City Of God Flashcards
CoG Key scene analysis: Opening Sequence
-Rapid cuts, montage editing, MTV style
-hand held camera aligns audience with those amongst the chaos of favela
-mise en scene of the favela, urban, crowded streets with rubbish and broken buildings, grey and unsaturated, kids wearing dirty scruffy clothes
-diegetic samba music connotes authenticity
-close ups of sharpening knives and guns indicates the violent nature of the place
-the chicken chase, the chicken running away from the gang is a metaphor for people trying to escape the slums, Pov shots used
-introduction to Lil Ze, his maniacal laugh and gun indicate his antagonist status
CoG Key scene analysis: The Story of Lil Ze
-Mise en scene has lowkey lighting throughout, aswell as green tints in places, showing his envy and desire for power and money that other gangsters have, set in bars and dingy apartments,
-a montage of match cuts of low canted angle POV shots of being shot by Lil Ze, as he ages from child to teen to man, makes the audience victimised by him to dislike him
-freeze frame of him with caption ‘the story of lil ze’ begins the flashback
-Lil Ze states in his own words his desire for money, power and women to Benny as he points out the main gangsters of the favela and how to take them down
-shows his friendship with Benny from childhood to manhood
CoG Key scene analysis: Benny’s Farewell
Benny’s death causes lil Ze immense pain
-montage and rapid editing cuts combined with strobe lighting emulates the hectic and disorienting environment
-Lil Ze humiliates knockout Ned shown through canted angles and handheld cam
-lil Ze gets rejected by a girl
-lack of long or wide angle shots, only establishing shots, to show the cramped and unpredictable tension that is rising
-diegetic music changes per group that benny is seen with e.g sambas, religious, groovies, drug dealers
CoG Key Scene analysis: Story of the apartment
-shows the evolution of the drug hq, and its owners
-carrots rise to power through dealing
-shot through fade transitions
-colour of the shots slowly lose saturation and warmth as the apartment gets more corrupted
CoG Key Scene analysis: Closing sequence
-burnt rubbish, grey palette shows the state of the favelas
-rocket photographs the police’s corruption and then Lil Ze’s body after he is killed by the runts, who say the business is ours, showing the repetitive cycle of crime in the favelas being driven by the youth and poverty
-Rocket’s narration of the ending of Lil Ze
-camera is the symbol of rockets ticket of the favela
-even though the villain is dead, the cycle is set to continue with the runts coming through
City of God Context
-set in brazil is a developing country that is a cultural landmark of the world, but has huge amounts of slums and poverty
-directed by Meirelles and Lund who set out to expose the crime and poverty of the favelas
What are the themes of City of God
-poverty/social deprivation
-loss of childhood innocence
-violence
-power
-entrapment
Notes on Rocket
-The film’s protagonist and omniscient narrator
-a sensitive and aspiring photographer who wants to escape the violence of the favela
-provides an outsiders perspective of the favela crime scene
Notes on Lil Ze
-the films psychopathic main antagonist
-a ruthless and sadistic gangster who rules the favelas through extreme violence
-best friends with Benny since childhood
-Main drug dealer of the favela
Notes on Benny
-best friend and partner of lil Ze’s operations
-charismatic, kind and well liked figure by all groups in the community, serves as Lil Ze’s moral counterbalance
-plans to leave the favelas for a life of peace away from crime, but is killed at his leaving party
Notes on Knockout Ned
-a peaceful man pushed into gang life after Lil Ze rapes his girlfriend and humiliates him at Bennys party
-joins carrots gang but becomes consumed by violence, eventually killed by a child soldier
Notes on Carrot
-rival dealer to Lil Ze
-former operator of the apartment before he left it to his apprentice blacky
-less sadistic than lil ze but still a criminal
-Used Knockout Ned as a figurehead in the war against Lil Ze
Tender trio notes: Goose
-Rockets older brother
-engaged in crime against businesses but avoids excessive violence
-killed by a child Lil Ze
Tender Trio notes: Clipper
-leaves to become a religious man
Tender trio notes: Shaggy
-leader of the 3
-Older brother of Benny
-killed by police while trying to evade them and run away with his girlfriend
