Name: Amnesia

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.

In the six part movie we watched, Strike was a music only movie with no talking and it was also in black in white due to it being so old. the Movie was about a group of people going on strike from their work because they didn’t like how they were getting treated in the workplace so they decided to go on strike, it ends up backfiring and loads of people get killed and there is some really gory scenes, including a cow being slaughtered and bears being in distress throughout the film in all of the six parts

there was a lot of metric montage is the 4th part of the film, they decide to slaughter a cow and the form of montage they used was a metric montage. also throughout the film there was a lot of scenes where they switch from the workers to circus bears, comparing them to the bears. this montage is called a Rhythmic montage because they are being compared to the bears that are stuck in captivity.

Technological – City of God is well known for it’s experimental editing – including montages, still frames, flashbacks, change of colour grading and text overlays.

Historical – The film is based on a 1997 novel of the same name by Paulo Lins, which detailed the true events of life inside the favelas. The likes of Rocket, Lil Ze and Knockout Ned were all real people who experienced what spectators saw on screen.

Social – 20 percent of Brazil’s population live in complete poverty, which is roughly 32 million people. Therefore it was important for City of God to accurately represent such a large amount of people.

Political – In 2002, when City of God was produced, President Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva led the first left-wing Brazilian Government in over 40 years.

Institutional – Several production companies, mainly Brazilian ones such as TV Globo and O2 Filmes, were involved with the making of City of God. Internationally, it was distributed by Miramax, a successful company known for releasing international and independent films.

• Gold colour palette for fantasy/Ofelia
• Shadowy blue for Faun/labyrinth

During the King toad scene, the camera wipes between Ofelia’s and Captain Vidal’s story, creating binary opposition between the two.

One form of opposition is how Vidal is in the wide-open woods, whereas Ofelia is in the cramped dark space. She is represented with a high angle shot showing her confidence has grown.

Ofelia is represented in this Alice in Wonderland dress which she then abandons before going into the tree. This shows how she challenges the typical female stereotype, as she gets dirty.  Vidal is in this neat, sharp suit upon a horse keeping it clean, showing he is in control over everyone, however, it also shows his cowardness almost. The smaller space that Ofelia is in shows how her world is a lot smaller, her fantasy world is one of her own, whereas Vidal is in a much bigger more open space

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.  

Gender is represented in the Toad King quest through the low angle shots as Ofelia travels through the inside of the small and claustrophobic tree, showing her character becoming bold and fearless, whereas diegetic wipes take the film back to Vidal and his men unsuccessfully searching the woods for the rebels. This challenges the patriarchal society presented to spectators throughout the events of the film. Costumes also provide gender representation as Ofelia gets muddy and dirty whereas Vidal remains tidy and avoids any ‘hard work’ while searching. Ofelia’s outfit could be an intertextual reference to Alice in Wonderland – also about a girl embarking on a quest in a fantastical reality.  

How is gender represented in Pans Labyrinth?

• They use a lot of gold as a colour pallet when they were in a fantasy world.
• Shadowy colours when the Faun is on screen.
• Use of blue lighting when the scenes are sadder.

Analysis of the toad scene Ofelia wears a silk green dress; she wears this to show her gender and to show how woman had to dress all the time back in the 1940s, her taking of her house dress and getting all muddy is breaking the stereotype. the scene of Vidal chasing the rebels is significant because it is showing how committed he is to find these people and getting rid of them. The colour of this part is bright lighting because the scene does not really have any important emotion, however when the screen switches to Ofelia the lighting is a dark orange and gold colour, to show she is in her fantasy world and to show that she has a mood of being scared