City of God Notes - Summary of above mentioned movie PDF

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City of God (2002, dir. Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund) Brazilian crime drama with elements of a coming of age story Shot on-location in Rio de Janeiro with mostly real people from the favela, giving the film a degree of realism Character - Actor Rocket - Alexandre Rodrigues Lil Dice/Lil Ze - Leandro Firmino Benny - Phellipe Haagensen Angelica - Alice Braga

Chicken and knife sequence as emblematic of the struggle of survival in the favela (and perhaps even more so, the impossibility of escaping it) Parallelism of the rhythmic editing of the knife sharpening and the literal cuts occuring on screen Use of the freeze frame, narration, and the slow motion rotating camera as establishment of the diegesis and also Rocket’s neutrality and fear (communicates narrative depth) Vignetting of narrative through use of on-screen text to introduce sequences; adds retrospective qualities to the narrative and acts as a premonition of the plot (ie. “Benny’s Farewell” is the scene in which Benny is killed) Rugged, documentary-esque cinematography (ie. handheld shots, overhead security camera-like shots) as adding to the film’s realism Lil Ze’s instability is juxtaposed against Benny’s humanity to create a slight homoerotic undertone (exacerbated by the disco scene in which Lil Ze humiliates another man by forcing him to strip)

Cyclical nature of violence as a product of revenge, in itself a result of the slums’ inescapability (ie. Otto avenging his father by killing Knockout Ned, who killed his father in a bank robbery) Manhood as defined by crime (ie. it’s very telling that Lil Ze is more terrified of flirting than of fighting in the disco scene); receiving a gun is a rite of passage for boys to become men, furthering the notion of the cyclical nature of crime Age as a point of connection, interest, and relatability to these characters (perhaps the inverse of the American gangster film, in which the protagonist is often a middle aged white male) Killing as having a purpose in the American gangster film; Lil Ze kills to control and is motivated by the power he gains as a result...