It’s a rich and layered character drama that focuses primarily on the dissolution of marriage between the progressive ‘Simin’ and her more conservative, soon to be ex-husband ‘Nader.’ It’s about the disconnect and themes of dissolving bonds between the middle and working class, the religious and non-religious, the conservative and progressive. It holds a mirror to reflect modern Iranian society and the fractures it deals with.
‘City of God’, deals with the fractures of a very different society inside the Favelas (slums) of Brazil’s Rio De Janeiro, set amidst violence and poverty as the protagonist ‘Rocket’ tries to escape that life but feels trapped. The realistic approach on the subject of youth violence in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro through the eyes of a young witness is approached in a unique way where music and innocence is juxtaposed with violence, a theme followed in its treatment of contrasting elements in the editing and sound design process as well.
A little about the authors:
Fernando Meirelles was born in a middle class family in São Paulo City, Brazil. An architecture student, he developed an interest in making experimental videos which subsequently led to working in the TV industry. In 1997 he read the Brazilian best-seller “Cidade de Deus/City of God”, written by Paulo Lins, and decided to turn it into a movie despite an intimidating story that involved more than 350 characters. The crew was a mix of professional technicians and inexperienced actors chosen between the youngsters living in the favelas surrounding Rio de Janeiro. The film was a huge success in Brazil, screened at Cannes Film Festival in 2002 and also won him a Best Director-Oscar nomination. Interestingly, the inexperienced actors ended up creating 70% of the dialogues in the film which lends it its realism. –Source IMDB
Asghar Farhadi was born in 1972 in Iran. He became interested in cinema in his teenage years and started his filmmaking education by joining the Youth Cinema Society of Esfahan in 1986 where he made 8mm and 16mm short films.
His fourth film, About Elly (2009) (Darbareye Elly) was called “a masterpiece” by film critic David Bordwell and won the Silver Bear for Best Director at 59th Berlin International Film Festival as well as Best Picture at Tribeca Film Festival. It was also Iran’s official submission for the Foreign Language Film competition of Academy Awards in 2009. His most recent film, A Separation (2011) (Jodaeiye Nader az Simin), became a sensation. It got critical acclaim inside and outside of Iran; Roger Ebert called it “the best picture of the year,”
There’s a 9 year difference between both the films and are shot on opposite ends of the globe. The reason I’ve chosen these films is because they both talk about the fractures in their countries society and the deep division between the classes. While ‘City of God’ is rife with violent crime which Rocket, the protagonist is trying to get out of, ‘A Separation’ features only a single alleged crime being committed, that too by a pious, conservative woman and it is fascinating to make a contrast between the crime and physical violence of ‘City of God’ and the emotional implications of the alleged crime in ‘A Separation’. Both have similarities under the surface and in the reading of its subtext and politics, but above it, they are fundamentally very different films. The clearest example of this is how they treat the opening scene.
The ‘City Of God’ opening features hundreds of quick cuts, with the first being a knife being sharpened on a stone. Within a few shots itself, the audience is told that this is going to be a violent story; that in the ‘City of God’, everything is a weapon. We see the POV of a chicken as it awaits slaughter, intercut with celebratory and upbeat Samba music which the director wants to convey as constancy in the Favelas (slums) despite the claustrophobic surroundings. Through rhythmic editing and a non-diegetic soundtrack that features harsh sound effects of the knife on the stone, there’s juxtaposition between violence and celebration; a theme of the film as tragedy often happens while the characters are at their happiest. In the scene, we see that a chicken is about to be slaughtered and eaten, but it manages to escape and to show the bizarre nature of the slums, a bunch of young gangsters chase after it, trying to shoot it while creating havoc. The chicken that escaped becomes a metaphor for the main protagonist; Rocket who escapes from the rest of the children in search of a better life. The chicken almost gets run over by a car while escaping (interestingly by a police car, nonetheless), till the scene culminates in Rocket being stuck in the middle of a stand-off between the young gangsters and the police, trying to catch the chicken. A circular track, a colour shift from colder to warmer colours and a dissolve transitions from this scene into a flashback of a young Rocket and we begin his story. Within the first 4 minutes itself, we know exactly what the film is going to be about-both in its subtext and actual action.
On the flipside, A Separation opens with the light of a copy machine scanning legal documents, including passports while opening credits roll. Then, it cuts to a single shot that is held for almost 4 minutes. We gaze directly at an upper-middle-class couple in Iran discussing their reasons for wanting a divorce. This instantly invites the audience to become the judge between their disputes. There’s tension and exasperation between the two, each arguing their side but no overt hostility. Despite being such a long shot, it never feels dragged out as the conversational action is gripping. The mise-en-scene is interesting, because they sit in a drab room discussing their case and at times Nader blocks our view of Simin and she has to peer from behind him as she speaks. Later, she walks towards the camera till the shot ends in a close up. Throughout the film, we constantly see women behind glass screens and doors, alluding to their status in Iran.
