FAMST 96 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Paparazzi, Fernando Meirelles, Kátia Lund
27 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
DIRECTED BY: Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund
Readings: Robert Stam "Tense" and David Bordwell "Narration and Time"
Cidade de Deus -- Portuguese film, English subtitles
•
Fast-paced shots of city life
Food
○
Dancing
○
People
○
Animals
○
•
Editing goes with the rhythm of the music
•
Many of the frames go along with very rhythmic music -- beats of the frames
and beats of the music nearly in sync
•
Shaking of the camera as if it's on the chicken's back, perspective changes and
it's now low-angled
•
Slow-motion frame of man with the gun, grinning
Super slow motion close-up of Lil Ze smiling holding his gun visibly near
his face
○
•
Narration over the slow motion spinning of older/teen boy
As he's being ridiculed by a mob of men chasing a chicken and relying on
him to catch it
○
•
Spins into a flashback as soon as he says "it's been that way since I was a kid"
(multiple spins)
Then we're on the field where he played soccer with title "The Sixties"
○
Visual cue = spinning around Rocket, slow-motion - events are shown
slower than they were before
The spinning slows down time and takes Rocket out of the space he
is in before it spins into our external flashback
§
We become more aware of Rocket (acknowledging that he's the
narrator) than what's going on around him [which we don't realize
or focus on until the end of the film when we're brought back to
this space]
Slow rhythm allows us to hypothesize more while earlier in
the film, the quickness of frames didn’t give us much time to
think
□
§
○
Auditory cue = wind whirling, quieting of extra diegetic sound behind the
narration
○
•
Rocket is the boys name, also our narrator as a teen•
Need Shaggy's story to start telling the story of the City of God•
To tell that story, must tell the story of the Tender Trio
Shaggy, Clipper, Goose
○
•
Lil Dice and Benny (Shaggy's brother)•
Our narrator is Goose's younger brother•
We're back in the time when Rocket was a child - onscreen images being
narrated by the Rocket we saw back in the middle of the street
•
Robberies, running around the town with guns, etc.
Only doing so to support their families
○
•
Location: Rio, Brazil•
Following young Rocket and his friend Stringy (?) through the slums of his town
Excited at the sight of electricity
○
No paved streets
○
Many families were homeless
○
Know that the area isn't very urban
○
•
Lil Dice as the mastermind of the gangs plans (as a young boy)
Proving himself as a real gangster
○
Wants to be a part of the Tender Trio with his brother, but he's just a kid
○
Still creates their plans that they are just needed to execute
○
•
Sequence of robbing the motel rooms while patrons are having sex
We are set to believe that all of these things are happening at the same
time
○
One gang-member per room to rob
○
What makes us think this?
○
•
Dissolve between the quietness of the motel kitchen and the loudness of the car
driving and the Trio yelling at each other
Separation of space
○
Divide in the center of the screen like a wall
○
Also leading us to think these things are happening at the same time
Being shown two scenes at once
§
○
Are the people in the kitchen all dead? Surely they aren't just there
sleeping
Later revealed that Lil Dice went back into the motel and killed
everyone because he wanted to take on the role as a hoodlum and
no one would allow it
§
○
•
Slow motion of the dewdrop falling off the leaf
Emptiness of sound
○
•
Shaggy love at first sight (?)
When the flame illuminates the girl's face
○
Guitar strings start to play only as they lock eyes
○
Snap back to the reality that the cops are after him
○
•
Days passing because we see the nights turn into days•
Bullet travelling through space speeds up time and hits the mirror as a snap into
another place/time period
Back into the home where Goose is being punished
○
The only sound we hear is the whizzing of the bullet and Rocket's
narration
○
•
Rocket = Narrator, telling the story from his older perspective (where we saw
him in the favela).. Talking about his older brother Goose (and his friends, the
Tender Trio) as he remembers from his childhood
•
Shaggy arguing with girlfriend about the night of the massacre.. Shaggy insisting
he didn’t kill anyone
•
Clipper plans to rejoin the Church after getting caught up in this Tender Trio
nonsense
•
Goose said he was going to stop messing around, "But a hood doesn't stop. A
hood takes a break"
•
Goose messing with Shorty's wife and gets caught
Shorty beats his wife after he catches her and Goose having sex
○
•
Police involved yet again, this time going after Rocket for his brother's
wrongdoing
Police raid Goose and Rocket's home
○
Goose practically disowned and never seen by his parents again
Because he later dies
§
○
•
Tender Trio has fallen apart•
Lil Dice found after they thought he was dead at the motel the night of the
massacre
Goose robs Lil Dice
○
•
Seeing multiple instances of sunrise, daytime, sunset, night, and cycle back to
sunrise
Knowing that many days are passing
○
•
Shaggy fleeing the town in the same hoodlum way he knows how after cops
infiltrate the favela due to an increased amount of violence in the town
•
Cops are still after Tender Trio•
Shaggy shot trying to escape the favela, killed.
Rocket remembering the mass of people and cameras surrounding Shaggy
○
Rocket says he always wanted a camera
Camera becomes HUGE in the story and Rocket's life
§
○
•
Car crosses past the crime scene and Rocket, ushering in a new time period,
1970s
The car driving through the left of the screen *swipes* in a new frame
○
Musical cues of 1970s style music suggests a new time period
New clothes/style
§
Cleaner cut teenagers
§
Still the same favela?
