City of God

 City of God (Lund & Mireilles, 2002)

- Space, environment, and political agendas are relevant
- Distinct boundaries of the form
- Similar rawness to British social realism but extends into wider contexts
- Outsiders of society and class

- Non-professional actors
- Real places and spaces - location in world cinema
- Complex narrative structure - three major strands
- Spans the 1960s-80s
- Cyclical nature of narrative parallels idea of a cycle of crime, repetition and hopelessness
- Male world - representations of masculinity

- Gang chasing a chicken who is caught in between the narrator and the police
- Flashback to the 1960s from the 1980s
- Context of favela's -government neglect, lack of essential resources in the housing projects
- Motel massacre followed by shift in time to the 1970s, influence of drugs

Opening sequence:
360* camera spin - cyclical structure
- Knifes and drums - cultural yet dangerous
- Fast-paced close-ups, unfocused, zooming in and out, chaotic
- Chicken, sense of humour, also a sense of casual loss of life
- Camera whip pans and poorly tracks the characters, follows chicken at their feet, gang will never be understood by viewer
- Contrasted by slow tracking shot of Rocket and friend
- Narrow streets and alleys, winding, trapped
- Slow-mo shot on Lil Ze shows his importance and the power he has

Moving to the Favelas sequence:
- Blending of the voiceover with contemporary music, contrapuntal to bad news is the upbeat playful music
- Audience shock at young children's experience with police evasion 
- Everyone dressed in white - somber atmosphere as homes lost
- Slow hand-held camera moving through people, conclusive feeling
- Differing shots: POV, bird's eye, high tilt, wide shots - last goodbye to the landscape - space, brief escape

The 'motel' sequence
- Representations of violence amongst the youth - angst against the older members
- Turning point in the narrative - growing up moment
- Restricted narrative: not everything fully explained
- Montage: comedic element, playful, not so serious, contrasts macabre scenes to come of the murders, reality check for spectators for characters
- Contrapuntal lighting, calm and romantic

Benny's Farewell sequence
- Theme of escape - Benny getting out, Lil Ze trapped
- Rocket looking from above, out of it, once brought in is involved into this world
- Camera is a motif for capturing the gangs - self-referential to filmmaking itself
- Begins with wide high angle and shots of people on the dance floor
- MCU - tilted angle and then focus on Rocket in DJ gallery
- Quick camera movement and edits - atmosphere of setting created through spiral effect - increasing loss of control
- Escalation from small-scale chaos to all-out horror
- Sound is contrapuntal to visuals until tension introduced by Lil Ze's humiliation of Knockout Ned

- Two-shot of Benny and Lil Ze in MCU - reinforces childhood friendship
- Brighter light on Benny - positive association
- Lil Ze confuses his feelings about Benny leaving with his anger at rejection by women
- Lil Ze not comfortable in this setting, camera shots move in and out to show his loneliness and isolation, CU, centre of the frame
- Put in Lil Ze's POV, makes spectator into outsider too
Lighting:
- Disco lighting, strobes, flashing, smoky, everything is unclear
- Same lighting used to have a party atmosphere, and a murderous one

Rep. of gender:
- Toxic masculinity, in Lil Ze's humiliation of Knockout Ned
- Opposed by Benny's casual and laidback view of masculinity
- Ze calls Angelica a "bitch", Benny says "my girl" - both still have a possessive view of women, but Ze is completely degrading
- Lil Ze values his masculinity off of others he perceives as more handsome and appealing than him
- Women mostly absent in the scene, both women with proper roles are girlfriend characters

How can a detailed analysis of the opening and closing sequence in City of God influence the spectator's understanding of the film's contextual and/or representational issues?

SIMILARITIES	DIFFERENCES
KEY ELEMENTS  Fast-paced editing Low-angle, handheld shots Music corresponding to camera movement and editing rhythm Slow motion for dramatic effect Set of favelas accentuates criminal trappings	Camera shot is gun shot Meditative ending - slow and quiet Rocket's eyes in last scene, trusted character unlike at start Stylised realism Slow-paced camera - more realistic horror
CONTEXT   Rocket captures events with his camera	Police step back and "let them kill each other"
REPRESENTATION	Children start the scene - rep of youth Favelas introduced at start, people concluded at end