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It is awe-inspiring when we are watching a full-action film, observing scene by scene

associated with impressive sound effects, realizing how we could get emotionally driven by

decisive moments within the movie and finally clapping our hands when the show is over.

Through all that, we get to see our humanly artistic creations screened right before our eyes

and it is entertaining to watch great movies by great producers and notice how films have

improved a lot. However, it is also important for us to consider the complexities of film that it

has so many aspects to be described. Among those aspects, we will be discussing about film

form and relate it to a 2002 Brazilian movie by Fernando Meirelles, “City of God”.

In contrast to typical kind of movies, City of God starts off by showing the near end of the

storyline, making it into an imbalanced order. The first noticeable scene was the part when

Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) and his friend accidentally ran into Li’l Ze (Leandro Firmino)

and his gangs who were to chase the escaped chicken and coincidently got caught in the

middle of conflict between the hoodlums and the dirty police. The sudden pause that triggers

the moment Rocket was trapped shows the brilliance of the director’s way of framing the

environment or what we call mise-en-scene. According to Kolker (2006), mise-en-scene can

be defined as the articulation of cinematic space; cutting is about time; the shot is about what

occurs in a distinct area of space (http://afronord.tripod.com/mise.html). The aspects of mise-

en-scene cover setting, lighting, color and space, composing them into one organized state. In

the set, there was one event of robbery where the tender trios lost control of their car and

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crashed onto a stall. The lighting in the car was only centered to the anxious faces of the trios

through subsequent fade in and out. Another will be the part of Benny’s farewell party where

lightings were everywhere and they were mixed along with songs which expresses the

delightful time for everyone.

The settings took place in Rio de Janeiro’s marginalized side in the 1960’s, depicting a clear

image about the fully violent and underprivileged lives of its residents. The director had the

film tied with many different characters whose lives often inevitably clash. But, all is seen

through the eyes of a single narrator, Rocket (IMDB, 2006). Another mise-en-scene, through

the first person angle, a very apparent image of many homeless families moving to City of

God due to flooding and acts of arson hoping to find a better place to settle. In relation to the

scene, the shot was framed in a medium long range focusing on Rocket who is walking

opposite to the refugees as the background which was made blurry. Talking about the aspects

of the shot, there are four concerns which are about Angle, Level, Height and Distance. In the

practice, the angle of framing is distinguished into three categories: the straight-on angle, the

high angle and the low angle. Within the film, there are several uses of angle in combinations.

About level, the frame is canted in one manner or another. In this case, the canted framing is

relatively rare, although a few films make heavy use of it. Examining the height part,

sometimes it becomes important to indicate that the framing give us a sense of being stationed

at a certain height and camera height is not simply a matter of camera angle. Last part, when

shots are framed, distance is totally fixed and respected. There are long shot (extreme, long,

medium) and medium shot (medium close-up, close-up, extreme close-up) (Bordwell and

Thompson 2001: 218-219). One example of close-up shot is the event of hold-up in the motel

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where Li’l dice intentionally shot the motel’s window to drive the trios away. When the

window was shattered, the image was rather out of focus but it still conveys the sign to run

away. In addition to the aspects of the shot, we can note that there was a manipulated

duration of action during the moment of stealing the car in the garage near to the motel. It is

only seconds away from the time they entered the garage until they got the car started and

drove off.

Not simply about the shots, we need to consider the exciting aspects of editing as well.

Dimensions of film editing involve graphic, rhythmic, spatial and temporal relations which

give dominant appearances throughout various movies. In graphic relations, graphics may be

edited to achieve smooth continuity or abrupt contrast. The filmmakers may link shots by

graphic similarities, thus making what we can call a graphic match (Bordwell and Thompson

2001: 252). In this case, there was one illustration in the film when the police did not identify

Clipper (Jefechander Suplino) who went back to the church but simply mistook other

neighboring kid as the criminal. They killed the wrong kid and deliberately made the kid

guilty. It was the part when the bullet went off striking bicycles, a door and a random guy’s

belt. Indeed, the scene continued to a broken car’s mirror having the background of the

walking limp Clipper. One more important dimension in the film is the temporal relations.

Manipulation of events leads to changes in story-plot relations and we are most familiar with

such manipulations such as flashbacks, which present one or more shots out of their presumed

story order (Bordwell and Thompson 2001: 260). In the movie, there are two major

flashbacks which are the story of the apartment and the story of Li’l Ze. The compelling part

is when the story of the apartment ends it then continues to the story of Li’l Ze.

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The last part of film form is the dimensions of sound. I think we all know that sound is the

one of the most crucial parts within a film. Whether noticed or not, sound is a powerful film

technique for several reasons. For one thing, it engages a distinct sense mode (Bordwell and

Thompson 2001: 291). The sounds in City of God were indeed terrific. It had many diegetic

and non-diegetic sounds which made the film a success. In occurrence, there was a scene

where hostages in the robbed motel were all dead and the only thing that gave the audiences

understanding was the sound of the steam and silence. Another scene was the one with the

two hoodlums, Goose and Clipper, who were hiding on a branch of a tree waiting for the cops

to go away. In the scene, there was buzzing sound of flies and the sound of fishes in the water.

Moreover, sound gives a new value to silence. A quiet passage in a film can create almost

unbearable tension, forcing the viewer to concentrate on the screen and to wait in anticipation

for whatever sound will emerge (Bordwell and Thompson 2001: 292).

Wrapping it up, City of God has had a very good storyline associated with many different

aspects of film form while building a beautiful composition of scenes, shots, editing and

sounds. Throughout the whole duration, the audiences get to understand the order of the

movie as they engage scene by scene that interconnected. It is now clear to us that films are

very intricate and sophisticated. Hopefully, as we learn more about films, we could better

appreciate films than just watch them.

(Words: 1,229)

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bordwell, D. & Thompson, K. (2001), Film Art: An Introduction, New York, NY: McGraw-

Hill Higher Education.

City of God, at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0317248/, accessed 29 March 2007.

Mise-en-scene, at http://afronord.tripod.com/mise.html, accessed 31 March 2007