Looks nicer and more urbanized (which they knew was
coming)
□
§
○
•
Now Rocket is 16, hanging with hippies, and very invested in photography
Also likes this girl Angelica
○
"gang of groovies"
○
Rocket was the designated photographer of their gang
○
•
Dissolves and use of characters as "ghosts" to speed up time while telling the
story of the apartment
Narration over the story
○
What we're being told is what we see on the screen… no discrepancies in
time between the two
○
•
Benny and Lil Dice are drug lords now, running their operations out of this
apartment (?) -- were they at once working under Carrot?
Lil Dice has changed his name to Lil Ze
Now we're telling the story of Lil Ze
§
Dissolve flashbacks to Lil Ze as a child "Lil Dice"
§
He always wanted to be the boss of the City of God
§
Flashback shows us that he was the murderer in the massacre at the
motel that night…. Killing those people to satisfy his "thirst to kill"
§
Revealed that Lil Dice killed Goose when he robbed Lil Dice and
Benny
Benny is Shaggy's brother
Like the next generation of hoodlums then.. They
definitely ran everything now
®
□
§
The flashback story of Lil Dice revealed important information about
the past through Lil Dice's visual perspective (story still told through
the perspective/narration of Rocket)
§
○
•
Lil Dice/Ze and Benny got rid of everyone in the drug dealing business except for
Carrot (another dealer)
Only reason Dice didn't kill Carrot is because he was an old friend of
Benny
○
•
Flashbacks go back to present time from Lil Dice's perspective
We followed him on his killing sprees and attempts to take over the City
of God
○
**go and look at the visual and auditory cues that signal
shifts in time**
○
•
Back at the apartment, we see Carrot get shot but are told he will live so he can
work for Dice
•
Discussion of the drug dealing business
How you advance in the industry
○
How you distribute
○
•
City of God became more peaceful because there was no more competition for
Lil Dice/Ze
He killed all of his enemies, so there were no more violent shootouts
○
Only reason Lil Ze wasn't truly king was because drug dealing was illegal
○
•
Lil Runts -- new gang of young boys
First of many run ins between Runts and Rocket
○
•
Angelica left Tiago
Tiago = coke addict after
○
Easily manipulated by dealers
○
•
Blacky = pink shirt•
Benny and Tiago become friends -- going shopping together, etc.
Benny doesn’t want to deal anymore either
○
"I've become a playboy" - Benny
○
Benny has more of a fun time - "was the coolest hood in the City of God"
○
•
Benny was told to shoot Carrot but refuses•
Split screen of Benny and _____
Benny was having a good time
○
_____ was obsessed with taking over Carrots racket
○
•
Rocket's still trying to be with Angelica but Angelica and Benny are a thing•
Confrontation between Carrot and Lil Ze•
Moe about the runts
Wreak havoc in the slum
○
Don’t respect residents
○
Trouble in Carrots section
○
•
City had still become much safer for residents.. Barely hold ups•
Initiation scene - Steak has to choose one of the runts and kill one
"you're one of us" after he shoots boy in the head
○
•
Benny and Angelica together•
Lil Ze well-respected by residents of favela•
Rocket still "a loser"
Virgin
○
Got a job
○
Time jump/
○
•
"A Sucker's Life"
Showing rocket working in a supermarket
○
Might be a little bit older
○
•
"Honesty doesn't pay, sucker"•
"Playing With Crime"
Rocket decided to engage in crime
○
Has a gun on the bus, showing that he's done living an honest lifestyle
○
•
Freezeframe and clicking of the gun on the bus man's face
"he didn't know he would have to [fight]."
○
•
Rocket off to his first hold-up which was unsuccessful because he's too soft and
such a lover
•
Lil Ze trying to kill ____, Benny again convinces Ze to let him go•
Benny and Angelica decide to leave the slums and quit dealing•
Benny's farewell disco party
Benny was a nice guy who was good at getting people together, and
didn’t belong in the life of a hoodlum
○
For once, Lil Ze was out of place at this party
○
Lil Ze doesn’t want Benny to leave, saying he wants to take over Carrot's
drug business with Benny
○
Benny stands up ad says he's had enough
Flashback clip to Benny and Ze as kids, arms around each other in
the streets having fun
§
○
Ze is taunting someone Knockout Ned and demands him to publicly strip,
humiliating him
○
Benny deals one more time for a camera (mentions that Rocket would
love it)
Gives the camera to Rocket
§
○
Ze and Benny argue while the party is really picking up, music is playing,
strobe lights going
Shooting
§
Cant see who got shot, or who did the shooting
§
No subtitles
§
"They've killed Benny"
Screaming□
Quiet emptiness of the hall□
Music stops□
Sounds hollow□
§
○
•
Blacky was the one who killed Benny
Blacky says he was aiming at Lil Ze
○
He was trying to shoot Ze because he wanted to take Carrot out
○
Benny was the only one who was holding Ze back from killing Carrot,
now that Benny died, Ze was free to do what he wanted
§
○
•
Lil Ze rape scene
Approached a girl, got rejected
○
Follows the girl and her boyfriend, known in the city as "Knockout Ned"
who was very handsome and kind
○
Rapes Ned's girlfriend
Blackout of certain clips
§
Screaming
§
"just enjoy it"
§
○
•
Mob of men looking for Ned, brother comes out and tries to work things out
Ned's brother avenges Ned by stabbing Lil Ze
○
Lil Ze's mob goes on a shooting spree, killing Ned's brother and another
man
○
•
Very dark shadows, cannot see much as it is nighttime and there is very little (if
any) electricity in this part of town
Makes it a little difficult to see who is who
○
•
Ned is seeking revenge against Lil Ze… and now Ze has yet another enemy•
Ze has recruited "Steak'n'Fries" to be in this war against Ned•
Split screen again•
Knockout Ned has sided with Carrot to take out Lil Ze
War between both sides, and they're rounding up "soldiers"
○
A bunch of trigger happy people killing senselessly
○
Interesting that they say the Our Father in preparation for unnecessary
war
○
•
Ned's side outnumbered Ze's•
Rocket decides to leave the slum and become a reporter/photojournalist
Time skip??
