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32 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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Release of city of god |
2002
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Director of City of God
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Fernando Meirelles / Katia Lund
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Producer of City of God
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Andrea Barata Ribeiro
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Budget for City of God
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3.3 Million
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Cinematographer of City of God
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Cesar Charlone
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Distribution company for City of God
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Miramax Films (2003 - USA)
Buena Vista International (2003 - UK) |
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Box Office for City of God
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7 Billion 18 June 2008
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Cast/ crew for City of God
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Alexandre Rodrigues (Rocket)
Leandro Firmino (Lil Ze) Phelippe Haagensen (Benny) Douglas Silva (Lil' Dice) Jonathan Haagensen (Shaggy) |
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Rocket, Alexandre Rodrigues
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We have a narrator: Rocket, who is also our central character. The film follows his story, the narrative of one young man who is exceptional in that he manages to escape from the slums. However as a narrator he is also an observer of other people's stories, a character with a privileged position from which he is able to watch domestic, familial, communal, social and even national narratives unfold.
Although this film may be Rocket's story, he is continually peripheral to, or on the edge of, a series of further narratives taking place around him. The status of being an observer fits well with his chosen profession of photographer. (Incidentally, the concept of shooting with a camera contrasts interestingly with the more normal form of shooting- with a camera contrasts interestingly with the more normal form of shooting (of necessity. unavoidably?) favoured by young men from the slums. Before his eyes i.e. the audiences. Human relationships involving short, energetic lives and brutal deaths are played out against an essentially unchanging social backdrop of extreme poverty and yet, although the deprivation of the social environment remains constant, the nature of the slums is seen the change: the gang culture becomes increasingly violent as we move forward from the 1960s, the weaponry increasingly high the drugs more potent and the gang members younger. |
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Story of Lil Ze |
The story moves forward to the 1970s. Rocket, still a virgin, takes photographs of his friends ‘the Groovies’ on the beach. He fancies Angelica but she has a boyfriend Thiago who has graduated from smoking dope to snorting coke. Rocket goes to the apartment where Neguinho (Blacky) sells dope. Little Dice swaggers in. He has changed his name to Little Ze. He murdered the customers at the brothel and later killed Goose. At 18 he is in the drugs business, having killed all of the other dealers in the city except Sandro Cenoura (Carrot). Bene still attempts to keep Little Ze under control advocating negotiation rather than murder. Bene meets the Groovies and admires Thiago’s style. He bleaches his hair, gets new clothes and transforms himself into a playboy. After loosing his job at the Supermarket Rocket decides to do some hold ups with his friend Barbantinho (Stringy). They board a bus planning to rob the fare collector Mane Galinha (Knockout Ned). Ned, who is against violence, advises them to study and get out of the City. They don’t go through with the robbery. Bene and Angelica are in love. They plan to leave the City and live a life of peace in the country. At Bene’s farewell party Ze is angry that his close friend is giving up the hood’s life for a woman. An argument breaks out and they struggle amongst the dancers. Blacky, aiming to kill Ze, accidentally shoots Bene. Little Ze is jealous of Knockout Ned and wants Ned’s girlfriend. His gang hold Ned down whilst Ze rapes her. |
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Story of Knock out Ned |
Ned goes home in anguish. Ze goes to his house to kill him. His gang kill Ned’s father, uncle and brother. Carrot comes by and offers Ned a gun and Ned takes it. Although at first Ned does not want violence he and Carrot become involved in all out gang war with Ze, robbing banks and killing in order to buy bigger and better weapons. Rocket gets a job delivering newspapers, going to the newspaper offices at night where he has a friend in the photo lab. The war continues with children fighting on both sides. A boy Otto joins Carrots gang. Ned is wounded and arrested. Ze sees the TV news where Ned is being interviewed as a celebrity. He is furious that he is not seen as the boss of the city. Thiago fetches Rocket who takes pictures of Ze posing with his gang. Marina, who works for the newspaper, finds the photos. Rocket sees his photographs on the front page of the newspaper. He thinks Ze will kill him. The journalists want Rocket to take more pictures. Rocket can’t go back to the City, it’s too risky. He has nowhere to sleep. Marina takes him back to her apartment where he takes his first hot shower and has his first sexual experience. Carrot and his gang spring Ned from the hospital. There is a pitched battle between the gangs and Rocket takes pictures for the newspaper. Ned is killed. Ze tries to round up the Runts to restart his business. They shoot him, the business is theirs! Rocket takes pictures of the body. The photograph makes the front page. He is now Wilson Rodrigues, photographer. |
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Production Company for City of God
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O2 Filmes
VideoFilmes |
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Genre for City of God
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Crime and Drama
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Scene of beauty and Significant Meaning |
Use of 360° shot, showing the conflict between the police and civillians as well as used as a device in a manner whereby we are flashed back to 1970 showing the similar conflict but with the theme of poverty. The opening shot is also the same as the "closing shot" concluding the film- showing that COG revolves around a circular narrative. |
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Where was City of God filmed? |
Brazil, within a slum of Rio De Janeiro (following the lives of a number of gang members and the main characters journey. |
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About City of God/ Director |
Filming took place entirely in the slums. It was was financed by TV Globo, Brazil’s biggest TV channel, and 02 Filmes. The success of the film led to a TV mini-series Cidode dos Homens I City of Men set in the Dona Martela favela and featuring the same actors. An estimated 35 million viewers watched the first series. Together with co-director Katia Lund he started the organisation ‘Nos do cinema I ‘We of the Cinema. This is a workshop project for boys from the favelas. The film cost about $3m to make and has taken around $30m at the box office worldwide. |
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Key Scenes of City of God 1
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The opening to this film focuses upon a chicken and its attempts to escape the violent death that almost inevitably awaits it. The images are of blood and instruments of death. The sounds are piercing, threatening and ominous.
