Pan's Labyrinth: Film Context


  • Films are depictions of people places and events and therefore, like all of works of art, reflect the values and culture of the society that produces them.
  • All the circumstances, that a film was produced in and that shape its reception are a film's context.
  • A study of context looks at when, where, how, why the film is set where it is, The time, place and circumstances.
-The study of context focuses more on the appropriate context of when the films were made, as opposed to set.


There are different kinds of contexts that students need to consider when studying and analysing films:
  • Social: A look at the relevant society's dominant attitudes and beliefs including debates about ethnicity and gender where relevant.
-"Pan's Labyrinth uses fantasy and the supernatural to confront the malevolence and violence of the real world (Spain under Franco)"~ Podcast about Pan's Labyrinth.
  • Cultural: There are two kinds of contextual context.
-One is general and includes a sense of what fashions were significant at the time of the film's production. This general cultural context is less important than any particular cultural context that has directly influenced the film's look and style.
-The latter might include a studio style or an art movement, like expressionism or surrealism.
  • Political:An exploration of the impact of the contemporary political climate on the themes of the film, their representations and the productions process itself.
Institutional Contexts (including production)

 -Who made the films, what institutional frameworks were they working with?
-What funding was available to the filmmakers and how did all of this impact the restrictions placed on the filmmakers. 

Guillermo Del Toro

-His film feature recurring visual and thematic trademarks, some of which are informed by his own upbringing and experiences.
- Pan's Labyrinth was produced for a budget of 13.2 million euros and was produced by Del Toro's own production company, The Tequila Gang. The film made 83.2 million euros in the worldwide box-office.

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