○
•
War is still going after some period of time, City of God divided over it
No longer safe
○
Anyone living there was considered a hoodlum
○
So many excuses for this war continuing, seems like no one remembers
the real reason
○
•
Tiago, back to work with Lil Ze•
Heavy media interest in the war going on in the City of God
Knockout Ned arrested and interviewed
○
Says mostly innocent people dying because of this
○
•
Photo-ops with Lil Ze and {media?}
Summons Rocket to take photos for him and his gang
○
Comedic element… Rocket is now their paparazzi
○
Just photos for fun
○
•
Rocket takes the film to be developed
Are the photos going to be published??
○
PHOTOS MADE FRONT PAGE
○
"I'm in deep shit now" - Rocket
○
•
The pictures weren't supposed to be published, just developed
"someone just signed my death sentence" - Rocket
○
Lil Ze is going to flip that the photos were printed
○
•
Lil Ze sees the paper and his photos and actually enjoys them
Funny because at the same time, Rocket is losing it that he's published
something
○
Ze says Rocket is a good photographer and wants him to take more
photos
○
Meanwhile, Rocket is trying to find new living arrangements because he
thinks he's sure to die
○
•
Dissolve ghostly character thing used again in the reporter's apartment
Showing time going by
○
•
Rocket loses his virginity with the reporter•
Carrot helped Ned escape jail without shooting anyone•
Lil Ze recruits the Runts to be on his side against Carrot in this war
Gives them weapons
○
•
"the Beginning of the End"
Back to how the movie starts
○
Chickens
○
Literally the opening sequences repeating
○
•
Lil Ze will kill you if he finds you•
Camera spinning again but time doesn’t change, because now we're officially up
to date - 1980s
•
Rocket caught between gang and cops
See Tiago and Ze
○
Rocket takes out his camera and starts shooting, capturing the gang
○
Gets a shot the second Ned starts shooting at Ze and his crew
○
Chaotic crossfire -- city even more unsafe at this exact moment
○
Rocket's in hiding but still taking photos
○
Lil Ze's been shot, Ned told
○
Otto shot and Ned asks "why did you join the war"
Flashback to meeting Otto
§
wanted to get his father's murderer - that's why he's joined
§
Auditory cue of the flashback - slowed and echoed dialogue
§
○
Time skips to the end of this battle, dead bodies everywhere, Ned on the
ground hit, very quiet until sirens sound
○
Carrot arrested
○
Rocket captures Ze being taken into custody (first time we know what he
got for sure because the frame freezes and we hear the click of the
shutter)
○
Rocket capturing photos of the cops (we see though the lens -- different
POV)
○
Various shots of Ze
○
Ze attacked by the Runts
Shot dead
§
Runts did so to take over the business because they outnumbered
him
§
Rocket got photographs of Ze's dead body riddled with bullet holes
§
Rhythmic music and beats going along with the chaos and
franticness of the events taking place
§
○
•
Rocket trying to decide which photos to have published
Choosing between fame and lifetime salary
○
•
Time skip to Lil Ze's death photo in the newspaper -- clearing up curiosity of
what Rocket might've decided
•
Rocket name change -- Wilson Rodrigues, Photographer•
Lecture 13: City of God (2002)
Monday, May 14, 2018
4:15 PM
DIRECTED BY: Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund
Readings: Robert Stam "Tense" and David Bordwell "Narration and Time"
Cidade de Deus -- Portuguese film, English subtitles•
Fast-paced shots of city life
Food
○
Dancing
○
People
○
Animals
○
•
Editing goes with the rhythm of the music•
Many of the frames go along with very rhythmic music -- beats of the frames
and beats of the music nearly in sync
•
Shaking of the camera as if it's on the chicken's back, perspective changes and
it's now low-angled
•
Slow-motion frame of man with the gun, grinning
Super slow motion close-up of Lil Ze smiling holding his gun visibly near
his face
○
•
Narration over the slow motion spinning of older/teen boy
As he's being ridiculed by a mob of men chasing a chicken and relying on
him to catch it
○
•
Spins into a flashback as soon as he says "it's been that way since I was a kid"
(multiple spins)
Then we're on the field where he played soccer with title "The Sixties"
○
Visual cue = spinning around Rocket, slow-motion - events are shown
slower than they were before
The spinning slows down time and takes Rocket out of the space he
is in before it spins into our external flashback
§
We become more aware of Rocket (acknowledging that he's the
narrator) than what's going on around him [which we don't realize
or focus on until the end of the film when we're brought back to
this space]
Slow rhythm allows us to hypothesize more while earlier in
the film, the quickness of frames didn’t give us much time to
think
□
§
○
Auditory cue = wind whirling, quieting of extra diegetic sound behind the
narration
○
•
Rocket is the boys name, also our narrator as a teen
•
Need Shaggy's story to start telling the story of the City of God
•
To tell that story, must tell the story of the Tender Trio
Shaggy, Clipper, Goose
○
•
Lil Dice and Benny (Shaggy's brother)
•
Our narrator is Goose's younger brother
•
We're back in the time when Rocket was a child - onscreen images being
narrated by the Rocket we saw back in the middle of the street
•
Robberies, running around the town with guns, etc.
