Pan's Labyrinth

I just finished watching the audio commentary on Pan's Labyrinth by Guillermo del Toro and recommend it to anyone who is interested in visual storytelling. It also gives you a great insight into his mind. Throughout the commentary he discusses the juxtaposition of different elements of the film: fantasy vs reality, fascist vs rebels, good vs reality, childhood vs adult. The color scheme was planned out so perfectly in the way they started out differently with the real world in blues, the girl is in greens, and the fantasy world or the world of the mind is warm colors and as the stories intertwine so do the color schemes. Guillermo del Toro uses a beautiful shape language with the characters. Only with Ofelia do we see circular elements while with the captain everything is very hard angles. If you haven't watched this film before watch for different sequences where they mimic each other almost exactly. He spent so much time discussing the little details of the film that make it work so beautifully. You also get to hear how he created many of the effects and the reason behind doing so.

favorite shot of the film

cows are evil-guillermo del toro