City Of God
Movie: 2002, color, 130 min. (Brazil)
- Director: Fernando Meirelles
- Co-director: Katia Lund
Actors:
Roberta Rodrigues
Tiny synopsis: Meirelles sheds a new light on one of the most beautiful places in the world. From the perspective of a young boy named rocket who tells a story of how the city in which he lived came to be known as the “City of God.”
What is the main theme of the film and how does it take shape?
The main theme is spotted at the very beginning of the film when chickens are pressed as a main focus in preparation for mealtime. One chicken observes the people butchering his fellow chickens and in haste decision, which demonstrates the animal’s intelligence, the chicken decides to jump off and run away. This scene becomes the symbolic theme of the film in which either you run away from this “city of god” and escape your expected fate or you change your path and try for a different life without getting killed. First, the audience is introduced to this idea when one of the three boys from the “Tender Trio” tries to escape the godforsaken city just outside of Rio, and gets a move on with his girlfriend. In this scene the boy is pointed to by a man who tells the police that e is responsible for the killing that occurred a few months earlier. This leads the police to run after him as he is pushing his getaway car on foot in effort to aid the man they are holding unwillingly to get it going and his wife in the backseat. Whilst this is happening the police chase after him as in the first scene of the beginning of the film where the gang chases after the chicken. They catch him after a few shots to the body and the car gets away without the chicken, Shaggy. The very tagline of the film is "If you run the beast catches, if you stay the beast eats." So in that sense, there is a deliverance of a negative tone. This is best embodied when Benny decides to leave with Angelica and Ze cannot stomach the idea of being alone for the first time. His anger translates into trouble that he creates which in turn creates massive chaos that is really the bullet that kills Benny. No one can escape the city of god.
How does cinematography add depth to the story?
In a film where the story is a true first person narrative there is already a structure that is to be built by how the main character would like to tell his or her story. Especially with a narrative involving so many people there is much to say. The cinematographic tools used complement this account. Rockets first person telling involves much rewind and fast forward moments. The most helpful in establishing setting, person’s position and situation is the Matrix, 360 shot used in one of the first scenes of the film where Rocket is transported back to his childhood in the sixties. This shot is just one of the many cinematic tools used. The high contrast lighting during the day in the young boys memories at the slums expresses how hot and scorching it is in that small village like city. The night cinematography is dark and gritty, just like the mood of the night in which the tender trio robs the motel. The scene in which the two fellows are atop the tree and chaos and haze ensues, the filming of the bead of water dropping off of a leave close to one of the boys is such a contradictory peaceful moment in contrast to what is occurring. The whole film is done with a photographers eye most understood when Rocket expressed his admiration for photography. The film is artistically done in its expression of colors and its detail assures the genuinety of the storyteller.
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