Only doing so to support their families
○
•
Location: Rio, Brazil
•
Following young Rocket and his friend Stringy (?) through the slums of his town
Excited at the sight of electricity
○
No paved streets
○
Many families were homeless
○
Know that the area isn't very urban
○
•
Lil Dice as the mastermind of the gangs plans (as a young boy)
Proving himself as a real gangster
○
Wants to be a part of the Tender Trio with his brother, but he's just a kid
○
Still creates their plans that they are just needed to execute
○
•
Sequence of robbing the motel rooms while patrons are having sex
We are set to believe that all of these things are happening at the same
time
○
One gang-member per room to rob
○
What makes us think this?
○
•
Dissolve between the quietness of the motel kitchen and the loudness of the car
driving and the Trio yelling at each other
Separation of space
○
Divide in the center of the screen like a wall
○
Also leading us to think these things are happening at the same time
Being shown two scenes at once
§
○
Are the people in the kitchen all dead? Surely they aren't just there
sleeping
Later revealed that Lil Dice went back into the motel and killed
everyone because he wanted to take on the role as a hoodlum and
no one would allow it
§
○
•
Slow motion of the dewdrop falling off the leaf
Emptiness of sound
○
•
Shaggy love at first sight (?)
When the flame illuminates the girl's face
○
Guitar strings start to play only as they lock eyes
○
Snap back to the reality that the cops are after him
○
•
Days passing because we see the nights turn into days•
Bullet travelling through space speeds up time and hits the mirror as a snap into
another place/time period
Back into the home where Goose is being punished
○
The only sound we hear is the whizzing of the bullet and Rocket's
narration
○
•
Rocket = Narrator, telling the story from his older perspective (where we saw
him in the favela).. Talking about his older brother Goose (and his friends, the
Tender Trio) as he remembers from his childhood
•
Shaggy arguing with girlfriend about the night of the massacre.. Shaggy insisting
he didn’t kill anyone
•
Clipper plans to rejoin the Church after getting caught up in this Tender Trio
nonsense
•
Goose said he was going to stop messing around, "But a hood doesn't stop. A
hood takes a break"
•
Goose messing with Shorty's wife and gets caught
Shorty beats his wife after he catches her and Goose having sex
○
•
Police involved yet again, this time going after Rocket for his brother's
wrongdoing
Police raid Goose and Rocket's home
○
Goose practically disowned and never seen by his parents again
Because he later dies
§
○
•
Tender Trio has fallen apart•
Lil Dice found after they thought he was dead at the motel the night of the
massacre
Goose robs Lil Dice
○
•
Seeing multiple instances of sunrise, daytime, sunset, night, and cycle back to
sunrise
Knowing that many days are passing
○
•
Shaggy fleeing the town in the same hoodlum way he knows how after cops
infiltrate the favela due to an increased amount of violence in the town
•
Cops are still after Tender Trio•
Shaggy shot trying to escape the favela, killed.
Rocket remembering the mass of people and cameras surrounding Shaggy
○
Rocket says he always wanted a camera
Camera becomes HUGE in the story and Rocket's life
§
○
•
Car crosses past the crime scene and Rocket, ushering in a new time period,
1970s
The car driving through the left of the screen *swipes* in a new frame
○
Musical cues of 1970s style music suggests a new time period
New clothes/style
§
Cleaner cut teenagers
§
Still the same favela?
Looks nicer and more urbanized (which they knew was
coming)
□
§
○
•
Now Rocket is 16, hanging with hippies, and very invested in photography
Also likes this girl Angelica
○
"gang of groovies"
○
Rocket was the designated photographer of their gang
○
•
Dissolves and use of characters as "ghosts" to speed up time while telling the
story of the apartment
Narration over the story
○
What we're being told is what we see on the screen… no discrepancies in
time between the two
○
•
Benny and Lil Dice are drug lords now, running their operations out of this
apartment (?) -- were they at once working under Carrot?
Lil Dice has changed his name to Lil Ze
Now we're telling the story of Lil Ze
§
Dissolve flashbacks to Lil Ze as a child "Lil Dice"
§
He always wanted to be the boss of the City of God
§
Flashback shows us that he was the murderer in the massacre at the
motel that night…. Killing those people to satisfy his "thirst to kill"
§
Revealed that Lil Dice killed Goose when he robbed Lil Dice and
Benny
Benny is Shaggy's brother
Like the next generation of hoodlums then.. They
definitely ran everything now
®
□
§
The flashback story of Lil Dice revealed important information about
the past through Lil Dice's visual perspective (story still told through
the perspective/narration of Rocket)
§
○
•
Lil Dice/Ze and Benny got rid of everyone in the drug dealing business except for
Carrot (another dealer)
Only reason Dice didn't kill Carrot is because he was an old friend of
Benny
○
•
Flashbacks go back to present time from Lil Dice's perspective
We followed him on his killing sprees and attempts to take over the City
of God
○
**go and look at the visual and auditory cues that signal
shifts in time**
○
•
Back at the apartment, we see Carrot get shot but are told he will live so he can
work for Dice
•
Discussion of the drug dealing business
How you advance in the industry
○
How you distribute
○
•
City of God became more peaceful because there was no more competition for
Lil Dice/Ze
He killed all of his enemies, so there were no more violent shootouts
○
Only reason Lil Ze wasn't truly king was because drug dealing was illegal
○
•
Lil Runts -- new gang of young boys
First of many run ins between Runts and Rocket
○
•
Angelica left Tiago
Tiago = coke addict after
○
Easily manipulated by dealers
○
•
Blacky = pink shirt•
Benny and Tiago become friends -- going shopping together, etc.
