The directors of both Pan’s Labyrinth and Wild Tales employ aspects of mise-en-scene and cinematography to convey meaning throughout their films and have a wide range of effects on the audience.
Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth focuses on the Spanish Civil War. An election in 1936 brought to power a leftist Popular Front government causing Fascist and extreme-right forces to respond with an army mutiny and coup attempt that turned into a civil war. The film is set in 1944 after the fascist victory as the remaining rebels are routed out and killed.
Ofelia goes out on an adventure, searching for her first task located inside of a mysterious tree. Simultaneously, Captain Vidal rides out with his men to search for the last remaining Republican survivors. At the start of the sequence, the camera pans from right to left for both of these journeys, indicating to the audience that they are both venturing out on a journey at the same time. The smart, gold and blue uniforms worn by the soldiers and the powerful looking horses they ride symbolise their strength and the harsh, quick camera movement shows that they ride with purpose, whereas the rebels have adopted dark brown clothing as they are forced to live in the forest in seclusion. This wealthy appearance of the soldiers also contrasts Ofelia’s green dress that’s appearance is reminiscent of the Alice in Wonderland books which also explores the fantasy world and shows her strong connection to the fantastical while its green colour is representative of the style of clothing of the rebels, demonstrating her efforts to go against the Captain’s oppression and the influence of her mother to follow her own path, with much more gentle arc movements used in variation to the soldiers, suggesting to the audience that she is lost in the elements of the fantasy world as it has a floaty and dreamy effect.
Once Ofelia arrives at the tree, a wide shot focuses on her movements, moving into a close-up shot and arcing around her to reveal a large tree that has captured her gaze, tilting up to show the large size of the tree is comparison to her and showing its significance to the audience, allowing for them to empathise with her challenge as its presented as being extremely difficult. In the interior of the tree, damp and dark tunnels twist continuously with the camera positioned at Ofelia’s height to indicate to the audience that she is the main focus for the story’s progression. Black CGI bugs surround and crawl over her which helps to evoke feelings of disgust from the audience and show her courage as she is entering a place that no one else would want to venture in to. Upon transitioning to the Captain’s world, the appearance differs as he is located in a large open space which looks more inviting and less threatening than the tree, making the audience want to spend less time focusing on Ofelia because of the conditions she is having to endure. Also, the warm colour palette of the fantasy world in comparison to the cold blue colour palette associated with the Captain’s world as can be seen when Ofelia journeys towards the tree remains warm, although has now transgressed to become slightly darker as she is underground and the tree is a mysterious and yet fantastical place. This also shows a collision between the Captain’s world and the fantasy world which further adds to the influence that he has over her.
When the soldiers reach their destination in the forest, the Captain steps down from his horse to search for signs that might indicate signs of rebel activity in the area. A medium shot focuses the audiences attention on his commanding body language, transitioning to a close-up shot that fully focuses on his actions and dialogue, separating him from his soldiers and showing his superiority over them. The use of a long lens shot when looking at the Captain has the effect of appearing to focus on him from a distance, placing the audience on the side of the rebels, viewing the action from their perspective as the Captain taunts them to come out and fight rather than hide. The warm colour palette associated with the fantasy world is present when focusing on the Captain as he is in the forest, a place of fantasy and home to the rebels which shows he is out of place there but the camera positions him as being in control and therefore allows for the audience to fear him. An opposite pan from right to left shows the soldiers are returning from their journey as they saddle up and return to the mill, similar to the movement of turning over a page in a book.
When returning to Ofelia in the following scene, she continues her search through the depths of the tree looking for any sign of her task, with the camera movement alternating, appearing to differentiate from the typical pattern of moving from right to left and then left to right. This movement depicts the nature of the environment she is in as disorientating for her and is therefore unsettling for the audience who are made to feel lost with her as she clambers through the dark and winding tree, stumbling through slime and covered in mud. Ofelia’s encounter with a giant toad seems representative of the baby living inside her mother with this uterine imagery showing the effect that the baby is having on her and foreshadows her mothers death as the toad is causing the tree to decay through sickness.
