slide 9: After a coalition of Socialists and Separatists had gained control of the Spanish Republican government, General Francisco Franco
and other generals launched a coup. They achieved immediate success (shown in grey), with Franco’s invasion from Spanish Morocco and
an uprising in the North. Source: http://www2.bc.edu/~heineman/maps/SpCW.html
10. Slide 10: The Republican army were badly trained, and Franco made rapid gains. Nevertheless, Franco’s rebels were unable to capture
Madrid and after six months of heavy fighting had failed to defeat the Basques.
11. Slide 11: Even by October 1937, there had been little change. With air support from Hitler, and ground troops from Mussolini, the
Nationalists had captured the Basque country, but remained stuck outside the major population centres of Barcelona and the capital Madrid.
12. Slide 12: By May 1938, there had been 200,000 deaths but little gain. Franco’s fascist army was being helped by overseas fascist
governments, and after the siege of Valencia, managed to split the Republican forces by fighting their way through to the coast.
13. Slide 13: By 1938-39, events in Central and Northern Europe were taking attention away from Spain. With all eyes on Hitler and the build-
up to World War 2, Franco’s army finally captured Barcelona and Catalonia. As Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia in March 1939, Franco
marched into Madrid. The Republicans surrendered. Spain was forgotten.
14. Slide 14: A Wounded Nation • Atrocities were committed by both sides during the war. • Beyond the fighting, around 38,000 people were
executed by the Republicans; around 150,000 were executed by the Nationalists — 50,000 of them after the war. • Those executed included
leftist school teachers!
15. Slide 15: The Blitz • Aerial bombing of cities by the Nationalists, using German and Italian planes, was the first example of Hitler’s
Blitzkrieg warfare: direct attacks on civilians. • The bombing of Guernica in April 1937 was the most notorious attack. • Hitler later used
the technique in his attacks on Britain.
16. Slide 16: Guernica Picasso’s painting inspired by the raid on Guernica
17. Slide 17: Art inspired by War Dali: Soft Construction Miro: Black and Red Series (1938) with Boiled Beans: a premonition of civil war
(1936)
18. Slide 18: Aftermath • After their defeat in 1939, some Republicans (including Brigadists) fled across the border to France. • While some
were repatriated to Spain and executed there, some others were later rounded up and sent to die in Nazi concentration camps. • Meanwhile,
some Republican Maquis continued to wage guerilla warfare against both Franco’s forces and French Vichy troops until the 1950s
19. Slide 19: Resistance • Martha Gelhorn, The Undefeated: “ During the German occupation of France, the Spanish Maquis engineered more
than four hundred railway sabotages, destroyed fifty-eight locomotives, dynamited thirty-five railway bridges, cut one hundred and fifty
telephone lines, attacked twenty factories, destroying some factories totally, and sabotaged fifteen coal mines. They took several thousand
German prisoners and - most miraculous considering their arms - they captured three tanks. In the south-west part of France where no
Allied armies have ever fought, they liberated more than seventeen towns.
20. Slide 20: Maquis • Actions of Maquis in Franco’s Spain often went unreported — if referred to at all, they were called bandoleros. • After
1944, with the German army was in retreat from the Allied invasion on D-Day, the Maquis refocused their attention on Spain. • In October
1944, between 4,000 and 7,000 Maquis invaded Spain. They were defeated by 40,000 of Franco’s troops. • During the years of Maquis
guerilla warfare, 20,000 people were arrested as collaborators.
21. Slide 21: Ofelia wanders into the enchanted forest. Golden light and motes are visible. Forest and mountains were the areas in which
resistance to Franco was strongest.
22. Slide 22: Ofelia restores the eye to the statue, and the “fairy” emerges. (Remember: Freud’s original essay on The Uncanny referred to
Hoffman’s “The Sandman” in which a child’s eyes are stolen.)
23. Slide 23: Restoring the eye is the first test passed by Ofelia. The released insect-fairy is now watching/following her.