Benny doesn’t want to deal anymore either
○
"I've become a playboy" - Benny
○
Benny has more of a fun time - "was the coolest hood in the City of God"
○
•
Benny was told to shoot Carrot but refuses•
Split screen of Benny and _____
Benny was having a good time
○
_____ was obsessed with taking over Carrots racket
○
•
Rocket's still trying to be with Angelica but Angelica and Benny are a thing•
Confrontation between Carrot and Lil Ze•
Moe about the runts
Wreak havoc in the slum
○
Don’t respect residents
○
Trouble in Carrots section
○
•
City had still become much safer for residents.. Barely hold ups•
Initiation scene - Steak has to choose one of the runts and kill one
"you're one of us" after he shoots boy in the head
○
•
Benny and Angelica together•
Lil Ze well-respected by residents of favela•
Rocket still "a loser"
Virgin
○
Got a job
○
Time jump/
○
•
"A Sucker's Life"
Showing rocket working in a supermarket
○
Might be a little bit older
○
•
"Honesty doesn't pay, sucker"•
"Playing With Crime"
Rocket decided to engage in crime
○
Has a gun on the bus, showing that he's done living an honest lifestyle
○
•
Freezeframe and clicking of the gun on the bus man's face
"he didn't know he would have to [fight]."
○
•
Rocket off to his first hold-up which was unsuccessful because he's too soft and
such a lover
•
Lil Ze trying to kill ____, Benny again convinces Ze to let him go•
Benny and Angelica decide to leave the slums and quit dealing•
Benny's farewell disco party
Benny was a nice guy who was good at getting people together, and
didn’t belong in the life of a hoodlum
○
For once, Lil Ze was out of place at this party
○
Lil Ze doesn’t want Benny to leave, saying he wants to take over Carrot's
drug business with Benny
○
Benny stands up ad says he's had enough
Flashback clip to Benny and Ze as kids, arms around each other in
the streets having fun
§
○
Ze is taunting someone Knockout Ned and demands him to publicly strip,
humiliating him
○
Benny deals one more time for a camera (mentions that Rocket would
love it)
Gives the camera to Rocket
§
○
Ze and Benny argue while the party is really picking up, music is playing,
strobe lights going
Shooting
§
Cant see who got shot, or who did the shooting
§
No subtitles
§
"They've killed Benny"
Screaming□
Quiet emptiness of the hall□
Music stops□
Sounds hollow□
§
○
•
Blacky was the one who killed Benny
Blacky says he was aiming at Lil Ze
○
He was trying to shoot Ze because he wanted to take Carrot out
○
Benny was the only one who was holding Ze back from killing Carrot,
now that Benny died, Ze was free to do what he wanted
§
○
•
Lil Ze rape scene
Approached a girl, got rejected
○
Follows the girl and her boyfriend, known in the city as "Knockout Ned"
who was very handsome and kind
○
Rapes Ned's girlfriend
Blackout of certain clips
§
Screaming
§
"just enjoy it"
§
○
•
Mob of men looking for Ned, brother comes out and tries to work things out
Ned's brother avenges Ned by stabbing Lil Ze
○
Lil Ze's mob goes on a shooting spree, killing Ned's brother and another
man
○
•
Very dark shadows, cannot see much as it is nighttime and there is very little (if
any) electricity in this part of town
Makes it a little difficult to see who is who
○
•
Ned is seeking revenge against Lil Ze… and now Ze has yet another enemy•
Ze has recruited "Steak'n'Fries" to be in this war against Ned•
Split screen again•
Knockout Ned has sided with Carrot to take out Lil Ze
War between both sides, and they're rounding up "soldiers"
○
A bunch of trigger happy people killing senselessly
○
Interesting that they say the Our Father in preparation for unnecessary
war
○
•
Ned's side outnumbered Ze's•
Rocket decides to leave the slum and become a reporter/photojournalist
Time skip??
○
•
War is still going after some period of time, City of God divided over it
No longer safe
○
Anyone living there was considered a hoodlum
○
So many excuses for this war continuing, seems like no one remembers
the real reason
○
•
Tiago, back to work with Lil Ze•
Heavy media interest in the war going on in the City of God
Knockout Ned arrested and interviewed
○
Says mostly innocent people dying because of this
○
•
Photo-ops with Lil Ze and {media?}
Summons Rocket to take photos for him and his gang
○
Comedic element… Rocket is now their paparazzi
○
Just photos for fun
○
•
Rocket takes the film to be developed
Are the photos going to be published??
