City of God analysis

 City of God opening scene analysis

Cinematography

The streets use cold lighting and is shot through a blue filter to show these as the bad days. Even some of their shirts are blue reminding the viewer these are dark days. Its very claustrophobic with the houses packed together and having the gang chasing the chicken through the streets. When we see Lil Z, it is always a close-up shot of his teeth when he's laughing like a psychopath. He is the first person we see with a gun showing he's the leader. When we see Rocket standing in-between the police and Lil Z's gang we get the camera panning around him all sped up taking us back to the 60s. The chicken is shown to be escaping Lil Z and his gang, this represents escaping the 'City of God' which doesn't happen and isn't easy to do unless you have a dream and follow it like Rocket does. When we transition back to the 60s, warm lighting is used to show the 'good old days'. We finally get to see the sky and a whole field compared to the lack of space and claustrophobic in the present. The houses have space in-between them and are on the same level which is not the case for the favelas in the present.

Editing

Fast-paced editing is used when the see the gang chasing the chicken through the streets. A handheld camera is used here so the camera movement is all over the place and is very chaotic. We finally get a break from the chase to see Rocket and his mate walking down the steps slowly.

Mise-en-scene

A key prop used in the opening is Rocket holding the camera when he's between the two sides which will be important later on in the film as the camera is the reason Rocket manages to escape from the 'city of God' chasing his dream of being a photographer for the newspaper. Back in the 60s, when Rocket introduces himself, we get a camera shutter clicking over a close-up shot of him foreshadowing the camera playing a key part in his life and associates a camera with this character already.

Performance

 As soon as we are introduced to Lil Z, we know he is the villain of the film as his evil laugh and wide grin