Practise Question 'City Of God'

5. how far does the impact of the films you have studied for this topic depend on distinctive uses of film techniques?

In the 'City of God' we see many situations where the characters are forced to make a choice, although their decisions are never listened to. In particular, a scene that conveys this is when a group of young kids are squashed-up, the mine-en-scene reveals them sitting in a fenced pig sty, as if they're locked in like animals and trapped. This is shown using hand held camera as they're dominating that area although the close-up, high eye level shots of the individual children emphasising the extent of they restriction, further suggesting it symbolises their whole life style, that the people living in the favelas are always going to be trapped and whoever tries to leave are doomed. During the kids group conversation, we're shown individual close up shots of the children's faces as they're talking, to emphasis the verisimilitude of them being trapped and their freedom gradually decreasing as the camera reveals cut in shots of Lil'Ze and his entourage approaching. This builds suspense as their swift walk to the young children allow the audience to assume something bad is going to happen to them. Soon after the hand held camera cuts to a high angled establishing shot of the children jump in shock, running as fast as they can from Lil'Ze, illustrating his power and how everyone has leaned to fear him as he's become more dangerous, the older and more defensive he's got. The casting of the children specifically were given to those already living in the favelas and the tears and fear shown from the younger boy, who was scared and intimidated, was his true reaction as he may have experienced that type of violence, or seen it, prior to the film. Therefore this highlights the sense of realism 'City of God' was aiming to connote as the shock factor, of the level of violence, impacts the film making it increasingly engaging.