This ground-level report on gang life in the slums of Rio de
Janeiro exploded with thrilling and terrible force. An electrifying
piece of cinema packed full of visual invention and dazzling set-pieces,
it owes a debt to Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas and audaciously pays it
off. Though it unfolds at an exhilarating pace and crackles with danger,
the film never allows itself to become seduced by the abundant violence
of favela life. Instead, it keeps its lens trained on the attendant
horrors, which mount up as the narrative jumps forward in time. What is
most horrifying of all is how those caught up in the violence – victims
and perpetrators alike – keep getting younger and younger.
- City of God (Cidade de Deus)
- Production year: 2002
- Country: Rest of the world
- Cert (UK): 18
- Runtime: 135 mins
- Directors: Fernando Meirelles
- Cast: Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino da Hora, Matheus Nachtergaele, Phelipe Haagensen
The film begins in the relative innocence of the late 60s, soon after the
City of God
(a real-life Rio slum, ironically named) was constructed. Rocket
(Alexandre Rodrigues) is an 11-year-old at the margins of gang life. His
older brother's crew are involved in petty crime, holding up trucks
carrying propane gas and selling the loot to local residents. Things
start getting out of control when Rocket's younger gang target the
clients of a sleazy motel and the raid, intended to be bloodless,
becomes a killing spree.
The film's most chilling image, revealed
later on in flashback, is of the tiny Li'l Dice returning to the motel
alone and gleefully slaying everyone inside. Flash-forward to the 70s
and Dice, now restyled as Li'l Zé, is the most fearsome gang leader in
the City of God. And yet even Zé, for all his psychotic tendencies, has a
sense of order, and the favela is relatively peaceful once his reign is
established. Other criminals are simply executed – or in one
unforgettable instance, shot in the foot – if they cause trouble. But
the peace is shakily constructed and warfare erupts on a massive scale
as the film moves into the early 80s. When Zé meets his end, it's at the
hand of a gang populated by nine- and 10-year-olds with designs on his
drug-dealing monopoly. It's a profoundly disturbing sequence of events,
but the film is still hugely enjoyable thanks to César Charlone's
camerawork and the magnificent, sprawling cast of non-professional
actors who were recruited from the City of God itself and adjacent
slums.
Meirelles went on to direct The Constant Gardener and
Blindness.
City of God
Absolutely everything you need to know about CITY OF GOD
Synopsis – The film is in three parts
The story of the Tender Trio
In the City of God, one of the slums on the hills above Rio de Janeiro,
Buscape (Rocket) wants to be a photographer. He runs into
Ze Pequeno (Little Ze)
and his armed gang of children (the Runts). He tells the stories of the
City in flashback beginning in the 1960s when his brother
Marreco (Goose) together with
Cabeleira (Shaggy) and
Alicate (Clipper) are known as
The Tender Trio. They are amateur petty thieves who plan to rob a brothel, the Miami Motel. They take
Dadinho (Little Dice), the 9-year-old friend of Shaggy’s brother
Bene,
along to act as lookout. The robbery ends in a massacre. The Trio split
up. Shaggy hides in Lucia Maracana’s house. He is very attracted to her
daughter Berenice. Goose meets and flirts with the wife of
Paraiba (Shorty).
Shorty catches them in bed together. Goose runs away and finds Bene and
Little Dice hiding out in an unfinished building. Shorty buries his
wife alive, the police take him away. Shaggy and Berenice hijack a car
at gunpoint. The car packs up. The police shoot Shaggy. A man takes
photographs of the body. Rocket is envious of his camera.
