Pan’s Labyrinth is a Spanish R-rated film written and directed by Guillermo del Toro. The film has the components of a children’s story, history and aspects of grim horror.

Mise-en-scene is analyzing a photo based solely on what’s in front of the audience, no history included unless its needed for the particular scene. A little catch phrase would be, “A picture is worth a thousand words.”

This first image is quite contrasting to other scenes in the movie. The faun is much darker compared to the girl, indicating that it might be evil or manipulating. The creature looks to be made out of tree roots, moss and bark – showing its age. The horns on its head could also be a sign of not being trustworthy because of the similarities to the curved horns of Satan. The lightness on the girl’s face indicates good intentions and pureness, almost angelic. Her clothes are not worn or dirty, she must live somewhere clean and is well taken care of. The dark beam that leads to the girl’s head makes the viewer’s eye move towards the figure on the right, behind the girl. It almost looks as if it’s a person sitting in a chair with a cloth over themselves, waiting to lunge. The doorway behind the figures could be there because something is drawing the girl toward it or foreshadowing doom.

This scene the girl is reading some sort of large book, making the rest of the objects seem small in its presence. The light coming in from the windows make the book look holy, referencing it as a holy book – one she should follow. The light also makes the girl seem knowledgeable, like she knows something the audience doesn’t. Assuming she is in fact sitting on a bathtub, this is a bathroom and she reading before her bath; another “holy book” reference as a baptism. The time period would be around the 1940s since that’s when the revolution started, the bathroom furniture really displays that. The tile is dirty and broken, it’s probably a bathroom that doesn’t get used often. The upper right corner of the bathroom looks like there are stairs leading up above the bathroom.

In this image, the girl looks back at the camera as if she had just walked through it. Her eyes are watery, showing that she is fearful of what lies ahead of her. The walls are streaked with red, as if they were sprayed with blood and had it dripping down them. The columns are cracked and dirty showing age. The walkway is lighter than the rest of the room, she’s supposed to follow that path. The path is also uneven and dusty indicating that it’s old and unused. The girl’s outfit is also very clean and new looking so she must belong to an important family. There are lights above the path, leading the eye down the hallway – it curves to the right. The lights also lighten the right side of the path, maybe indicating she has a choice to make in the future?

This image has a blue hue to it, indicating deep sadness. The blood, however, is what catches the eye because of the contrast. Red and blue are almost opposite of each other on the color wheel so that makes them look quite different to the eye. With the blood on her hand, the audience might wonder if it belongs to her or someone else. The figure in the background looks as if it is carrying something, is it bleeding or is she? Did that figure cause her to start bleeding? Is she the cause of the figure to bleed? The look on her face is disbelief and uncertainty, utter horror and shock.

Mise-en-scene is very important when movie making, the audience will be able to infer what is happening on the screen if there’s an abrupt change in the setting.