Finally, after completing her task by retrieving the key, Ofelia emerges from the tree, covered in mud and noticeably feeling distressed rather than accomplished, indicated by a change in the colour palette, switching from the typical warm and bright palette when she headed out on her journey to a cold dark blue. These grim colours associated with the Captain’s world shows his returning influence and while she is left dishevelled by the ordeal and aware of the trouble she has caused, the audience are aware of her transformation from a little girl on a fantastical adventure to fearing the serious consequences of her actions at the hands of the vile Captain.
Another film that appropriately uses mise-en-scene and cinematography to convey meaning is the portmanteau film Wild Tales, directed by Damián Szifron, showing six different stories, all connected by extreme themes of violence and revenge.
Focusing on the wedding sequence, the scene begins with the camera pulling out to a wide shot which shows the vast amount of guests present at the wedding all focusing an a montage of old childhood photos that present the idea of innocence which contrasts the events later in the sequence and help the audience infer information about the couple. The setting is bright with a rich appearance as champagne glasses, golden chandeliers and tuxedos contribute to a disturbing feeling when Romina later threatens to take everything away from Ariel. When the bride and groom first appear, they emerge from behind a curtain, implying to the audience that their relationship is a facade and they are putting on a show as a steadicam pushes in on them, centrally framing them before arcing around them to focus on them greeting their parents, showing the audience that they are the main stars of the show and placing us as a spectator to the intimacy of the opening scene. Ariel’s appearance as unshaved gives the impression that he shows a lack of care towards his wife, foreshadowing his unfaithful nature and contradicts the caring attitude that we were originally led to believe that he had, replaced with suspicion at his unloyal nature.
After the jubilant dancing finishes, the change in location produces a shift from dark lighting to warm yellow lighting as the guests all happily eat in a far less crowded setting with much slower and less frequent stable shots. Romina talks with her guests, pointing out how she is related to each table and a long lens is used to make the audience feel as if they are a a part of this crowd before the camera pans to the left, centrally framing the bride in a close-up shot, isolating her within the frame as a shallow depth of field allows for the focus to be on her reaction as she watches her husband flirting with a woman across the room. A zoom on her face shows the importance of the woman and is followed by a reaction shot of the brides face which shows the importance of the revelation to the progression of the narrative. The camera tracks the bride as she moves towards a table with a mirror shot placing the woman in the centre of her focus as a wrack focus shows that the number she has dialled on her phone to test whether her husband has been cheating on her is answered by the woman, moving focus from the phone to the woman. This mirror shot could also foreshadow her apparent dual nature later on in the film after the husband confirms her suspicions.
After confronting her husband and feeling overwhelmed at his revelation that he has cheated on her, Romina escapes this distressing situation by leaving the room and frantically runs down a long, narrow hallway away from the guests towards the rooftop. As she runs, the camera is positioned on the ground looking up which contributes to the trapped and claustrophobic feeling present in the narrow hallway as she feels betrayed and alone. On the rooftop, pathetic fallacy is used to demonstrate her ferocity as she lashes out at him as a bolt of lightning simultaneously strikes behind her, positioning her in a mid-shot showing that she commands the frame and allows the audience to understand the seriousness of her threats while the camera is consistently handheld and the scene constantly breaks the 180 degree rule further indicating her change to a controlling attitude. When she returns, the white wedding dress, a symbol of purity and innocence, becomes tainted with blood when she discovers the truth of her husbands deceit and throws the woman he had been cheating on her with into a mirror, symbolising that her innocence has become fragmented and has stained her as a person which can’t wash out and return to its original white colour just as she can’t unlearn what she has discovered.
Both Szifron and Del Toro use aspects of mise-en-scne and cinematography to convey meaning throughout their films to have a wide range of effects on the audience. Del Toro uses cinematography to show perspective, using camera height to position the audience with specific characters while using mise-en-scne to differentiate each set of groups from the other, setting Ofelia apart from the Captain and with the rebels. Szifron also uses cinematography to position the audience with characters, allowing the audience to empathise with Romina through techniques that convey the feelings of the characters. Mise-en-scene also creates empathy for characters through the use of symbolic imagery that depicts a characters changing emotions as their life falls apart.
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