Break down of a scene
City of God is a 2002 Brazilian crime film directed by
Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, released in its home country in 2002 and
worldwide in 2003. The story was adapted by Bráulio Mantovani from the 1997
novel of the same name written by Paulo Lins, but based on real events. It
depicts the growth of organized crime in the Cidade de Deus suburb of Rio de
Janeiro, between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1980s, with the
closure of the film depicting the war between the drug dealer Li'l Zé . The
film received worldwide critical acclaim, receiving four Academy Award
nominations in 2004: Best Cinematography (César Charlone), Best Director
(Meirelles), Best Editing (Daniel Rezende) and Best Writing (Adapted
Screenplay) (Mantovani).
The tagline is "If you run, the beast catches you; if
you stay, the beast eats you" this is indicative that the story presents
the idea of poverty, violence and drugs being the lifestyle that is
inescapable. At the beginning of the scene, there was close up and flashing
shots of people drinking, cheering, sharpening a knife and plucking chickens.
Through this culture is presented and the theme of violence is continuously
presented through the sharpening of the knife. Furthermore, performance of Lil
Ze is presented as he was the first person to be shown in this scene, which is
key as we can already depict that he is the antagonist of the film as he
doesn’t carry a good impression from this very scene. He is holding a gun and
laughing, the performance here presents Lil Ze in superior yet intimidating
way. Furthermore, the camera angle looking up at Lil ze presents him with
dominance showing that the director wants the audience with dominance. And
could be potentially showing the power he has, which he hadn’t had before.
