Technological – The editing in City of God allowed Daniel Rezende, the editor, to experiment and try out new ideas, it is responsible for the development and interpretations of the characters.

Historical – Brazil was colonised by Portugal in the 16th century resulting in almost genocidal subjection of the indigenous people. They struggled for independence, which was then gained in the 19th century.

Social – Brazil is part of the ‘developing world’ and is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. An estimated 26.5% of the population live in absolute poverty.

Political – City of God brings to light the key problem of the fight against inequalities and social exclusion in impoverished popular communities.

Institutional – City of God is based on a book by Paulo Lins who grew up in the City of God. The film is described as being made by Brazilians for a Brazilian audience and deals with a Brazilian reality. It was funded by TV Globo and distributed by Miramax internationally

Tone

City of God is a very tense film with a lot of moments of stress, sadness and anger. The war begins towards the end of the film, meaning the tension building up from the start makes the film feel like you are waiting for something bad to happen throughout, until it actually does. This can be seen through the use of the handheld shots which enhance the stress, and also the fast pace of the film.

Visual Style

The slums in the City of God are represented in a dark, dirty and gloomy manner in order to show the distressing events that occur in the slums. In Benny’s leaving party scene, the ominous atmosphere and mood that something bad (Benny’s death) is created by flashing coloured lights, the cinematography and the camera movements, all creating a messy-crazy vibe before the death.

Realism

City of God is a very realist film as it is based on a true story and it focuses on depicting the lives of those who experience the life of living in the slums, dealing with issues such as poverty, war, drugs, assaults etc. The documentary style of the film allows us as the audience to feel more involved as it creates a sense of verisimilitude for the audience.

Men

Men in City Of God such as Lil Ze and Carrot are represented as powerful and more unhinged characters, who are socially higher in status than the rest of the cast because of their jobs and the power they have because of it. Other men, such as Knock-out Ned and Rocket are represented as characters who instead of being evil throughout, become evil because of their survival tactics and so they are forced to become involved through revenge and survival rather than self-willing.

Women

The women in City Of God are treated disrespectfully by men, primarily by the bad characters rather than the nicer characters such as Rocket. Rocket treats women with respect, shown through his love for Angelica. Though this showcases others characters violence towards the women like Angelica in the film, like when Benny gets shot and Lil Ze shouts and blames Angelica (Benny’s girlfriend). Towards the end, the newspaper editor that Rocket sleeps with, uses her power from her job in order to use Rocket for his photographs of the slums, which no one else had managed to capture.

Technological – Pan’s Labyrinth uses animatronics and green screen work and its effective creation of a magical-realist production design.

Historical – Pan’s Labyrinth is set in 1944, five years after the end of the Spanish civil war. However, the inspiration for the film was the 11th September 2001 terrorist attack on America.

Social – Del Toro uses representation of social groups, and religion in Pan’s Labyrinth in order to show the social contexts of Pan’s Labyrinth.

Political – Pan’s Labyrinth is set in Spain in the context of the Spanish Civil War under the authoritarian rule of Francisco Franco. Another political representation is that of the guerrillas who are presented as resourceful, determined and egalitarian.

Institutional – Pan’s Labyrinth was released in the UK by Optimum. It premiered at Cannes film festival in May 2006. It was co-produced by a number of Spanish, Mexican and American production companies the $19 million budget is reflected in the complex production design, period dressing and large cast. The eventual worldwide box office of $83.3 million was seen as a triumph.

Sound

The sound in City Of God create a powerful effect to the film because it adds to each scene in a way that changes or even creates an atmosphere that is useful to the event in the scene. An example of sound that’s well used to create an effective scene is Benny’s leaving party. The song ‘Kung Fu Fighting’ by Carl Douglas is played. The music creates a tense and stressful scene as Lil Ze is getting angry as he realises there is nothing to his life except violence and he begins getting jealous of everyone around him, specifically Benny as he is getting out of the slums and moving up in life to a happier beginning. When Lil Ze begins to force this guy to remove his clothes the music begins to quieten down, then it builds up again as Benny gets the camera to give to Rocket. Though when Lil Ze approaches Rocket and Benny and takes the camera off him, the music changes to a more upbeat and loud track, and the music flashes so the fighting between Lil Ze and Benny is drowned out, then Benny gets hit and the music stops, creating a dramatic finish to the sad scene, leaving Benny alone on the floor being held by Lil Ze.

Mise-en-scene

Mise-en-scene in City of God can be shown in many scenes, however an example of a specific scene I would point out that shows mise-en-scene being used to create an impact on spectators is the scene towards the start where the change in living situations changes over time, so we see the development of how the house where the drug business is first created when it was more simple and the house had more of a warm tone as the drug business was created in order for the women to support her children, then leading to more suspicious business, to the most recent time shown where the house is now a dark and sketchy dealers den (not anymore a home).

Cinematography

The cinematography in City Of God is cleverly done in order to showcase the events that occur in a way that involves the audience and puts them into the drama. For example, a POV shot is used when Rocket watches the police deal with Lil Ze. The shot is cleverly filmed as what we as the spectators see, is the ‘camera lens’ focusing on Lil Ze, and it makes the audience feel a sense of panic because they are fearful of Lil Ze looking over.

Editing

An example of the editing element in City Of God is the scene in which the boy towards the end has just been shot in the final war and there is a big flashback shown to where he asks Lil Ze for a gun for him to shoot his fathers killer. This twist creates a big revelation of how out of hand and unsafe the war that started involving the children were, as he then shoots his fathers killer who turns out to be Knockout Ned when he kills the boys father in the bank.

How is gender represented in Pan’s Labyrinth? 

