My initial impression on Pan's Labyrinth

 My initial impression on Pan's Labyrinth

My initial impression on Pan's Labyrinth at first was I had never watched this film before nor heard of it. I was throwing myself into a film I had never seen, this was a different and new experience. When first watching this film, the first shots I saw were confusing - we were shown a dark shot as the first scene and afterwards the first few other shots appeared to be a more vibrant shot. The first shot was played backwards - this clearly told the audience it was a flashforward. The first shot moves left from the darkness displayed on the screen onto the protagonist (who I assume is at the time) lies on the floor, dying - there is blood pouring out of her nose, there is loads of blood on her hand and she is in obvious distress. The camera slowly reveals where she lies, from this, the audience feels a sense of mystery and questions who this girl is and what has happened to her. The dark lighting causes shadows behind her and this disturbs the audience even more. Now we know this takes place at night as she is lit by the moonlight. The first scenes are short and lack detail, this is done deliberately as you get through the rest of the film and you forget what's happened in the first few scenes. 

The character 'Captain Vidal' stood out to me particularly - his performance has been done perfectly to make you hate him as a character.  When Vidal is introduced, it is very clear he is a prominent character throughout the film, more specifically we can tell he is the leader already. When Ofelia and her mother arrive in the car, we're given a shot of his watch first, already in his fist and ready. Next we get a shot of his face; his face immediately tells us he is an emotionless character and doesn't like incompetency, as a leader would, this is because he holds his head high and says in an unsatisfied manner, "15 minutes late." Compared to the other characters in the film, Vidal holds himself proud and tall. He makes himself appear bigger than others and asserts control easily. 

I really enjoyed the plot as well. The plot revolves around a girl named Ofelia who is obsessed with fairy tales and is sent with her pregnant mother to live with her new step-father, Captain Vidal, leader of the fascist army. Overnight she meets a faun in the labyrinth and she is told that she is a princess and must complete 3 tasks to prove it. The context of the film is very significant - it is set in 1944 when Spain was under the rule of Francisco Franco after the Spanish Republic lost the civil war to him 5 years prior. The film is focused on these two stories - half dark fantasy and half war time drama. The more you watch and understand the film, you make the assumption on how Del Toro has linked the fantasy world and the war together; Ofelia uses her imagination to cope with the horrors and brutality of the war - it is her means of escapism. In my opinion, it is up to the audience's interpretation to determine whether the fantasy creatures are real or not or if it was all in Ofelia's head.