La Bella y la Bestia en el cine laberíntico de Guillermo del Toro: <i>El espinazo del diablo</i> (2001) y <i>El Laberinto del Fauno</i> (2006)

Brígida M. Pastor

doi:10.3989/arbor.2011.748n2017

Authors

Brígida M. Pastor University of Glasgow

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3989/arbor.2011.748n2017

Keywords:

Guillermo del Toro, The Devil’s Backbone, Pan’s Labyrinth, cinema, monstrosity, gender

Abstract

The films The Devil’s Backbone (2001) and Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) are both directed by Mexican Guillermo del Toro, and they are considered his Spanish films. Both films are set during the Spanish Civil War, but none of them explicitly deals with this tragic historical episode. However, this tense and oppressive context enables Del Toro to explore a theme of a greater complexity: Monstrosity and its relationship to the cultural notion of gender. Monsters are traditionally the epitome of fear and the protagonists of fantasy genres. This study attempts to demonstrate, within the framework of psychoanalysis, that the Mexican filmmaker resorts to the juxtaposition of real and fantasy worlds in order to establish an eloquent parallelism between the representation of monstrosity and gender. Ultimately, Del Toro’s objective is to question and re-evaluate the symbolic and dominant patriarchal structures and its perverse consequences over the individual.

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