The story of Little Ze
The story moves forward to the 1970s. Rocket, still a virgin, takes photographs of his friends
‘the Groovies’ on the beach. He fancies Angelica but she has a boyfriend
Thiago who has graduated from smoking dope to snorting coke. Rocket goes to the apartment where
Neguinho (Blacky)
sells dope. Little Dice swaggers in. He has changed his name to Little
Ze. He murdered the customers at the brothel and later killed Goose. At
18 he is in the drugs business, having killed all of the other dealers
in the city except
Sandro Cenoura (Carrot). Bene still
attempts to keep Little Ze under control advocating negotiation rather
than murder. Bene meets the Groovies and admires Thiago’s style. He
bleaches his hair, gets new clothes and transforms himself into a
playboy. After loosing his job at the Supermarket Rocket decides to do
some hold ups with his friend
Barbantinho (Stringy). They board a bus planning to rob the fare collector
Mane Galinha (Knockout Ned).
Ned, who is against violence, advises them to study and get out of the
City. They don’t go through with the robbery. Bene and Angelica are in
love. They plan to leave the City and live a life of peace in the
country. At Bene’s farewell party Ze is angry that his close friend is
giving up the hood’s life for a woman. An argument breaks out and they
struggle amongst the dancers. Blacky, aiming to kill Ze, accidentally
shoots Bene. Little Ze is jealous of Knockout Ned and wants Ned’s
girlfriend. His gang hold Ned down whilst Ze rapes her.
The story of Knockout Ned
Ned goes home in anguish. Ze goes to his house to kill him. His gang
kill Ned’s father, uncle and brother. Carrot comes by and offers Ned a
gun and Ned takes it. Although at first Ned does not want violence he
and Carrot become involved in all out gang war with Ze, robbing banks
and killing in order to buy bigger and better weapons. Rocket gets a job
delivering newspapers, going to the newspaper offices at night where he
has a friend in the photo lab. The war continues with children fighting
on both sides. A boy
Otto joins Carrots gang. Ned is
wounded and arrested. Ze sees the TV news where Ned is being interviewed
as a celebrity. He is furious that he is not seen as the boss of the
city. Thiago fetches Rocket who takes pictures of Ze posing with his
gang.
Marina, who works for the newspaper, finds the
photos. Rocket sees his photographs on the front page of the newspaper.
He thinks Ze will kill him. The journalists want Rocket to take more
pictures. Rocket can’t go back to the City, it’s too risky. He has
nowhere to sleep. Marina takes him back to her apartment where he takes
his first hot shower and has his first sexual experience. Carrot and his
gang spring Ned from the hospital. There is a pitched battle between
the gangs and Rocket takes pictures for the newspaper. Ned is killed. Ze
tries to round up the Runts to restart his business. They shoot him,
the business is theirs! Rocket takes pictures of the body. The
photograph makes the front page. He is now
Wilson Rodrigues, photographer.
Introduction
City of God is an example of
Brazilian national cinema. It is also an international film that secured worldwide distribution through
Miramax, a major distributor that has a reputation for distributing independent films, the most famous examples are films by
Quentin Tarantino, and films such as The Piano and The Crying Game. Miramax is now owned by
Disney. It illustrates the comparative accessibility of
World Cinema,
a label that previously denoted only a limited distribution in art
cinemas of films made known through their success in film festivals. Its
success can be examined through its relationship to
mainstream cinema in terms of
production values, genre and narrative. In examining its popularity, especially among
film-goers between 18 and 25, it is necessary to consider how far City of God use
recognisable genre features and
transport them to different and more colourful locations. However
recognisable these genre features might be the themes of the film and
concerns of the characters are in many ways very specific to their
setting.
Comparisons have been made with
Goodfellas and
Pulp Fiction but neither of these films actually deal with social problems or issues.
The reputation gained by City of God was for much part that of a film that
reveals the true facts about poverty in the slums of Rio de Janeiro and the
endemic nature of the violence that accompanies it.
Given the publicity it received, the nature of some of the rave reviews
and the stated intention of the film-makers it can be studied as a
political film with a message. At the same time it relies heavily on the
artificiality of cinematic techniques and a
complex narrative structure, not the
realist style formerly associated with films about social deprivation (for example Sweet Sixteen).
As such it enters into the debate around the form that a film’s
messages should take, and whether such films should contain suggestions
as to the possible origin and remedy of the social inequality they
represent.