○
PHOTOS MADE FRONT PAGE
○
"I'm in deep shit now" - Rocket
○
•
The pictures weren't supposed to be published, just developed
"someone just signed my death sentence" - Rocket
○
Lil Ze is going to flip that the photos were printed
○
•
Lil Ze sees the paper and his photos and actually enjoys them
Funny because at the same time, Rocket is losing it that he's published
something
○
Ze says Rocket is a good photographer and wants him to take more
photos
○
Meanwhile, Rocket is trying to find new living arrangements because he
thinks he's sure to die
○
•
Dissolve ghostly character thing used again in the reporter's apartment
Showing time going by
○
•
Rocket loses his virginity with the reporter•
Carrot helped Ned escape jail without shooting anyone•
Lil Ze recruits the Runts to be on his side against Carrot in this war
Gives them weapons
○
•
"the Beginning of the End"
Back to how the movie starts
○
Chickens
○
Literally the opening sequences repeating
○
•
Lil Ze will kill you if he finds you•
Camera spinning again but time doesn’t change, because now we're officially up
to date - 1980s
•
Rocket caught between gang and cops
See Tiago and Ze
○
Rocket takes out his camera and starts shooting, capturing the gang
○
Gets a shot the second Ned starts shooting at Ze and his crew
○
Chaotic crossfire -- city even more unsafe at this exact moment
○
Rocket's in hiding but still taking photos
○
Lil Ze's been shot, Ned told
○
Otto shot and Ned asks "why did you join the war"
Flashback to meeting Otto
§
wanted to get his father's murderer - that's why he's joined
§
Auditory cue of the flashback - slowed and echoed dialogue
§
○
Time skips to the end of this battle, dead bodies everywhere, Ned on the
ground hit, very quiet until sirens sound
○
Carrot arrested
○
Rocket captures Ze being taken into custody (first time we know what he
got for sure because the frame freezes and we hear the click of the
shutter)
○
Rocket capturing photos of the cops (we see though the lens -- different
POV)
○
Various shots of Ze
○
Ze attacked by the Runts
Shot dead
§
Runts did so to take over the business because they outnumbered
him
§
Rocket got photographs of Ze's dead body riddled with bullet holes
§
Rhythmic music and beats going along with the chaos and
franticness of the events taking place
§
○
•
Rocket trying to decide which photos to have published
Choosing between fame and lifetime salary
○
•
Time skip to Lil Ze's death photo in the newspaper -- clearing up curiosity of
what Rocket might've decided
•
Rocket name change -- Wilson Rodrigues, Photographer•
Lecture 13: City of God (2002)
Monday, May 14, 2018 4:15 PM
DIRECTED BY: Fernando Meirelles and Katia Lund
Readings: Robert Stam "Tense" and David Bordwell "Narration and Time"
Cidade de Deus -- Portuguese film, English subtitles•
Fast-paced shots of city life
Food
○
Dancing
○
People
○
Animals
○
•
Editing goes with the rhythm of the music•
Many of the frames go along with very rhythmic music -- beats of the frames
and beats of the music nearly in sync
•
Shaking of the camera as if it's on the chicken's back, perspective changes and
it's now low-angled
•
Slow-motion frame of man with the gun, grinning
Super slow motion close-up of Lil Ze smiling holding his gun visibly near
his face
○
•
Narration over the slow motion spinning of older/teen boy
As he's being ridiculed by a mob of men chasing a chicken and relying on
him to catch it
○
•
Spins into a flashback as soon as he says "it's been that way since I was a kid"
(multiple spins)
Then we're on the field where he played soccer with title "The Sixties"
○
Visual cue = spinning around Rocket, slow-motion - events are shown
slower than they were before
The spinning slows down time and takes Rocket out of the space he
is in before it spins into our external flashback
§
We become more aware of Rocket (acknowledging that he's the
narrator) than what's going on around him [which we don't realize
or focus on until the end of the film when we're brought back to
this space]
Slow rhythm allows us to hypothesize more while earlier in
the film, the quickness of frames didn’t give us much time to
think
□
§
○
Auditory cue = wind whirling, quieting of extra diegetic sound behind the
narration
○
•
Rocket is the boys name, also our narrator as a teen•
Need Shaggy's story to start telling the story of the City of God•
To tell that story, must tell the story of the Tender Trio
Shaggy, Clipper, Goose
○
•
Lil Dice and Benny (Shaggy's brother)•
Our narrator is Goose's younger brother•
We're back in the time when Rocket was a child - onscreen images being
narrated by the Rocket we saw back in the middle of the street
•
Robberies, running around the town with guns, etc.
Only doing so to support their families
○
•
Location: Rio, Brazil•
Following young Rocket and his friend Stringy (?) through the slums of his town
Excited at the sight of electricity
○
No paved streets
○
Many families were homeless
○
Know that the area isn't very urban
○
•
Lil Dice as the mastermind of the gangs plans (as a young boy)
Proving himself as a real gangster
○
Wants to be a part of the Tender Trio with his brother, but he's just a kid
○
Still creates their plans that they are just needed to execute
○
•
Sequence of robbing the motel rooms while patrons are having sex
We are set to believe that all of these things are happening at the same
time
○
One gang-member per room to rob
○
What makes us think this?
○
•
Dissolve between the quietness of the motel kitchen and the loudness of the car
driving and the Trio yelling at each other
Separation of space
○
Divide in the center of the screen like a wall
○
Also leading us to think these things are happening at the same time
Being shown two scenes at once
§
○
Are the people in the kitchen all dead? Surely they aren't just there
sleeping
Later revealed that Lil Dice went back into the motel and killed
everyone because he wanted to take on the role as a hoodlum and
no one would allow it
§
○
•
Slow motion of the dewdrop falling off the leaf
Emptiness of sound
○
•
Shaggy love at first sight (?)
When the flame illuminates the girl's face
○
Guitar strings start to play only as they lock eyes
○
Snap back to the reality that the cops are after him
○
•
Days passing because we see the nights turn into days
•
Bullet travelling through space speeds up time and hits the mirror as a snap into
another place/time period
Back into the home where Goose is being punished
○
The only sound we hear is the whizzing of the bullet and Rocket's
narration
○
•
Rocket = Narrator, telling the story from his older perspective (where we saw
him in the favela).. Talking about his older brother Goose (and his friends, the
Tender Trio) as he remembers from his childhood
•
Shaggy arguing with girlfriend about the night of the massacre.. Shaggy insisting
he didn’t kill anyone
•
Clipper plans to rejoin the Church after getting caught up in this Tender Trio
nonsense
•
Goose said he was going to stop messing around, "But a hood doesn't stop. A
hood takes a break"
•
Goose messing with Shorty's wife and gets caught
Shorty beats his wife after he catches her and Goose having sex
○
•
Police involved yet again, this time going after Rocket for his brother's
wrongdoing
Police raid Goose and Rocket's home
○
Goose practically disowned and never seen by his parents again
Because he later dies
§
○
•
Tender Trio has fallen apart
•
Lil Dice found after they thought he was dead at the motel the night of the
massacre
Goose robs Lil Dice
○
•
Seeing multiple instances of sunrise, daytime, sunset, night, and cycle back to
sunrise
Knowing that many days are passing
○
•
Shaggy fleeing the town in the same hoodlum way he knows how after cops
infiltrate the favela due to an increased amount of violence in the town
•
Cops are still after Tender Trio•
Shaggy shot trying to escape the favela, killed.
