In pan’s labyrinth a gold colour palate is mostly used for the fantasy world, while the real world uses much colder, darker colours, this reflects how oefila feels about the real world. 

In the beginning of this scene Ofelia is wearing a dress similar to that of allice from allice in wonderland, though she quickly removes it before entering the tree, and underneath she is wearing a more simpler, but more effective for her task, this reflects her character as someone who is not truly bothered by her appearance and is less vein then someone like Vidal who is vain and cares deeply about his appearance, this shows the viewer more of what Ofelia is like, and how she as a character is a binary opposition to Vidal. Once Ofelia has entered the tree we can see warmer colours, this is a common visual motif of the fantasy world, being that it is much warmer than the real world, as when Ofelia leaves the tree the lighting of the real world is much bluer and darker, as well as it is raining, this reflects how Ofelia feels about the real world. Compared to her fantasy world. While Ofelia is inside the tree all the shots are close and cramped bringing us closer to her, this reflects her world, as she is very restriced in what she can do 

Contexts:

Technological –

With the use of digital editing allowed the films editors such as Daniel Rezende experiment and try out new ideas. According to him, many of the interpretations of the characters came from the editing stage. through the improvisation of the actors he could edit all their scenes to uniquely craft their portrayal.

Historical –

Brazil was colonised by Portugal in the 16th century which resulted into a large genocide of the indigenous people. Portugal also largely imported slaves from Africa which made up a large part of funding their economy. After it was abolished, they had become locals much like the Portuguese colonizers. As a result this is what makes their multi-ethnic communities today as seen in the film. The film set in the 60s and 70s shows this through the vehicles and music seen and heard throughout the film.

Social –

Brazil, the largest country in Latin America, covers half the continent. Being the 5th largest country in the world in terms of land area and its population of 163.7 million. It is estimated that 20% of the population (32 Million) live in poverty. The disparity line between those living below the poverty line (who receive only 2% of the GDP) differences massively to the top 10% (who receive 50.6%) is greater than most other countries in the world. This is shown largely through the depiction of Rio de Janeiros slums, as known as favela’s in the City of God.

Political –

During the time of filming, Brazil was economically dependent and dominated by the USA in the 20th century, In 2002 the same year the film was made, an ex metal worker, Luiz Ignacio Lula da Silva was elected ,after his fourth attempt, to become president. From this point onwards he promised economic prosperity and led the first left-wing government to be in power for more than 40 years. In City of God, Brazils reliance on the USA in the 20th century can be seen with the use of American supplied helmets and weaponry, The helmets worn where left overs from the US’s current involvement in Vietnam in which the films setting is set around.

Institutional –

Financed by TV Globo, Brazil’s biggest TV Channel as well as some other companies like O2 Filmes. It was distributed by Miramax, the company founded by Bob and Harvey Weinstien in 1979, through them they supported in the films success with showing it internationally as an independent film.

Representation

Very few women appear in City of God, and those that do are treated badly and violently by men, primarily Lil Ze. Following Benny’s death, Angelica is forced by Lil Ze to leave the club, with him blaming it on her. Additionally, Knockout Ned’s girlfriend briefly appears, firstly where he turns down a dance with Lil Ze, and secondly where he confronts her and Ned, attacking the two and raping her.

Aesthetics

Tone – City of God’s third act is highly suspenseful, with tension being built as the gang war between Carrot and Lil Ze continues on. In fact, the war begins around 40 minutes before the end of the film, so a large amount of the runtime is spent leaving audiences questioning who will win. This is enhanced with the fast pacing of shots and editing giving the effect that so much is happening all at once to the people living in the city throughout the conflict.

Visual Style – City of God uses two main styles of colour grading. For the majority of the film, the appearance could be described as highly saturated with softer colours, whereas the colour grading becomes grittier and could be described as ‘kitchen-sink’ following the beginning of the gang war.

Realism – City of God is a social realist film, depicting the lives of those who experience several horrific things such as murder, drug abuse, rape, war, and poverty. The use of handheld shots reinforce the documentary style approach Fernando Meirelles took in order to make the world feel real and create a sense of verisimilitude.

Representation of Gender –

Men –

Men such as Lil Ze and carrot, are represented as being highly patriarchal and on occasions evil with their actions. Without the access to a proper education, which is proved by their inability to read, their immaturity can stem from this and the culture that surrounds them of gang culture within the neglected slums of the City of God. Men however are also represented as being rational and forced to become involved with the reaction to survive or get revenge such as with Rocket and Knock-out Ned.

Women –

Women in City of God are represented as being mainly as accessories to men, shown throughout the film as being love interests and not having much screen time compared to the male actors. In the film they are often the victims of violence at the hands of men such as the Women in act 1 who was beaten to death for cheating, the motel workers shot dead and Knockout Neds girlfriend who was sexually assaulted by Lil Ze.

Aesthetics –

Tone –

Tone in ‘City of God’ Distancing effect is used with Lil Dice’s reveal as a psychopath, who enjoys killing and is further added to by this from the use of a soundtrack and POV shots putting us in the place of his victims. This distances the viewer from the immersion to remind them they are watching a film because its seriousness of mass-killing over the span of his childhood and teens is played off as his characters rambunctious personality type which is further shown with the choice of music.