The film director
Fernando Meirelles had directed one previous film, and was a director
of commercials for a Brazilian advertising agency, O2. The film was
based on the novel of the same name by
Paulo Lins, a
long 700 page multi-character novel described as ‘Dickensian’. It uses
amateur actors who were recruited from the favelas and encouraged to
improvises to give the film authenticity.
Filming took place entirely in the slums. It was was financed by TV
Globo, Brazil’s biggest TV channel, and 02 Filmes. The success of the
film led to a TV mini-series Cidode dos Homens I City of Men set in the
Dona Martela favela and featuring the same actors. An estimated 35
million viewers watched the first series. Together with co-director
Katia Lund
he started the organisation ‘Nos do cinema I ‘We of the Cinema. This is
a workshop project for boys from the favelas. The film cost about $3m
to make and has taken around $30m at the box office worldwide.
The Narrative
City of God uses narrative in a complex way, manipulating the timeframe, and using a
narrator to lead the audience through the film. This kind of narrator is known as
homodiegetic
– he is inside the narrative narrating in the first person. The
narrative doesn’t fall easily into the usual theory. There is certainly
three parts to the film, but they don’t really fit
Sid Field’s theory
of a start, middle and end. The start after all is a sequence that
actually heralds the end of the film, and apart from being a dramatic
sequence that serves to engage the audience, it guarantees an
understanding of the changed circumstances of the city, and makes the
antics of the Tender Trio look rather tame compared with the later
action.
Todorov’s theory of an equilibrium, followed by a
disequilibrium, then a new equilibrium could be applied. The original
equilibrium of the tame amateur gangsterism of the Tender Trio is
disrupted by the rapid escalation of violence that follows the Miami
Hotel raid and the jump forward in time to the 70s where we see a grown
up Lil Ze, and the true events of the night at the Miami Hotel are
shown. This then proceeds to the new equilibrium at the end where we see
Lil Ze being assinated by the Runts – a new generation of kids
re-claiming the streets, except that instead of being shown playing
football they’re planning who they’re going to kill off next!
Roland Barthes theories of action and enigma codes
can easily be applied, remember that Barthes said that there are two
ways of creating suspense in narrative, the first caused by unanswered
questions, the second by the anticipation of an action’s resolution –
there are numerous examples of actions which lead to a re-action such
as:
- The Tender Trio’s raid on the Miami Hotel in a desire to become more
serious gangsters leads to the deaths of Shaggy and Goose and
eventually reveals Lil Ze’s true character.
- Bene’s decision to leave the gangster’s life leads to his death.
- Ned’s decision to seek revenge on his brother’s death leads to him joining Carrot’s gang and his eventual death.
- The killing of the security guard, who turns out to be Otto’s father, also leads to Ned’s death.
- The desire for Lil Ze to have his picture taken leads to them
fetching Rocket, whose photos are published and he not only gets a jobs
as a photographer but loses his virginity (at last) to Marina
The are also numerous
narrative enigma – unanswered questions – that mislead the audience.
- The opening sequence is that of a relaxed street party which leads
to a confrontation, and when re-played at the end of the film turns into
a massacre.
- The Miami Hotel raid massacre eventually turns out to be Lil Ze’s first act of mass violence.
- Bene’s meeting with Thiago leads to the bike race, which we assume
will end in violence, but actually ends in Bene buying trainers and
clothes and getting a more modern image.
- Rocket and Stringy’s abortive attempt to hold up a car, and coming
across a kindly driver who befriends them, leads to the scene where the
police find a body by the roadside, and we assume that Rocket and
Stringy have succumbed to violence and killed the driver, but then the
car drives past with Rocket and Stringy still inside.
We can also apply
Claude Levi-Strauss’ theory of binary opposites
– the idea that the constant creation of conflict/opposition propels
narrative – to the film. Remember that these opposites can be anything,
some examples in City of God are:
- The contrast between the city as a glamorous tourist destination and the povert and deprivation in the slums that surround it.
