Opening Monologue Of Pan's Labyrinth

Sarandos, Tony

Professor Erica Aguero

10-17-15

Evil In All Forms

The Devils Back Bone - Pan’s Labyrinth

“What is a ghost? A tragedy condemned to repeat itself time and time again? An instant of pain, perhaps. Something dead which still seems to be alive. An emotion suspended in time. Like a blurred photograph. Like an insect trapped in amber. A ghost is me.” This iconic opening monologue of The Devils Backbone (Dir. Del toro) sets the dark undertone of the rest of the movie. Much like the opening monologue of Pan’s Labyrinth (Dir. Del toro), “…She forgot who she was and where she came from. Her body suffered cold, sickness, and pain. Eventually, she died. However, her father, the King, always knew that the Princess' soul would return,

They are both depicted as “good guys” at the beginning of each of the films, but throughout the entirety of both movies they slowly get more and more evil. This is seen in the beginning of Pan’s Labyrinth, when Ophileia goes to shake General Vidal’s hand and he grabs it, clearly hurting her. This shows his evilness. It for shadows that things are not going to go well for him. Throughout the film General Vidal gets more and more violent. Eventually leading to the death of Ophelia. This can also be seen in The Devils Backbone with Jacino. In the beginning of the film we are to believe that Jacino is the nice caretaker of the boys and he actually cares for them, but later we figure out that he was just after the gold at the orphanage the whole time, and that he even killed a boy because he saw him trying to get in the safe. That boy was named Santi. He's has been haunting the orphanage since the day he was killed. The only thing he wanted was Jacino dead. Both of these characters are egotistical maniacs. General Vidal thrives for power and control, and his son. He doesn't care about the well being for anyone else not even Ophelia's mother. Which explains that when she dies, he doesn't even shed a tear. Jacino plays everyone by making them think he cares for the orphans and the orphanage, but all that he wanted was the gold. He would kill anyone

In The Devils Backbone, The main colors used are: grey, blue, and brown. But when Santi appears multiple times throughout the movie the color palette slightly shifts to a more blended: Red, White, and Grey. This is very similar to Pan’s Labyrinth. By that I mean when we see the real world, the colors consist of: blue, grey, and brown, But once we are taken to the fantasy world that Ophelia has constructed, the color pallet changes from blue, grey, and brown to red, gold, and brown. This gives a subtle indication that reality has changed to the magical world that the adolescence have created. I believe that Guillermo del Toro has mastered color correction and using a very specific color pallet to express a subtle message in his movies. Both of the films color pallets are dark. I believe that this implied the dark undertone of each