The sequences are of the chase, the pursuit and the desperate attempts to escape. We conclude this section of the film with the chicken being replaced by Rocket, positioned between two equally threatening heavily armed groups: Ze's gang from the Slums and the police. |
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Key Scenes of City of God 2 |
The themes of the film and the nature of our central characters experience of life would seem to be clear from beginning. The importance of fate or chance in determining outcomes would seem to be demonstrated: a random series of events and coincidences have led to Rocket (as a 'normal' guy from the slums) being places in seemingly no win situation. And yet, if we watch the ensuing scenes we will find a key word recurring: 'study'. The emphasis placed on this concept would suggest that education at least is seen as offering a few individuals the opportunity to influence events and shape their own futures. Caught in the middle like the chicken, there seems no coice for mot young boys rom the favela slums. For most, like Steak, who in a scene later in the film is handed his first gun by the gang leader, Ze, there is only the choice of who to kill in order to prove his manhood. |
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Messages and Values |
Early on in City of God |
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Narrative of City of God |
City of God uses narrative in a complex way, manipulating the timeframe, and using a narrator to lead the audience through the film. This kind of narrator is known as homodiegetic – he is inside the narrative narrating in the first person. |
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Narrative of City of God 2 |
The start is a sequence that actually connects to the end of the film, and apart from being a dramatic sequence that serves to engage the audience, it guarantees an understanding the changed circumstances of the city, and makes the antics of the Tender Trio look rather tame compared with the later action. |
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Narrative 3 |
Todorov’s theory of an equilibrium, followed by a disequilibrium, then a new equilibrium could be applied. The original equilibrium of the tame amateur gangsterism of the Tender Trio is disrupted by the rapid escalation of violence that follows the Miami Hotel raid. Then the jump forward in time to the 70s where we see a grown up Lil Ze, and the true events of the night at the Miami Hotel are shown. Thus proceeding to the new equilibrium at the end where we see Lil Ze being assinated by the Runts – a new generation of kids re-claiming the streets, except that instead of being shown playing football they’re planning who they’re going to kill off next! |
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Theory: Roland Barthes theories of action and enigma. |
The Tender Trio’s raid on the Miami Hotel in a desire to become more serious gangsters leads to the deaths of Shaggy and Goose and eventually reveals Lil Ze’s true character. Benny's decision to leave the gangster’s life leads to his death. Ned’s decision to seek revenge on his brother’s death leads to him joining Carrot’s gang and his eventual death. The killing of the security guard, who turns out to be Otto’s father, also leads to Ned’s death. The desire for Lil Ze to have his picture taken leads to them fetching Rocket, whose photos are published and he not only gets a jobs as a photographer but loses his virginity (at last) to Marina |
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Narrative enigma – unanswered questions – that mislead the audience... Roland Barthes (Theory) |
The opening sequence is that of a relaxed street party which leads to a confrontation, and when re-played at the end of the film turns into a massacre. The Miami Hotel raid massacre eventually turns out to be Lil Ze’s first act of mass violence. Benny's meeting with Thiago leads to the bike race, which we assume will end in violence, but actually ends in Benny buying trainers and clothes and getting a more modern image. Rocket and Stringy’s abortive attempt to hold up a car, and coming across a kindly driver who befriends them, leads to the scene where the police find a body by the roadside, and we assume that Rocket and Stringy have succumbed to violence and killed the driver, but then the car drives past with Rocket and Stringy still inside. |
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Use of Levi-Strauss’ theory of binary opposites throughout City of God: |
The contrast between the city as a glamorous tourist destination and the povert and deprivation in the slums that surround it. The portrayal of the City of God in the 60s, the bright lighting and wide open spaces, and the dark, grey closed in slum at the end. The conflict between the police and the gangsters. The conflict between honesty and dishonesty. The conflict between the values of the women – who invariably want their men to settle down and lead a ‘normal’ life, and the men, who are invariably looking for reasons not to! The opposites of the camera and the gun, which is one of the main themes of the film. |
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The film also employs numerous diegetic narrative devices to help us along, such as newspaper headlines, photographs, TV interviews and music: |
