Mise-en-Scene and cinematography are used to communicate themes within Pan's Labyrinth and City of God.
The camera is put on a dolly zooming out from Ofelia's face to show the long hallway in Pan's Labyrinth, particularly the Pale Man scene, creating a sense of mystery as she has returned to the underworld, not knowing what could be lurking, as Ofelia enters the underworld we quickly realise the warm lighting reinforcing this mystical atmosphere as reality has such cold dark lighting connoting the drastic differences of reality vs fantasy as the cold dark lighting portrays how sombre Ophelia's situation is during the film and the use of colour to show the drastic differences between reality and fantasy is shown at the end of the film when Ophelia wakes up in the fantasy world the scene is bathed in yellow instead of blue like in reality connoting the divide between the two as Ophelia is finally happy which is instantly presented by the colour pallet present and also the drastic change in lighting in these two realms going from dark shadows and cold lighting to brightly lit rooms further reinforces the divide between reality and fantasy.
Mise-en-scene is used within the City of God to help reinforce the changing nature of crime in the city of god for example within the apartment scene in City of God as the scenes keep transitioning we see the apartment become more empty as furniture is taken out and the apartment becomes dirtier taking away the domestic homely atmosphere which is shown in the beginning to later become a drug den only used to pedal drugs and this is shown through the drastic change in set design as the scene transitions using fades presenting a skip in time as the apartment becomes neglected and decays as it passes from owner to owner which connotes to the theme of the changing nature of crime in the City Of God as when the apartment is taken over and just used to pedal drugs the apartment had drastically deteriorated and the domestic atmosphere has been drained out the apartment. Also within this scene as we see the deterioration of the apartment the more dark scenes in sense of what occurs in the scenes is connoted by the lighting in this scenes for example when Carrot kills Aristotle the only prominent light is on Carrot emphasising the violence which occurs now and how ruthless the crimes have become in the City of God which links to the theme of the change crime in the City of God.
Lighting and colours are also used to show the theme of the changing nature of crime within the City of God which is further reinforced at the beginning of the film where we see the City of God in its inception having very warm colours and lighting and only having the Tender Trio within the City of God but as the film progresses we see the City of God go from a desert to a large favela as the lighting and colours change to be much colder than before and the beginning scene reinforces this as we initially see a cold dimly lit Favela rooftop and Lil Ze's shouting is the first piece of dialogue the buildings tower over the people as they chase the chicken which also connotes to another theme present within the film being escape more importantly the inability to escape for most people as they are trapped within the favela which is also shown by the large high angle shots present making the characters in the scene look very small as large towering buildings surround them essentially looking like a maze.
Within the Pale Man scene a major theme is present which is the disobedience of Ophelia as we see this as Ophelia encounters the Pale Man within this scene she is told to not touch the food on the table and the food present within the scene is shown as alluring due to tis plentiful amount on the table which leads to the Pale Man chasing Ophelia. And as that scene is mirrored with Captain Vidal as he is seated in the exact same place as the Pale Man in reality therefore we see that both characters are linked both being the antagonist in their worlds helping create this theme of disobedience as she disobeys Captain Vidal throughout the film and also disobeying the Pale Man linking these two characters as they are both grotesque monsters in Ophelia's eyes. And another theme presented is good vs evil as Ophelia has a monster in reality and in the fictional world who both chase her and the mirrored dinner table scenes further reinforces this as they are both sat at the same position in their scenes .
Within Pan's Labyrinth cinematography is utilised throughout the film to convey reality vs fiction as during the scenes where Ophelia is in reality the lighting is very low key with a mixture of blue whereas in the fictional world the lighting is very high key with brighter colours like gold and red this further shows the divide between the two through these scenes. The dark tone adds drama to the scene while also emphasising the theme "evil." The film's lighting creates a sense of entrapment and desperation, while the high-key lighting creates a sense of escape and happiness. This contributes to the overall theme of good vs. evil this is reinforced within the ending scene as Ophelia dies she is transported to the mythical world and this drastic change in lighting as she gets her happy ending in the mythical world as before we see Ophelia dying in the real world its heavily saturated with blues and dark lighting making the scene very sombre until she wakes up and the colours completely change as the colours are brighter connoting happiness.
Another example within City of God escape is a major theme that runs through the film and this is reinforced through the Rocket's hobby which is photography and this is what allows Rocket to escape the city of god and as the film progresses we see Rocket get new and better cameras connoting to his journey to leave the city of god as he upgrades his camera he gets closer to escaping as he himself grows as a character learning new skills in photography which helps him escape also this is reinforced through the chapter transitions using the sound of a camera taking a picture to connote the importance of photography for Rocket as its his only way out of the City of God. Another scene which reinforces this is Benny's death as he gives Rocket a new camera as Benny attempts to leave the City of God but is killed portraying that escape is futile as more characters meet the same fate when they attempt to leave the City of God.
Cinematography in City of God is used to express power and this is prevalent through the scenes with Lil Ze for example the introduction the first person we see is Lil Ze in a low angle shot which asserts his dominance and power from the beginning also this initial scene the camera is not fully focused connoting to Lil Ze's chaotic nature which become more evident as we see him in more scenes another example which greatly conveys the power in which Lil Ze has is through the montage of executions done by him in the perspective of the victim being all in low angle shots giving him dominance and having the barrel of the gun pointed directly at the camera reinforcing this and to reinforce how chaotic he is through his performance especially his facial expressions smiling during this scene.
The theme of good vs evil within Pans Labyrinth is greatly shown between the battle of Fascism and the rebellion of the Spanish and this is also a theme within the film as Captain Vidal is presented as an extremely ruthless Fascist being the epitome of fascist ideologies and being the embodiment of Francisco Franco who ruled Spain at the same time as when the film was set. We Vidal's power through Vidal as a character and through his performance as he is initially portrayed as extremely serious, demanding, selfish and proud and this is shown through Dr.Ferreiro's death as he attempts to help the rebel Vidal brutally tortured this scene greatly shows the merciless nature which Vidal uses against the people who don't blindly follow his demands.
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