City of God - Analysis

City of God - Analysis
City of God is a 2012 Brazilian flm directed by Fernando Meirelles.
The movie is loosely based on a true story of organized crime in the Cidade
de Deus suburb of Rio de Janeiro.
The beginning scenes is of a knife being sharpened on a rock. By showing
this a the frst scene it opens up ideas in your head about the nature of the
flm and what it will be like. The frst few seconds are lots of scenes cut
together fast to motivate you and keep you involved, some of these scenes
are of knife sharpening, peeling of vegetables and a chicken. By shooting it in
this way introduces the viewer to an idea of the movie and what it will be
about. With weapons and animals many can say it is just someone cooking
but by shooting it in this way the mainstream answer is not alway the right
answer.
The camera uses many diferent shots. For example it pans around in time
with the moving object on the screen, this shows the business of the scene
and keeps you interested because you are always glancing around and
seeing new things. The panning continues through the scenes possibly giving
the idea that you are a bystander and are watching as the scene is played out
in front of you.
The mis-en-scene of the scene are bright. The lighting is strong and gives
and illusion of a sunny place. The colours involved in the scenes are warm
and bright; reds, yellows, oranges and browns. By only using these colours
you can begin to understand that this is essentially a happy place where
people laugh and socialize giving a feeling of warmth and excitement to see
how everything is included. However, away from the colours and lighting the
actual sets are run down. There is rubbish everywhere and everything looks
like it needs a lick of paint. This connotes that this area is poor and has little
money to spend on making is habitable and clean. By including all these
things in quick succession develops the viewers mind of where this is set and
what will happen during the flm.
Many of the sounds involved in the scenes are diagetic, the characters can
hear it to. The sounds begin happy, with music and laughter of people
gathered and celebrating. However, the sounds begin to change to shouting
and the music become non-diagetic, only we can hear it. With the change of
laughter and talking to shouting informs you that something has gone wrong
Samantha Grebot
and everyone is frantic to fx it. Suddenly the music slightly drowns out and
gun fre pursues inviting the idea that the area this flm is set in is bad and
many crimes are carried out here. The music however I feel is very important
to these scenes because the music carries on through-out but also signifes
that music can not be taken away and can bring people together in more ways
than one.
Samantha Grebot