blue colour in establishing shot
mise-en-scene
overemphasized using colour grading – blue has connotations to the cold and feeling sombre – del Toro wants the real world to look ‘cold’ – creates fascist aesthetic – shows how terrible the real world is
the other women wear pearls
mise-en-scene
expensive jewellery = wealth even as others suffer due to scarcity – Carmen is dressed differently to show how she doesn’t fit in as they were born with money and she wasn’t
vidal’s shoulder pads
mise-en-scene
del Toro wants the real world to look ‘angular’ to show how sharp everything in the real world is & reflect the harsh control in fascist Spain – the shoulder pads make Vidal look square/angular
the ration cards
mise-en-scene
politics of hunger – Vidal is restricting food & weaponizing it so people don’t fight against him otherwise they are left with nothing – manipulation tactic that show’s his cruelty
subtle pull back of camera on the table
cinematography
emphasises how much food there is to show the greed of fascism
Vidal says that he wants his son to be born in a ‘clean Spain’
performance
eugenics – Vidal is ready to kill people who doesn’t fit his idea of what he wants Spain to look like
Vidal pulls his hand away from Carmen when she describes when they first met
performance
he doesn’t want to show any emotions that could be considered ‘feminine’ or weak – patriarchal society
the sound of the fire
diegetic – links them to Hell – emphasizing that even though what they are doing they think is ‘good’ and ‘right’ it’s actually evil
the scene with the priest
piling food (performance) on his plate & holding a large bowl (mise-en-scene) – emphasizes his greed & gluttony which are sins – goes against his role in the church
He’s working with Vidal which shows how he wants power even if it goes against the teachings of the church – they only do what benefits them
what the priest says
performance
He says ‘God has saved their souls, what happens to their bodies hardly matters to him’ – saying that it doesn’t matter if they die – del Toro took this quote verbatim from a priest in a Spanish concentration camp and the churches participation shocked him – shows the church is corrupt
