City of God: Cinematic Portrayal of Violence

"By showing all the stories of the favela to be interconnected, Meirelles conveys a self-enclosed community isolated from the outside world" 

Each character that is essential within the film's plot is introduced and explained through the stories about who they are, where they came from and their present being. Although the movie is created with a non-linear narrative structure, these stories of the favela gives background insight for viewers in terms of the different origins, which reflects the community in the City of God. The City of God is populated with many different types of people, however the plot centrally focuses on and is mainly surrounded by the groups that are gang affiliated. Fernando Meirelles, director of City of God, intentionally creates these gangs as well as outside sources like the protagonist Rocket, to portray this community as a separate being that is considered to be conveyed as unique and contrasted from others that stand aside. In

doing so, Meirelles gives of a conspicuous feeling for the stories of the favela due to the actions that pertain to each significant member within the City of God. With all these stories being connected to one another, this creates a storyline and plot that can relate back to certain incidents and crucial occurrences, which ties all elements of the film together in the end.



"Meanwhile, the erratic handheld camera reminds the audience of the presence of yet another photographer..." 
  

Throughout the film the camera movements are executed in a way that conveys the feeling and connotation of the favela. Many of the shots are handheld and consist of bouncing back and forth between objects of focus with zooming. Doing so with the cinematography gives off a disorientating feeling for viewers, which portrays what the favela is like. With the additional handhelp camera movement, audience members are reminded of the protagonist Rocket who throughout the movie ventures at pursuing a careere in photography

journalism. Through this "erratic handheld camera" movement, Rocket's intentions are manifested due to the extents he goes through to cover the incidents that occur within the City of God. The cinematography does great job in seeing life of the favela through Rocket's eyes and how the cinematic portrayal of violence is shown through him.   



"Throughout most of the film, they are treated with alternating casualness and calculation. The audience sees bodies falling, or lying on the ground, but the editing is rapid and generally cuts immediately away" 

What truly puts the overall artisitic value in a film is how much a message is conveyed or interpreted, without the direct correlation through the utilization of shots and camera movements. The population of the favela is essentially surrounded by the aspect of violence and gang affiliated actions that of which reflect what life is like in the City of God. The cinematic techniques are manifested within the movie based on the fast paced cuts. Through this the artistic style that Meircelle was potentially aiming at was a sense of classicism on account of the timing and tempo of each shot and length of cuts within each scene that pertains to violence. A scene from the film that can best exemplify this would be the scene when Lil Ze attacks Knockout Ned and rapes his girlfriend. The cuts in this scene barely last a second each. A frame flashes then cuts to black, but maintains the audio of screaming and laughing.

 "In chase sequences, for example, camera angles are repeatedly reversed, confusing direction and space. The constantly moving handheld camera is combined with rapid editing to create a sense of disorientation"

On account of the fast paced cuts and rapid movement, not only does this create a sense of disorientation but it gives off a feeling of suspense for the audience due to how everything cannot be seen during the chase because of the short duration of each frame. Two artistic style can be brought out when it comes to the editing of scenes like this. Both formalism and classicism are demonstrated because of the fast and rapid cuts as well as confusion for viewers on account of how direction and space is being distorted. 


“Brazil's contemporary national cinema frequently deals with an "…urban reality that is centered in the concept of the 'taken for granted' violence that comes out of a predatory capitalism and so becomes a spectacle."

This quote talks about the themes of violence and loss of innocence through the different aspects and developments in capitalism. The time deals with the beautiful country of Brazil paved in success, but within it are these villages with hovels and a large majority live here, which can be seen as an ironic society. Given this, the genre of this film manifests itself through the aspects of gang affiliation and drug dealing. The conventions of the 1960 Brazilian lifestyle is depicted through this society and the occurrences that create the central conflicts within the plot.