24. Slide 24: The Captain’s broken, ticking watch is symbolic of his relationship with his “heroic” father. The soundtrack of the film is filled
with tiny sounds amplified to overwhelming levels: the clicking of insects, the squeaking of boots, the ticking of the watch...
25. Slide 25: Starting off on the wrong foot/hand. Ofelia offers her “sinister” or “unclean” leftist/Republican hand for the rightist/fascist
Captain to shake. He perceives the insult.
26. Slide 26: “The two hands, mirror image but asymmetric; apparently alike, but different. Incongruent counterparts, revealing an asymmetry
that fosters hierarchy and inequality, that leads to the hegemony of the right and the mutilation of the left.” Kim Knott, The Location of
Religion: A Spatial Analysis (Equinox, 2005)
27. Slide 27: Ofelia clutches books, her fantasy world, in her right hand. She is observed by Mercedes, who is Ofelia’s double, having similar
colouring and sympathies.
28. Slide 28: Ofelia follows the fairy to the labyrinth, losing her books and hat on the way. By losing the books, she crosses the barrier that
separates fantasy from reality. By losing her hat, she “loses her head” — her reason. She leaves the disenchanted world behind.
29. Slide 29: Ofelia picks up the sleeping draught with which she will later drug the Captain. The warm lighting in the bedroom contrasts
with...
30. Slide 30: The cold blue lighting outside with the Captain as he executes two captives who he knows to be innocent of anything other than
hunting rabbits.
31. Slide 31: The same lighting is used when the insect takes fairy form — based on the image in Ofelia’s book. The fairy’s wings are leaves.
32. Slide 32: The blue lighting of the night-time world warns us of the dangers faced by Ofelia.
33. Slide 33: The little girl descending holes (following creatures) is a deliberate reminder of Alice..., and of other girls in fantasy realms, such
as Lucy in Narnia.
34. Slide 34: The faun is made of bark and earth, perhaps symbolising the land of Spain. Director del Toro has said (confusingly, given the
English title of the film) that he is not Pan, but a more generic faun.
35. Slide 35: Fauns • Spirits of untamed woodland, fauns are traditionally half-human, half-goat. • From Latin, fauna refers to animal life,
while flora refers to plant life. • The first creature encountered by Lucy in Narnia is a faun, Mr. Tumnus. • The faun in Pan’s Labyrinth
symbolises the “undefeated” Maquis of the forests/mountains.
36. Slide 36: The beautifully lit bathroom is a place of safety and fantasy for Ofelia. Do the three circular windows represent the three tasks (of
increasing difficulty/danger) she has to complete in order to re-enter the realm of magic? And/or do they refer to worlds within worlds?
37. Slide 37: The book presented to Ofelia by the fawn has blank pages until she looks at it in the enchanted space of the bathroom. The image
of the girl in the book is clearly Alice crawling into the rabbit hole...
38. Slide 38: As Ofelia approaches the first task, she is dressed as Alice – as originally illustrated by Sir John Tenniel
39. Slide 39: Tenniel’s illustration of the White Rabbit consulting his watch reminds us of The Captain looking at his father’s (broken) watch.
The first words the Captain says are, “Fifteen minutes late.”
40. Slide 40: Keys and locks are also images borrowed from Lewis Carroll/Tenniel.
41. Slide 41: Drink Me?
42. Slide 42: On her hands and knees beneath the tree Ofelia/Alice feels oversized. The frog creature is like any number of creatures
encountered by Alice in Wonderland.
43. Slide 43: At the sumptuous feast (a feast which is doubled by the feast of the Pale Man in the world beneath), The Captain belittles Ofelia’s
mother.
44. Slide 44: As Ofelia’s mother leaves the table, all the men stand out of respect — though this is moments after the Captain’s put-down. The
rank hypocrisy of the fascists is thus revealed. Ofelia is denied food at both meals.
45. Slide 45: Elements in the real world – like the key, the feast – all have fantasy doubles in the enchanted world.
46. Slide 46: The mother’s haemorrhaging is foreshadowed by the magical book.
47. Slide 47: Touch is a feature of the film: the sinister touch of the Captain, the fawn touching Ofelia, and Mercedes’ hesitant comforting of
Ofelia. Mercedes represents Ofelia as a grown woman, who no longer has access to the enchanted world.
