Summary A Level Film Studies City of God (2002) + Pan's Labyrinth (2006) Complete A* Notes
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Course
FM1 - Exploring Film Form
Institution
WJEC
This is a complete set of A* Pan's Labyrinth and City of God revision notes for WJEC Eduqas Film Studies A Level. The document is organised into the following sections and topics:
CITY OF GOD
1. CHARACTERS
2. EDITING AND STRUCTURE
3. IMMERSION AND ENVIRONMENT
4. KEY THEMES
5. MONTAGE OF THE K...
,CITY OF GOD (FERNANDO MEIRELLES AND KATIA LUND, 2002)
CHARACTERS so many characters and individual stories that you feel like
you are in a moving world.
TREAT ALL CHARACTERS WITH THE SAME IMPORTANCE
Introductions
- Knockout Ned one of the most important characters of the movies climax is
introduced turning from the character, saying a few lines, then drifts out of
frame
- Introduced in backgrounds or referred to in flashbacks "The best dealer wad
Carrot". Steak introduced in flashes of a montage
CHANCE ENCOUNTERS
- Multiple interactions, heightens the sense of connectivity of the world, more
authentic
- Rocket encounters the runts walking through the supermarket, Tiago and steak
in conversation.
NO MAIN CHARACTER
- All scenes have multiple focal characters, large events effect multiple people,
linking every interaction, knock on effect on more people
- Benny's death at a party, all the characters present are effected.
- Reaction scenes only needed if important "You just killed the coolest hood in the
City of God"
EDITING AND STRUCTURE so the traditional narrative is plot point A,
plot point B, climax, conclusion. City of God plays out like a series of
vignettes, with every character as the protagonist in their own story.
WHY IS NED KILLED?
- Otto wanted revenge for the murder of his father, Ned killed him because of the
exception to the rule, the rules were established because Ned joined carrot etc.
- Cause and effect story
- City of God, like Goodfellas doesn't have that obvious beginning middle and
end, free reign on whatever and whoevers story it wants to. Snowball like plot
CUT TO BIGGEST IMPACT
- Developing story across various location
- Cause in different location to effect
- Cut at the end of one scene, to the middle of another
- No discoveries, keeps the film moving, constant changing world
ROCKET OMNISCIENT NARRATOR
- Allows us to see events, not even he was present at
- Frees viewer from limitations of what you can and can't see in story
,IMMERSION AND ENVIROMENT evolving world who the audience can
feel involved in.
FAMILIAR AUDIENCE WITH ENVIRONMENT
URBAN ENVIROMENT USING LANDMARKS
- Closest the film comes to establishing shots
- Hyperkinetic
- Alleyway, small plaza, apartment complex gives audience comprehension of
world so we can visualise its layout
- Narrator can tell us what we need to know, gives us a reason to show them
- What is going on outside the scene is just as important.
- Split screen when Carrot is in flat and showing world outside
- Split screen in party
PERSPECTIVE & CAMERA
- Documentary like style, handheld and always moving
- The camera has a personality
- The director didn't give the actors marks on where to stand, so the camera
wouldn't know where it goes next
- The camera walks around the setting, creating the overwhelm the audience
would feel if they were in the world.
- Montages transitions are often the camera whizzing around the area looking
where to go next
- Double takes as a person would do (Benny arrives at the apartment "I'm a
playboy now"
- Sometimes looking upside down, the viewer is right in the middle of the scene
- Essential in creating a world for the audience so they can identify it and
therefore believe it.
- Documentary aesthetic essential in capturing the world Rocket is documenting
KEY THEMES masculinity & violence as a means of survival, inability to
escape, police corruption, redemption, urban space
MASCULINITY AND VIOLENCE AS A MEANS OF SURVIVAL
Guns are power, violence as a form of play, killing as proof of adulthood and
masculinity.
- Photographic ariel shot of City of God with red lines around who owns which bit
of turf, turf wars and drugs.
- Li'l Ze is clearly established as an inadequate person, a psychopath, showing
toxic masculinity.
THE INABILITY TO ESCAPE
- The car breaks down as they try to escape the City of God, Shaggy has to push
the car.
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