SSC Film Studies

Explore how the stylistic choices of the director contribute to the representation of the urban environment in the film you have studied for this topic.

 

The favelas in city of god are represented over three decades. In the beginning of the film, its set in the 1960s and the city of god seems like heaven on earth for the people, its bathed in golden sunlight, the director uses scenes of natural beauty such as the young boy sitting on the branch of a big tree, looking out over to the water, this is used by the director to reinforce an angelic setting that the favelas where in this period. The crime is a lot different to what you see later on in the film, its low level crime committed by youth for the better of society. When the film progresses to the 1970s there is a stylistic change in the way the film has been shot, the 1970s has a lot more varied however the film has a tint of blue on the 70’s scenes, it gives the community and the favelas a colder and more hostile setting and creates the impression it isn’t a nice place to live anymore, the buildings and area space has changed from one storey houses to high rise buildings and a sense of entrapment. There is a more claustrophobic atmosphere within the city of god as the shots all position the characters as trapped in, the film has another stylistic change when it moves on to the 1980s, it’s a completely different favela from what you see in the opening sequence, it’s a broken community and a long way from what it was at the start, its nearly almost dark every shot and looks a cold, empty place to live, with no way out except death from the crime that rules its streets. The representation the director is trying to put across is that there is no escape from the city of god and its one big cycle, as you see at the end of the film, there is natural light in the city again yet there is a new group of kids who are about to become trapped in the hell that is the city of god.