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City of God key scenes - Coggle Diagram
City of God key scenes
Opening / chicken
chase scene
Mise-en-scene
Mise-en-scene and provides provides the audience with context of poverty and chaos (poverty aesthetic), children with guns but no shoes and t-shirts - favelas are like rat runs, chasing to find something as a reward, metaphor for people who are trapped in the favelas by the government
Cinematography
Camera rapidly circulates around Rocket, invisible editing, and the audience are being transported, like time travel, back to the time where Rocket’s life was simpler, from guns to football
The opening is a series of short cuts which are mainly close ups and this creates a fast pace and builds tension and excitement from the very beginning, canted angles too, adds to the chaos - disorientating, the audience can't quite figure out what's going on, trying to build a picture
Sound
Isolated sound of a knife being scraped across the block is unpleasant. Instantly indicates that it is an independent film not Hollywood
The characters inability to escape- the fate of the chopping board
Music and singing from locals - rooted in violence but there is a community, a life, and creativity
Benny's leaving
party / death scene
Sound
The music continues for a few seconds after the gunshot and people are heard screaming and shouting in distress as they flee
Mise-en-scene
The lighting tries to mask his death and protect his death are shrouded from us as the audience are really starting to develop a fondness for Benny, like shorty’s wife's death where the innocents' deaths are hidden
Cinematography
The voyeurism which comes hand in hand with documentary
Static camera - stays in one place and doesn’t move, documentary style gives a surveillance/ CCTV feeling
The camera is highlighting the growing distance between the two as it is either a shot of Benny and then a shot of Lil Ze or the two in the same shot but further apart than previously, intimate camera work now between Benny and Angelica, an epiphany that he’s not where he’s supposed to be and this is also shown through brighter lighting - shining light of hope and prosperity, and there is hope for Benny as a person now - Angelica is giving Benny something Lil Ze couldn’t, hope and closeness
The camera is now slightly above Lil Ze, not below anymore. Switches to high angle when focusing on Lil Ze and holds shot for a prolonged time, could reflect the fact that Lil Ze is losing everything around him and the lack of emotion, numb feeling as he’s losing his power - close together but mostly mid shot not close up showing how they’re close but no intimacy anymore
Editing
The semi-normality of drug dealing turns
into violence and bloody murder
Apartment descends into decay- reflection of times
Invisible editing portrays how easily and smoothly it swaps hands
Titles give us “chapters” like a book, real social commentary on the lack of regulation, people know it’s going on but don’t intervene
Story of the apartment scene
Cinematography
Static camera- stays in one place and doesn’t move, documentary style gives a surveillance/ CCTV feeling, the voyeurism which comes hand in hand with documentary
Editing
Invisible editing portrays how easily and smoothly it swaps hands, apartment descends into decay - reflection of times, the semi-normality of drug dealing turns into violence and bloody murder
Titles give us “chapters” like a book, real social commentary on the lack of regulation, people know it’s going on but don’t intervene
The way it’s edited makes time blend together, loss of all perspective and time and people - police corruption
Lil Ze's transition scene
Performance
Initially he is laughing when he kills, but soon turns into a stern face at the end showing that the act of murder has become less enjoyable, and more of a requirement for his chosen profession
Cinematography
This sequence of extreme low angle and medium shots, portrays him as being bigger than the world, with the flashback taking place from his point of view, it is obvious that he would portray himself in this way