February 25th Assessment
The way Guillermo Del Toro's expressed his vision of Pan's Labyrinth showed the director's ability to demonstrate an extensive and diverse range of aesthetic qualities. The commencement of the film plays a monumental part in the structure of Pan's Labyrinth's narrative. The film opens with an elevating dolly shot, which is framed to show only Ofelia's face as she rests on her on a dirty floor. As the scene acts as the birth of the film, this shot introduces the idea of the story as the camera's elevation represents a rise from the underworld, which acts as the alternate reality in which Ofelia goes through. Moreover, the fact that this shot shows the spectator a dying Ofelia can be interpreted as the rise of the girl rather than her fall: soon in the film, a narrator reveals that Ofelia's true origin is as princess of the underworld, and thus this shot may act as a metaphorical burial (which naturally will be done in the overworked/real world if Ofel