Rocket remembering the mass of people and cameras surrounding Shaggy
○
Rocket says he always wanted a camera
Camera becomes HUGE in the story and Rocket's life
§
○
•
Car crosses past the crime scene and Rocket, ushering in a new time period,
1970s
The car driving through the left of the screen *swipes* in a new frame
○
Musical cues of 1970s style music suggests a new time period
New clothes/style
§
Cleaner cut teenagers
§
Still the same favela?
Looks nicer and more urbanized (which they knew was
coming)
□
§
○
•
Now Rocket is 16, hanging with hippies, and very invested in photography
Also likes this girl Angelica
○
"gang of groovies"
○
Rocket was the designated photographer of their gang
○
•
Dissolves and use of characters as "ghosts" to speed up time while telling the
story of the apartment
Narration over the story
○
What we're being told is what we see on the screen… no discrepancies in
time between the two
○
•
Benny and Lil Dice are drug lords now, running their operations out of this
apartment (?) -- were they at once working under Carrot?
Lil Dice has changed his name to Lil Ze
Now we're telling the story of Lil Ze
§
Dissolve flashbacks to Lil Ze as a child "Lil Dice"
§
He always wanted to be the boss of the City of God
§
Flashback shows us that he was the murderer in the massacre at the
motel that night…. Killing those people to satisfy his "thirst to kill"
§
Revealed that Lil Dice killed Goose when he robbed Lil Dice and
Benny
Benny is Shaggy's brother
Like the next generation of hoodlums then.. They
definitely ran everything now
®
□
§
The flashback story of Lil Dice revealed important information about
the past through Lil Dice's visual perspective (story still told through
the perspective/narration of Rocket)
§
○
•
Lil Dice/Ze and Benny got rid of everyone in the drug dealing business except for
Carrot (another dealer)
Only reason Dice didn't kill Carrot is because he was an old friend of
Benny
○
•
Flashbacks go back to present time from Lil Dice's perspective
We followed him on his killing sprees and attempts to take over the City
of God
○
**go and look at the visual and auditory cues that signal
shifts in time**
○
•
Back at the apartment, we see Carrot get shot but are told he will live so he can
work for Dice
•
Discussion of the drug dealing business
How you advance in the industry
○
How you distribute
○
•
City of God became more peaceful because there was no more competition for
Lil Dice/Ze
He killed all of his enemies, so there were no more violent shootouts
○
Only reason Lil Ze wasn't truly king was because drug dealing was illegal
○
•
Lil Runts -- new gang of young boys
First of many run ins between Runts and Rocket
○
•
Angelica left Tiago
Tiago = coke addict after
○
Easily manipulated by dealers
○
•
Blacky = pink shirt•
Benny and Tiago become friends -- going shopping together, etc.
Benny doesn’t want to deal anymore either
○
"I've become a playboy" - Benny
○
Benny has more of a fun time - "was the coolest hood in the City of God"
○
•
Benny was told to shoot Carrot but refuses•
Split screen of Benny and _____
Benny was having a good time
○
_____ was obsessed with taking over Carrots racket
○
•
Rocket's still trying to be with Angelica but Angelica and Benny are a thing•
Confrontation between Carrot and Lil Ze•
Moe about the runts
Wreak havoc in the slum
○
Don’t respect residents
○
Trouble in Carrots section
○
•
City had still become much safer for residents.. Barely hold ups•
Initiation scene - Steak has to choose one of the runts and kill one
"you're one of us" after he shoots boy in the head
○
•
Benny and Angelica together•
Lil Ze well-respected by residents of favela•
Rocket still "a loser"
Virgin
○
Got a job
○
Time jump/
○
•
"A Sucker's Life"
Showing rocket working in a supermarket
○
Might be a little bit older
○
•
"Honesty doesn't pay, sucker"•
"Playing With Crime"
Rocket decided to engage in crime
○
Has a gun on the bus, showing that he's done living an honest lifestyle
○
•
Freezeframe and clicking of the gun on the bus man's face
"he didn't know he would have to [fight]."
