Pan's Labyrinth Opening
The director uses cinematography and mise-en-scene to depict the two different worlds to the audience, visually and tonally. This is done through its cinematography: for example, the first shot of the film is a close up of Ophelia dying after being shot. This immediately resonates with the audience not just because showing a child dying is dark tonally but also the shot is sickly in the way it's framed. Ophelia is taking up most of the frame and then camera tilts and zooms. These movements are disorientating to the audience because the camera doesn't stay still and feels claustrophobic and entrapping. The film then has the effect of going through Ophelia's eye and then slowly pans across the kingdom. This not only showcases the fantasy element of the story but also conveys the idea that it is a grand kingdom. The kingdom is in the back of the framing whilst there is a massive gap in the foreground. This makes the kingdom look bigger and more grand, perhaps symbolic of how ...