48. Slide 48: After the real-world feast, Ofelia encounters the feast of the Pale Man. She has been refused food at the first (because she ruined
her dress and shoes), and is exhorted not to eat at the second.
49. Slide 49: At the Mad Hatter’s tea party, Alice is frustrated in her desire to eat by the insanity around her.
50. Slide 50: Guillermo del Toro has cited Arthur Rackham’s later illustrations of Alice in Wonderland as an influence on the look of the film.
51. Slide 51: Even sumptuous fresh food hints at death, because it will always rot in time.
52. Slide 52: The pale man is uncannily eyeless, and portrayed in the wall murals as a destroyer of children (like Moloch – the god who
demands great sacrifices, the eater of children.)
53. Slide 53: Shoes at Krakow This image of children’s shoes hints at sacrificed children – and reminds us of the imagery of the holocaust
54. Slide 54: The fruit appears to be sumptuously over-ripe, with the grapes reminding us of the Pale Man’s eyeballs. Ofelia’s eyes are shut as
she eats the grape, “blind” to her peril.
55. Slide 55: Who stole the tarts? Perhaps the most striking image in the entire film. The bloody holes in the Pale Man’s face (nostrils) double
Ofelia’s from the opening scene, but also the hole shot in the Captain’s face at the end.
56. Slide 56: Moloch, eater of souls: Moloch! Moloch! Nightmare of Moloch! Moloch the loveless! Mental Moloch! Moloch the heavy judger
of men! (Allen Ginsberg - Howl, 1955)
57. Slide 57: The Captain’s self-loathing is made clear in this scene, in which he cuts the throat of his mirror image – perhaps because he sees
the face of his father.
58. Slide 58: The faun judges Ofelia harshly, then fades away in the darkness like the Cheshire Cat in Alice.
59. Slide 59: The Captain sadistically displays his array of torture tools. Here, the camera looks up at him in his position of superiority.
60. Slide 60: But he has underestimated Mercedes, who quickly reverses the roles.
61. Slide 61: The faun returns to give Ofelia “one last chance”. We’re back with the cold blue lighting as he demands that Ofelia bring her baby
brother to him...
62. Slide 62: Scenes of body horror, such as the leg amputation and the sewing of his own mouth wound by the Captain are visceral.
63. Slide 63: The Captain’s death is foreshadowed. His head is surrounded by flames – he is already “in Hell.”
64. Slide 64: As Ofelia kidnaps her half-brother, the son of a fascist “pig” we are again reminded of Alice.
65. Slide 65: The real world starts to look unreal as Ofelia runs to the labyrinth for the last time.
66. Slide 66: Cool blue lighting as the faun appears to demand an unreasonable sacrifice: the blood of an innocent.
67. Slide 67: Ofelia chooses instead to sacrifice herself – and her own blood is bright red against the cool blue lighting.
68. Slide 68: The Captain tries to recreate the death of his own father – but is perhaps relieved to be denied by Mercedes, who tells him his son
won’t even know his name. Although Franco and his fascists were to rule Spain for 40 years, they were quickly forgotten as Spain restored
its constitutional monarchy and democratic government in 1978.
69. Slide 69: Ofelia’s sacrifice and the full moon open the portal. The lighting changes from the cool blue to the golden light of enchantment
and safety.
70. Slide 70: Ofelia finds herself with her “real” family in the enchanted kingdom. The religious imagery here is unmistakable – as well as a
hint of a restored monarchy.
71. Slide 71: Final overhead shows those who remain in the disenchanted world.
72. Slide 72: Further Research • There are many different • You could research the contexts to research with mythological background to Pan’s
Labyrinth: the film, as well as the historical background. • It’s clearly a hybrid genre film – how does it relate to • How does Pan’s
Labyrinth fit different genres? with the context within which it was made? • How does it fit in with other films made by Guillermo del •
What was its critical Toro? reception? • What different theoretical • How did it do with approaches can be used in audiences? understanding
this film?