How Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labyrinth Inspired A Paramore Music Video
"Well, she lives in a fairy tale," declares Hayley Williams in the opening lyric of "Brick by Boring Brick," a 2009 single by Paramore, initially released as part of their third album "Brand New Eyes." Williams continues belting out, "Somewhere too far for us to find, forgotten the taste and smell of a world that she's left behind."
As the song continues on for another four minutes, the fairy tale allusions continue; one of them is a title drop: "Well, make sure to build your home brick by-by boring brick, Or the wolf's gonna blow it down."
However, the opening verse establishes the song's key theme right off the bat: retreating into your imagination is like refusing to grow up. The POV character realizes she must bury her childhood fantasies to escape her dream world. The song's music video reflects this, alternating in focus between Williams herself and a young girl (Harley Graham), who has butterfly wings and a stuffed doll. The two represent both sides of the song's main character — one her adult self, the other the girl she's refused to stop being.
The song and video use fairy tale motifs, which can conjure up memories of everything from "Snow White" to "Alice in Wonderland" — they're all coming-of-age stories about young girls set in fantasy worlds. Depending on which way these girls turn, said world goes from dreamy to dark and dangerous.
Paramore's former guitarist Josh Farro (who plays a grave-digger in the video) confirmed to MTV that Guillermo del Toro's "Pan's Labyrinth" was the aesthetic goal for the "Brick by Boring Brick" video. This makes total sense; in that film, Ofelia (Ivana Baquero) prefers to live in fantasy rather than deal with the harsh realities of Franco's Spain. The song and movie tell the same message.
Background on 'Brick By Boring Brick'
The "Brick by Boring Brick" video was directed by Meiert Avis, a prolific director of music videos who's worked with everyone from Bruce Springsteen to U2. As Williams noted, "Brick By Boring Brick" was the band's first cinematic video: "This is the first time we've ever had a real set, where it's not like a stage with instruments and a mic [...] We've built this whole world." That world owes a debt to the one del Toro built.
Color is what controls the mood in "Pan's Labyrinth." The film essentially has two storylines, one following Ofelia, the other focusing on socialist rebels trying to escape and undermine Ofelia's wicked stepfather, the monstrous Captain Vidal (Sergi López). During the fantasy sequences, the film is steeped in a golden hue, but when Ofelia is gone, the palette is cold shades of gloomy blue. The make-believe world is literally brighter than the real one.
"Brick by Boring Brick" uses the same color grading. Most of the video has golden-orange warm tones. Take the opening; as the opening guitar solo sounds off, the camera swoops in and pushes forward toward a wide overhead shot of the girl running through a forest. Red autumn leaves swirl across the golden horizon, the color stretching from land to sky. When the horrors of the world she's created catch up to the girl and she runs away from it, the colors shift to a dark, oppressive blue.
The similarities aren't just surface deep
The head-banging guitar riffs and pop-punk instrumentals of "Brick by Boring Brick" don't quite match the somber tone of "Pan's Labyrinth." Just listen to composer Javier Navarrette's theme for the movie, a melodious string-piano lullaby. The real overlap is in the lyrics of Paramore's song, especially this gem of a bridge: "You built up a world of magic because your real life is tragic."
That's the crux of both the song and Ofelia's character arc. When we first meet her, she's reading a storybook, something her mother disapproves of. She soon meets a Faun (Doug Jones), who tells her she's Princess Moanna of the underworld and must complete three tasks in order to return. It's up to you to decide if the magic is real or Ofelia's imagination (only she can see it), but either way, her quest reflects her desire to live in a fairy tale.
In the "Brick by Boring Brick" video, the girl opening a door that leads into the fantasy realm is framed in the exact same way as Ofelia when she enters a tree cavern to complete the Faun's first task. However, as the girl explores her imagination and ultimately reaches a castle, the song's chorus declares: "Go get your shovel, and we'll dig a deep hole to bury the castle." In other words, it's time to put away childish things.
Burying the castle
Ofelia gives up her fantasy when the Faun requests the blood of her newborn half-brother. Finally face-to-face with consequences, she refuses to let her desires harm someone else. In the end, this test of character is what allows her back into the underworld, welcomed by her parents and the Faun. Or, this might just be her dying dream after she's shot dead by Vidal. Again, it's up to you to decide.
"Brick by Boring Brick" is less ambiguous. After the young girl escapes the nightmare her fantasy had become, she runs straight into the grave that Farro's character has been digging. Williams picks up the dropped doll, and after considering it, throws that in the grave too. The lead character has realized the consequences of clinging to a fantasy and to let go, she has to kill her childhood innocence.
Disillusionment is a theme that runs through the entirety of "Brand New Eyes," with everything from religion ("Playing God") to your relationships ("Ignorance"). In "Brick by Boring Brick," it's with the person you used to be. By its end, the song comes to a conclusion that a dreamer like del Toro wouldn't dare imagine.