○
•
Rocket off to his first hold-up which was unsuccessful because he's too soft and
such a lover
•
Lil Ze trying to kill ____, Benny again convinces Ze to let him go•
Benny and Angelica decide to leave the slums and quit dealing•
Benny's farewell disco party
Benny was a nice guy who was good at getting people together, and
didn’t belong in the life of a hoodlum
○
For once, Lil Ze was out of place at this party
○
Lil Ze doesn’t want Benny to leave, saying he wants to take over Carrot's
drug business with Benny
○
Benny stands up ad says he's had enough
Flashback clip to Benny and Ze as kids, arms around each other in
the streets having fun
§
○
Ze is taunting someone Knockout Ned and demands him to publicly strip,
humiliating him
○
Benny deals one more time for a camera (mentions that Rocket would
love it)
Gives the camera to Rocket
§
○
Ze and Benny argue while the party is really picking up, music is playing,
strobe lights going
Shooting
§
Cant see who got shot, or who did the shooting
§
No subtitles
§
"They've killed Benny"
Screaming□
Quiet emptiness of the hall□
Music stops□
Sounds hollow□
§
○
•
Blacky was the one who killed Benny
Blacky says he was aiming at Lil Ze
○
He was trying to shoot Ze because he wanted to take Carrot out
○
Benny was the only one who was holding Ze back from killing Carrot,
now that Benny died, Ze was free to do what he wanted
§
○
•
Lil Ze rape scene
Approached a girl, got rejected
○
Follows the girl and her boyfriend, known in the city as "Knockout Ned"
who was very handsome and kind
○
Rapes Ned's girlfriend
Blackout of certain clips
§
Screaming
§
"just enjoy it"
§
○
•
Mob of men looking for Ned, brother comes out and tries to work things out
Ned's brother avenges Ned by stabbing Lil Ze
○
Lil Ze's mob goes on a shooting spree, killing Ned's brother and another
man
○
•
Very dark shadows, cannot see much as it is nighttime and there is very little (if
any) electricity in this part of town
Makes it a little difficult to see who is who
○
•
Ned is seeking revenge against Lil Ze… and now Ze has yet another enemy•
Ze has recruited "Steak'n'Fries" to be in this war against Ned•
Split screen again•
Knockout Ned has sided with Carrot to take out Lil Ze
War between both sides, and they're rounding up "soldiers"
○
A bunch of trigger happy people killing senselessly
○
Interesting that they say the Our Father in preparation for unnecessary
war
○
•
Ned's side outnumbered Ze's•
Rocket decides to leave the slum and become a reporter/photojournalist
Time skip??
○
•
War is still going after some period of time, City of God divided over it
No longer safe
○
Anyone living there was considered a hoodlum
○
So many excuses for this war continuing, seems like no one remembers
the real reason
○
•
Tiago, back to work with Lil Ze•
Heavy media interest in the war going on in the City of God
Knockout Ned arrested and interviewed
○
Says mostly innocent people dying because of this
○
•
Photo-ops with Lil Ze and {media?}
Summons Rocket to take photos for him and his gang
○
Comedic element… Rocket is now their paparazzi
○
Just photos for fun
○
•
Rocket takes the film to be developed
Are the photos going to be published??
○
PHOTOS MADE FRONT PAGE
○
"I'm in deep shit now" - Rocket
○
•
The pictures weren't supposed to be published, just developed
"someone just signed my death sentence" - Rocket
○
Lil Ze is going to flip that the photos were printed
○
•
Lil Ze sees the paper and his photos and actually enjoys them
Funny because at the same time, Rocket is losing it that he's published
something
○
Ze says Rocket is a good photographer and wants him to take more
photos
○
Meanwhile, Rocket is trying to find new living arrangements because he
thinks he's sure to die
○
•
Dissolve ghostly character thing used again in the reporter's apartment
Showing time going by
○
•
Rocket loses his virginity with the reporter•
Carrot helped Ned escape jail without shooting anyone•
Lil Ze recruits the Runts to be on his side against Carrot in this war
Gives them weapons
○
•
"the Beginning of the End"
Back to how the movie starts
○
Chickens
○
Literally the opening sequences repeating
○
•
Lil Ze will kill you if he finds you•
Camera spinning again but time doesn’t change, because now we're officially up
to date - 1980s
•
Rocket caught between gang and cops
See Tiago and Ze
○
Rocket takes out his camera and starts shooting, capturing the gang
○
Gets a shot the second Ned starts shooting at Ze and his crew
○
Chaotic crossfire -- city even more unsafe at this exact moment
○
Rocket's in hiding but still taking photos
○
Lil Ze's been shot, Ned told
○
Otto shot and Ned asks "why did you join the war"
Flashback to meeting Otto
§
wanted to get his father's murderer - that's why he's joined
§
Auditory cue of the flashback - slowed and echoed dialogue
§
○
Time skips to the end of this battle, dead bodies everywhere, Ned on the
ground hit, very quiet until sirens sound
○
Carrot arrested
○
Rocket captures Ze being taken into custody (first time we know what he
got for sure because the frame freezes and we hear the click of the
shutter)
○
Rocket capturing photos of the cops (we see though the lens -- different
POV)
○
Various shots of Ze
○
Ze attacked by the Runts
Shot dead
§
Runts did so to take over the business because they outnumbered
him
§
Rocket got photographs of Ze's dead body riddled with bullet holes
§
Rhythmic music and beats going along with the chaos and
franticness of the events taking place
§
○
•
Rocket trying to decide which photos to have published
Choosing between fame and lifetime salary
○
•
Time skip to Lil Ze's death photo in the newspaper -- clearing up curiosity of
what Rocket might've decided
•
Rocket name change -- Wilson Rodrigues, Photographer•
Lecture 13: City of God (2002)
Monday, May 14, 2018 4:15 PM
Document Summary
Readings: robert stam "tense" and david bordwell "narration and time" Cidade de deus -- portuguese film, english subtitles. Editing goes with the rhythm of the music. Many of the frames go along with very rhythmic music -- beats of the frames and beats of the music nearly in sync. Shaking of the camera as if it"s on the chicken"s back, perspective changes and it"s now low-angled. Slow-motion frame of man with the gun, grinning. Super slow motion close-up of lil ze smiling holding his gun visibly near his face. Narration over the slow motion spinning of older/teen boy. As he"s being ridiculed by a mob of men chasing a chicken and relying on him to catch it. Spins into a flashback as soon as he says "it"s been that way since i was a kid" (multiple spins) Then we"re on the field where he played soccer with title "the sixties"