Visual Style –

Visual style in City of God can be seen with the use of colour grading. Colour grading is present in both the past and present aspects of the film, with the sandy slums of the tender trio having a brighter more warm tint to it to the much darker shaded scenes of the slums in the city of God. Perhaps used intentionally, the tone of the past with the tender trio represents a more stable time where only their gang ran the slums, it isn’t until when we get into the later parts of the film we can see how armies of gangs have formed.

Realism –

In City of God, we can see with the use of a hyperreality, how the aesthetic is set out within the film. Based on a true event, the film exaggerates the true story with large scale wars, subplots and more. How a hyper-reality can be said to used is with the use of a distorted reality of events, to make it presentable in film and immersive.

The film was based of the real events within the Cidade de Deus suburb in Rio de Jenerio Brazil showing the growth in crime there during the late 1960s-1980s looking specifically at the drug dealer lil ze. During production many of the actors who starred in the film grew up in real Brazilian slums and had little acting experience giving the film authenticity.

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.

Historical context: The film is set between the end of the 1960’s and the beginning of the 1980’s. The film is based off a true story by Paulo Lins and accurately presents the growth of organized crime in the Cidade De Deus suburb of Rio de Janerio with gangs leaders such as Lil Ze taking control. This resulted in it becoming a lawless land and the City of God having some of the highest murder and crime rates.

Political Context: The film showcases the problem of the fight against inequalities and social exclusion in impoverished communities. During the time the film was set, the government had little control over areas in Rio de Janerio and the gang violence and crime that was ongoing. The police were also corrupt and would be payed off by criminals to not interfere. An example of this in the film is when the police try to extort money from Lil Ze for his freedom.

Institutional Context: During its release in 2002, the movie became a wide success. It was seen by 2 million Brazilians in its first two months. It received overwhelming press coverage and triggered heated debates among critics and intellectuals.

Gender: The theme of masculinity in the city of god is portrayed as toxic. With many younger boys in the film feeling they are forced to become more aggressive and violent to be able to survive in the slums. this can be seen through steak and fries who wants to kill lil ze stating “I am a man” as a result of being forced to shot his friend earlier on in the film.

Aesthetics: City of God has a high sense of verisimilitude, this is done through the visual style of the film using grounded mise en scene in sets and costumes as well as the cinematography using hand held camera movements and dolly shots giving a realistic documentary style feeling to the film.

Sound: Sound is used in this scene to create an impact on the viewer as it is just lil’ ze’s talking to benny and nothing else, making him isolated

mise en scen: the costumes of the characters show that they are living in a poor area as the clothes are dirty, as well as the walls being poorly painted

cinematography: cinematography is used in the scene of shaggy’s death to show all the people around him, the shot is a high angle shot from a birds view, the shot allows us to see more of the scene then if it was closer, or on the ground.

editing: editing is used in this scene to show a montage of li’l ze shooting people with a gun, it makes an impact on the viewer as they are seeing how one of the main characters has changed.

                                                   Poisoned

*Chiara and Daria are at lunch at school sitting in their usual spot*

Chiara- Hey I heard that there’s been this guy who’s taking this revenge thing on all the people he doesn’t like it’s actually kinda scary not gonna lie

Daria– oh my god yeah I heard about that but we haven’t ever spoken to this guy before so we shouldn’t be worried

Chiara- well I did reject him once a few years back maybe he’s still holding a grudge

*Chiara starts to get nervous and fidgets in her seat*

Daria– he probably forgot about it I wouldn’t even worry about it hahahaha

Chiara- its not that big of a deal but he has been looking at me funny recently and I keep seeing him near my bag in class and when I look away he’s proper staring me down

Daria- he’s known to be a weirdo at school I really wouldn’t worry he does it to everyone don’t know why you are overthinking this.

Chiara- I don’t want to be all dramatic but I think he hasn’t forgotten and might actually confront me about it or something

Daria- you are being like super dramatic right now stop worrying about this

Chiara- yeah you are right he probably forgot that i even exist, I’m just going to eat anyway he definitely did not do anything that’s so weird.

*chiara bites into her food and realises it tastes weird*

Chiara– yeah I don’t want to panic but he definitely did something to my food it tastes weird, am I being dramatic? I’m actually panicking right now

Daria-  you are over thinking this stop, its getting annoying how passionate you are about this LOL

*Chiara starts to choke and falls to the ground choking on her food and realising she cannot breathe*

Daria-  Chiara stop messing with me genuinely it’s getting annoying it’s really not something to joke about he’s really hurting people.

*Daria realises that Chiara isn’t faking and runs to get help out of the room*

Daria- oh my god! she’s not messing about she’s genuinely passed out choking, I got to grab someone fast!

*when Daria leaves the room there’s already someone standing outside the door..*

Boy– I will never forget, ever.

boy- Chiara did more than just Reject me, she changed my life, she was the love of my life and she ruined it!