- The portrayal of the City of God in the 60s, the bright lighting and
wide open spaces, and the dark, grey closed in slum at the end.
- The conflict between the police and the gangsters.
- The conflict between honesty and dishonesty.
- The conflict between the values of the women – who invariably want
their men to settle down and lead a ‘normal’ life, and the men, who are
invariably looking for reasons not to!
- The opposites of the camera and the gun, which is one of the main themes of the film.
Our old friend
Propp can’t be left out here, but it
is more difficult to apply to City of God than Sweet Sixteen. Rocket is
obviously the hero, and Ze the villain. Marina could be the helper, or
even fairy godmother. Bene could be the donor, because it’s through him
that Rocket aquires the camera. Maybe Ned is a false hero? As for the
functions of the character, there are numerous examples, but they don’t
appear in the same order that Propp suggests!
The film also employs numerous
diegetic narrative devices to help us along, such as newspaper headlines, photographs, TV interviews and music:
- Newspaper headlines tell us what Shorty did to his wife ‘Man buries
wife alive in City of God’ and at the nd ‘The Self Styled Boss of the
City of God is Dead’
- Rockets photographs taken on the beach act as a signifier of his
feelings for Angelica and his relationship with the gang of Groovies.
Later his photos earn him his passage out of the slum.
- The TV interview with Ned – which is seen by Rocket and Lil Ze and
acts as a trigger for Ze to send for Rocket to show who’s the real boss.
- Bene dancing to James Brown’s ‘Sex Machine’ signifies his new found
image, and ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ being played at Bene’s farewell is ironic
considering what happens there.
The film also uses ‘
Montage editing’ to powerful
effect. Montage editing is the way shots are put together to clash with
each other and produce shocks, rather than smooth continuity. Think of
the very first shots you see, the knife being sharpened on a stone,
followed by a black screen, repeated 5 times in quick succession.
Compare that with the dreamy opening sequence of Sweet Sixteen. The
shots of the guitar playing and the samba rhythm then contrast with
shots of a nervous looking chicken watching his mates having their neck
sliced and his eventual escape.
In contrast a different kind of editing is used in ‘
The Story of the Apartment’
where we are placed as a kind of ‘voyeur’ or spectator watching what
goes on and how the apartment changes over time, all from a wide angle
viewpoint and deep focus which give an exaggerated perspective with
characters appearing large in the foreground, small in the background.
The story is told with a series of dissolves where people appear,
disappear and reappear in different parts of the room. The walls change
colour, the lighting gets darker and darker, and the apartment becomes
more and more scruffy. The apartment starts off looking like someone’s
home, and ends up looking like a crack den. Initially there is a woman,
Dona Zelia, whos seems to occupy the apartment as a drug dealer and
prostitute, but in time she disappears with no explanation, like all the
other women in the film. The impact of
Mise-en-Scene
is profound here, with the film makers using the changes in settings as a
signifier of the descent of it’s occupants deeper and deeper into
squalor.
Split screen is used to show two
episodes at the same time, and many sequences are shown twice changing
our perception or filling in missing information, for example:
- The image that we see at the beginning of Rocket behind the grill
only becomes when at the end he is shown taking the shots of Ze bribing
the police through the grilled window.
- The chicken chase at the beginning is firstly seen as rather comical, but the second time it leads to a massacre.
- After the scene of Bene telling Ze he’s leaving we see an ols sepia photograph of them when they were kids together.
- The Miami Hotel raid is shown twice, once when the Tender Trio
escape farcically in a stolen car that they can’t drive and eventually
crash into shorty’s bar, then late when Ze shoots at the window because
he’s bored before cold-bloodedly killing all the customers.
- Goose finding Lil Dice and bene in the construction site is replayed a second toime showing Goose being shot.
- The bank shoot out where Ned kills the bank worker is seen again
showing Otto present, leading to his revenge killing of Ned after he
joins the gang.