Newspaper headlines tell us what Shorty did to his wife ‘Man buries wife alive in City of God’ and at the nd ‘The Self Styled Boss of the City of God is Dead’ Rockets photographs taken on the beach act as a signifier of his feelings for Angelica and his relationship with the gang of Groovies. Later his photos earn him his passage out of the slum. The TV interview with Ned – which is seen by Rocket and Lil Ze and acts as a trigger for Ze to send for Rocket to show who’s the real boss. Bene dancing to James Brown’s ‘Sex Machine’ signifies his new found image, and ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ being played at Bene’s farewell is ironic considering what happens there. |
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Montage editing |
Montage editing is the way shots are put together to clash with each other and produce shocks, rather than smooth continuity: First shots you see, the knife being sharpened on a stone, followed by a black screen, repeated 5 times in quick succession. The shots of the guitar playing and the samba rhythm then contrast with shots of a nervous looking chicken watching his mates having their neck sliced and his eventual escape. |
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Mise-en-scene/ editing |
The impact of Mise-en-Scene throughout the story of the apartement scene is profound, with the film makers using the changes in settings as a signifier of the descent of it’s occupants deeper and deeper into squalor: Watching what goes on and how the apartment changes over time, all from a wide angle viewpoint and deep focus which give an exaggerated perspective with characters appearing large in the foreground, small in the background. The story is told with a series of dissolves where people appear, disappear and reappear in different parts of the room. The walls change colour, the lighting gets darker and darker, and the apartment becomes more and more scruffy. The apartment starts off looking like someone’s home, and ends up looking like a crack den. |
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Editing- Split screen is used to show two episodes at the same time, and many sequences are shown twice changing our perception or filling in missing information, for example: |
The image that we see at the beginning of Rocket behind the grill only becomes when at the end he is shown taking the shots of Ze bribing the police through the grilled window. The chicken chase at the beginning is firstly seen as rather comical, but the second time it leads to a massacre. After the scene of Bene telling Ze he’s leaving we see an ols sepia photograph of them when they were kids together. The Miami Hotel raid is shown twice, once when the Tender Trio escape farcically in a stolen car that they can’t drive and eventually crash into shorty’s bar, then late when Ze shoots at the window because he’s bored before cold-bloodedly killing all the customers. Goose finding Lil Dice and bene in the construction site is replayed a second toime showing Goose being shot. The bank shoot out where Ned kills the bank worker is seen again showing Otto present, leading to his revenge killing of Ned after he joins the gang. |
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Ideology, Values, Institution - 1 |
Violence is the main driving force of the film. Shootings, beatings and rape form the core of the action. But the film’s attitude to violence is a means to an end for the film maker’s main motivation for making the film – the wish for social change. It shows that the favelas are a breeding ground for this violence because the people have no hope of achieving anything other than through violence, however, apart from a brief reference to a flood being the cause of an influx of people the film makers do not provide any political reference points or background – the ‘sixties’, the ‘seventies’ are just chapter headings that don’t explain what was going on in Brazilian society that created these slums. |
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Ideology, Values, Institution - 2 |
The film does have simple lessons to learn – if you live by the gun you die by the gun, if you avoid violence and retain some honest values and ambitions you escape. The film’s ending is on the one hand positive – Rocket is saved, but on the other hand the Runts are a more violent gang than ever. These are simplistic and stereotype the slum dwellers – presumably the majority of people are still trying to scrape some kind of honest living but you don’t see many examples of those except on the fringe of the plot. |
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Ideology, Values, Institution - 3 |
The institutions backing the film had originally intended the film just for the Brazilian market, but the film’s success at Film Festivals gave it a life of its own, and Mierelles has used the film’s unprecedented success as a platform for to focus the world’s attention on the darkness of Rio’s slums, one of the most violent and dangerous places in South America. The film could not have been the commercial success it was without the backing of Miramax, the film distribution company, but remember Miramax is a commercial company, part of the Disney Corporation, who do not do things for charity, the people behind Miramax – the Weinstein brothers – must have spotted a commercial opportunity in the film. |