• Gold palate featured in fantasy world/Ofelia scenes 
• Mise en scene shows how Ofelia uses fantasy world as escapism 
• Technical elements such as lighting and camera angle used to contrast Dr and Captain 
• Eyes are recurring motif as captain often hides his eyes 

Analysis of toad scene 

In the King toad scene, the gender representation can be shown through costume and other elements. In the scene, Ofelia approaches the tree and realizes her new dress is going to get ruined, which I think Ofelia wouldn’t mind, however she cares about her mother and how she made the dress for her. Ofelia taking the dress off to go into the muddy tree showcases her caring nature, rather than her thoughts on the dress since she doesn’t care for looks which challenges the stereotypes of girls being neat and tidy, and caring for their appearances instead of becoming more daring and being adventurous, like Ofelia has become.  

Tone

Pan’s Labyrinth incorporates themes of war, drama and dark fantasy. Primarily focusing on the theme of dark fantasy. This is shown by the overall mood and atmosphere of the film, being set in a dark and gloomy place, with evil characters such as the Captain. The dark tone of the film is also shown by the dark lighting, before Ofelia and her mother get to the Captains place, it appears to be light and as they approach the Captains place, a dark and ominous feeling appears and it becomes dark and mysterious rather than a bright and mysterious situation which would completely change the plot as it focuses on dark fantasy.

Visual Style

In the film, the visual style can be seen in the switch between the fantasy world and the real world, by the use of change in the colour palette. In the fantasy world, Del Toro uses warm hues of red, yellow and brown, whereas in the real world, a blander palette is used with colours such as grey, blue and green which are more natural colours anyway.

Realism

Pan’s Labyrinth is a film that features a lot of aspects of non-realistic things so the realism in the film would be seen in the acting and the real life world rather than the fantasy world that is supposed to be non real because she is meant to be imagining this world. However, through the use of cleverly done make up and costumes in the film, as well as realistic voices from the creatures like the Faun, the fantasy world is shown to blend in slightly with the real world, making it a more smoother transition between the real world and the fantasy.

Alone 

*Girl sitting at desk and doing homework then gets email from schoolteacher* 

Good morning, Class, 

In tomorrow’s lesson we are going to be presenting the childhood memory projects you’ve been working on for the past 2 weeks. You must bring in your projects tomorrow. No excuses. 

Thank you, Miss Stone 

Annabelle – *reads out letter from teacher* Muuumm! Where do we keep the old pictures from when I was youngerr!! *No reply* Oh she must have left for her dinner. Mm I bet the pictures will be in the attic. *Annabelle gets up from desk and heads to the attic* 

*Annabelle walks up the stairs and see’s the attic, she grabs a chair and puts it under the opening, then reaches for the sliding lid/door to open the attic, camera switches to a POV shot of the ladder inside the attic facing down as she pulls the ladder out* 

*Annabelle climbs up the ladder steps and reaches the top* 

Annabelle – They better be in here.  

*Annabelle climbs into the attic and starts looking for the pictures, she finds a box labelled ‘childhood memories’, she opens the box and finds an album labelled ‘Young Annabelle’* 

Annabelle – Aww I remember these so well, I’ll take this whole book down with me. *Camera switches to POV of opposite side of attic facing the back of Annabelle but clear that a black gloved and hatted figure is peering into the attic watching her and accidently knocking something over*  

Annabelle – *turns round to the entrance of the attic* What was that. *Looks around and gets creeped out from the attic* It’s getting kinda creepy in here now, I better go. 

*Annabelle shuts the box and grabs her album and then climbs down the ladder, switches the light of, pushes up the ladder and closes the door* *She then sees a black glove on the floor, and looks around her with a scared expression* 

Annabelle – Hello?! Is anyone there?! *Moment of silence as she stands there and looks around* I’ve been watching too many horrors recently. *Shrugs then goes back downstairs*  

* * * 

*A bit later, Annabelle is doing her washing, she opens the washing machine and camera switches to a POV of washing machine door, so we see Annabelle as she opens the washing machine door* *She puts the washing powder in and turns the washing dial to ‘mixed load’ button, then she switches it on to start washing* 

*Annabelle’s phone starts ringing and it says, ‘No caller ID’, she answers, very sceptical about who’s on the other side of the phone* 

Friend – *camera is still on Annabelle, voice over is speaking* Hey, have you done your project, It’s due tomorrow? 

Annabelle – Oh thank God it’s only you.  

Friend – *camera switches to friend who is watching Annabelle through the window* Who did you think it was gonna be?  

Annabelle – Oh haha, just had this feeling I was *as Annabelle is speaking, there is her friend dressed in all black in the background appearing in the window, looking into the utility room where Annabelle is facing the other way still talking* I don’t know being stalked or something? *She looks around again* 

Friend – *camera is showing the back of the friend as she watches Annabelle through the window, we see her too* Right, you’re overthinking this, you’re probably just paranoid cause your home alone.  

Annabelle – Hahah, yeah, you’re right, that’s what I was thinking. Wait how did you know I was home alone? 

*Camera switches to POV of the figure watching through the window so we see Annabelle standing there on her phone* 

Friend – Oh, I was guessing. Anyways I’ll see you tomorrow. 

Annabelle – Uh. Yeah Okay.  

For me, this was my chosen iconic shot because it shows the divide in the community and how smug Li’l Zé and his gang look (wanting to get photographed as they are proud of their win), which is ironic because this scene unfolds the final war that leads to Li’l Zé’s death.

Score – I would give this film an 8/10. I thought the soundtrack was really well used, and the film itself had a good narrative so it was very captivating to watch. Though I thought the start of the film took a while to get into, but when the plot started becoming more clear it was a very entertaining watch.

Memorable Scene

I chose this scene as my memorable scene, because it is a special moment for Angelica and Rocket, though this is quickly changed from a sweet gesture to the beginning of a war because it results in Benny getting shot.