Shock Case Study 2: City of God - Filmmaker's intentions

Past exam question:

With reference to the films you have studied for this topic, explore some of the techniques that are particularly powerful in producing an emotional response in the spectator. [35]

Starter task: Match the terms to the definitions.

The use of of ‘shock’ in cinema to communicate powerful messages to audiences and elicit a range of responses from them is an important aspect for you to study when approaching section B of the exam.

Key terms: Shocking could be defined in three ways:

1. Visceral shock (often sex and/or violence)

2. Narrative shock unexpected ‘turn’ of the plot – e.g. Marion Crane’s demise in Psycho.

3. Political shock (a subversive message).

Director: Fernando Meirelles 

• Born as middle class so wasn’t accustomed to Favela’s
• Successful film maker prior to City of God•
• Read book COG in 1997• Challenging to make as has more than 350 named characters• 
• Actors were non-professionals, chose youngsters from Favela’s• 
• Won best director/nominated for it – won 4 Oscars•
• Low Budget Brazilian film• 
• Bigger than ‘Star Wars’ in Brazil• 
• Used music throughout film to create distance from action

Discuss the director's intentions.
Meirelles wanted to draw attention to the cyclical nature of life in the Favelas.
Each generation is learning from the last• 

Each years gets more serious and life threatening• 

Easily sucked into a life of crime and drugs• 

Loyalty• 

Cycle you can’t get out of.

Meirelles also wanted to draw attention to the two sides of Brazil;
RICH: POOR:• 

Diverse culture • --Favela’s• 

Wealth in Rio • --6.2 million in this community• 

Vast rain forests • 

Music-fuelled cities • --Shanty town  • 

Drug scene•--Idyllic beaches

He did this by identifying the tensions he saw in CoG;

• Age• Setting• Drugs• Poverty• Violence• Generations• Gangs• Police• People• Trapped• Crime

Task 1: In groups, discuss and note the themes, messages and values described in CoG. Handout provided.

Task 2: Watch the opening scene of City of God and list how the occasions of narrative shock have been constructed. 
Consider; Settings, costumes/props, sound, camera angles/movement, editing, body language, connotations.
Handout provided.

Task 3: In groups, discuss and note how emotional response has been created by the filmmaker in the opening scene of CoG.

If you run away they’ll get you and if you stay, they’ll get you too.”

Violence is the main driving force of the film. Shootings, beatings and rape form the core of the action. But the film’s attitude to violence is a means to an end for the film maker’s main motivation for making the film –   the wish for social change. It shows that the favelas are a breeding ground for this violence because the people have no hope of achieving anything other than through violence, however, apart from a brief reference to a flood being the cause of an influx of people the film makers do not provide any political reference points or background – the ‘sixties’, the ‘seventies’ are just chapter headings that don’t explain what was going on in Brazilian society that created these slums.

The film does have simple lessons to learn – if you live by the gun you die by the gun, if you avoid violence and retain some honest values and ambitions you escape. The film’s ending is on the one hand positive – Rocket is saved, but on the other hand the Runts are a more violent gang than ever. These are simplistic and stereotype the slum dwellers – presumably the majority of people are still trying to scrape some kind of honest living but you don’t see many examples of those except on the fringe of the plot.

The institutions backing the film had originally intended the film just for the Brazilian market, but the film’s success at Film Festivals gave it a life of its own, and Mierelles has used the film’s unprecedented success as a platform for to focus the world’s attention on the darkness of Rio’s slums, one of the most violent and dangerous places in South America. The film could not have been the commercial success it was without the backing of Miramax, the film distribution company, but remember Miramax is a commercial company, part of the Disney Corporation, who do not do things for charity, the people behind Miramax – the Weinstein brothers – must have spotted a commercial opportunity in the film.

Complete Viewing (Macro and Micro Language)

·         Filmmaker’s Intentions (Narrative, Political, Auteur, Technical)

·         Reasons for Use of Shock in City of God

04.Micro elements in City of God from Naamah Hill