PL essay

How are the key elements of film form used to construct representations in this scene and how do they contribute to/help to construct the film’s messages regarding representations of gender?

In this scene in Pan’s Labyrinth, Del Toro makes it clear he is using specific film techniques and elements in order to construct certain messages regarding gender. Cinematography, Mise en Scene, editing and sound all contribute towards the message.

There is a direct focus expressing the oppression of woman making them appear very strong in tough situations. Del Toro does this through having the female characters continuously undermined until eventually, their strength and power is shown - in the Spanish revolution, the undermining of woman was an extreme reality and Del Toro shows the dangers of this. In this scene, Vidal, representing the power-craving dictator Franco, states that he can handle Mercedes, as she is only a woman. Using cinematography, Del Toro presents Vidal to think of himself as overpowered. We see this from the way he is always in focus and the camera follows him using a tracking shot. This symbolizes how he feels he is in power in the situation. This juxtaposes the reality as Mercedes escapes with the opportunity to kill Vidal creating irony and showing that woman were very wrongly undermined in the Spanish revolution. Furthermore, the use of sound highlights this as the piercing music and exaggerated diegetic sounds(such as the sheathing of a knife, creates a sense of fear of Vidal from Mercedes, the audience feel sympathetic for Mercedes and are scared as we do not expect this to end well for her. The cutting out of music draws the audience attention to the mislead of Mercedes intellect, aggression and strength being shown - traits Vidal did not realize she had - this shows the audience that woman are not less powerful than men and that the men in the fascist regime are foolish for not seeing this and it could cost them as much as their lives; Del Toro here is trying to shine a negative light on the fascists.

Del Torro also represents males as violent and over confident through the Mise en Scene in this scene. Vidal throughout the film is constantly well groomed and dressed in his full military uniform. However, in this scene he is represented to have lost his professionality as he wears very basic clothing. This reflects that he is expecting the situation to get messy and that he is not going to act in a professional mannerism. More over, the location of the scene is in the barn to create a lack of compassion and to create fear in the viewer as we are shown that Vidal and the barn are going to get messy as he begins to torture her. Vidal also undoes his shirt to show how he does not feel threatened by Mercedes. It is clear that Vidal is doing the opposite of caring about his presentation and as he asks to be alone with Mercedes, the viewer can now see how Vidal acts when not in front of the people he must maintains respect - he straight away speaks of torture. This shows the viewer how Vidal is aggressive and violent as a person. This thirst for blood contrasts Mercedes actions as she risked her own life to not kill Vidal despite everything he has done. Del Torro does this to show a separation between the genders as we see how men care large amounts less than women about killing. The women are presented as more moral.

Another way in which this scene contributes towards the film's representation of gender is through the use of editing and cinematography. In the begging of this scene when Vidal is in control we can see Mercedes facial expressions close to the camera so we can feel her pain. In the shot she stays lower than Vidal as she does for the majority of the scene. During the struggle, we are shown close up shots of Mercedes whose scared emotions have turned to anger and she is presented as ferocious. After Mercedes stabs Vidal and takes the power we see him fall to his knees and look up at her. We are shown Mercedes from Vidal's point of view - the camera looking up at Mercedes at such a steep angle is showing us her rage and strength as she both metaphorically and physically looks down at Vidal in disgust. Del Toro does this to represent that Mercedes, even in a very tough situation, is stronger than Vidal. This suggests to the viewer that the women in the Spanish civil war were used only for domestic purposes despite it being clear that they are capable of much more.

To conclude, the key elements of film are used in this scene to contribute towards the representation that woman are underestimated as their strength as people is hidden but great. This is clearly shown in this scene through the techniques Del Toro uses to mislead the viewer causing them to initially believe Mercedes is weak but are then shown otherwise. The use of the mislead highlights their power and makes it more important to the film as well as more important to how it could have impacted the civil war.