“In City of God, the cycle of the drug lords is circular, as the older generation of drug lords always dissolves while a new generation takes their place as leaders and guardians of their favelas. This cycle can first be seen in the beginning of the movie when three teenager thieves are idolized by the younger kids and protected by the elders of the villages in exchange for them sharing their “earnings” with the citizens. The trio is named Shaggy, Clipper, and Goose. They let one of their younger followers convince them to run down a motel. While breaking into the motel rooms to steal from the clients, the teens leave the young boy, named Lil’ Dice, as watchman. Lil’ Dice is a sadistic murderer who takes pleasure in killing others. While the teens are breaking into the rooms, Lil’ Dice goes into the hotel and kills all the employees and then proceeds to kill the clients as well, without the gang of boys realizing it. Shortly after this incident, the gang breaks up with Clipper joining the church, Shaggy getting shot down by police offers while trying to escape the town, and Lil’ Dice killing Goose for taking some of Lil’ Dice’s earnings. When the audience can finally breathe a sigh of relief because the town delinquents are all gone, the movie fast-forwards to the 1970s. Goose’s little brother is now a teenager dreaming of becoming a photographer and Lil’ Dice is now the new leader of City of God, except he goes by Lil’ Ze now. If all the blood shed isn’t sickening enough, the last sentence on the screen stating that the movie is based on true events sure is. This movie is very real in the sense that it gives outsiders a look into what the lives of some of these children are like.”
where the juvenile crime strikes during the period of 60’s through 80’s. The whole story is narrated from the point of view of the main character, Buscape, a young kid who desires to be a photographer. The overall editing style of the film – both image and sound- is constructed to convey the basic theme of the movie in a realistic way. Specifically, the fact that the story is based on true events is heightened by the style of the film, the use of non-actors, the use of improvised scenes and the cinematography. The image editing techniques used vary in style but they create a specific editing formula and an original pattern. In addition, the sound editing and the use of music follow up the style of the movie by deepening its meaning and emotional layer. The final audiovisual outcome is shaped through the editing of image and sound in such a way that unfolds the plot and the basic theme by enhancing the narrative development and beats of the film. The arguments that support this statement will be discussed extensively below.
The main structure of the film is based on flashbacks for the purpose of explaining the main story. It is important to mention that the film uses Buscape as the homodiegetic2 narrator of the story. Although he is one of the main characters, most of the times he is an observer to the events (Muir, 2008, p. 48)
– 2 the narrator is part of film’s narrative as first person narrator (Muir, 2008) p.48 3 as Stephanie Muir mentions, point of view, shot-reverse-shot, eyeline match (Muir, 2008 p. 49)
According to the film-critic Tim Dirks: “the all-digital film was rich with experimental techniques, including: “Matrix”-style camera rotations and dolly shots, sped-up motion, frantic jump-cut edits, a mobile, handheld camera, freeze frames, frenzied strobe lighting, a varied musical sound track (from samba to disco) and the POV of a ricocheting bullet in one scene”. (Dirkis, Unknown)
The overall editing of the film is based on simple cuts, freeze frames, dissolves and fade to black transitions. However, there are specific parts of the film where the editing techniques used improve the plot and the style of the film by heighten the emotions of the viewer.
However, there are a lot of other scenes where the editing deepens into the story. In the sequence, “the story of the apartment”, the narration unfolds important elements of the story in a short amount of time through dissolves. Moreover, in the scene after the gunfire in the hotel where CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE MOVIE “CITY OF GOD” 10 the faculty and the customers lying dead, the tragedy is underlined by the wipe transition from shot to shot
The use of the sound in this film is mainly created in order to shape a realistic atmosphere of the scenes. On the other hand, the use of the voice over gives a cinematic aspect helping the story to unfold through the eyes of a witness but also gives the certain beats for the action or the information to be revealed. The use of music highlights a lot of parts of the movie functioning as an extra factor of creating meaning. Specifically, as Stephanie Muir supports “the music then often acts in a similar way to Rocket’s commentary, as a seductive counterpoint to the violent images” (Muir, 2008, p. 86)8 .
Bibliography Burkell, G. (2013, February 21). avidblogs. Retrieved 12 2015, from http://www.avidblogs.com/: http://www.avidblogs.com/avid-toronto-editors-city-of-god/ Dirkis, T. (Unknown). filmsite. Retrieved December 11, 2015, from http://www.filmsite.org/: http://www.filmsite.org/bestfilmediting10.html Film4. (Unknown, Unknown Unknown). Film4. Retrieved 12 09, 2015, from http://www.film4.com/: http://www.film4.com/special-features/interviews/careers-daniel-rezende imdb. (1990, October 17). imdb. Retrieved 12 11, 2015, from http://www.imdb.com/: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317248/ Meirelles, F. (2004, March 05). Chicken Run. (K. Doughton, Interviewer) nitrateonline.com (http://www.nitrateonline.com/2004/fcityofgod.html). Moura, G. (Unknown). elements of cinema. Retrieved 12 11, 2015, from http://www.elementsofcinema.com/: http://www.elementsofcinema.com/editing/kuleshoveffect.html Muir, S. (2008). Studying City of God. England: Auteur.
