City of God Opening Sequence Analysis Christina MacCallum City of God is a film about two boys growing up in a violent neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro who take different paths in life and is written by Paulo Lins and directed by Fernando Meirelles and Ktia Lund. After the opening credits, less than a second into the film, the first shot we see is of a knife. The director has cleverly shown this for less than a second to show that the audience can establish straight away what it is. This is probably down to the fact that we see this object on a daily basis to carry out everyday things like chopping up vegetables. The knife continues to be shown ten times throughout the first few seconds of the film and we can see that it is actually being sharpened on a black rock. Each of these shots are shown for less than a second each time, which creates a face paced start to the film, and holds our attention. In between the shots of the knife, we see a quick close up shot of a chicken with a fairly worried expression. The director has most likely chosen to have the shot of the chicken along with the shots of the knife to show that the two are connected, and that the knife is being sharped in preparation to be used on the chicken. This idea is then backed up even more when we see a different chicken being prepared to be cooked and then the final result of chicken as kebabs being grilled on a BBQ. In the background of these shots there is some diagetic music playing. The music doesnt sound familiar but it does sound similar to carnival music, which is in close connection to Rio de Janeiro. The use of this music helps to create a mood of the opening sequence. It makes the audience feel happy and almost like they want to get up and dance, much like we see a few people doing in the opening. The music is very contradictory to the scenes we see. The preparation of the chickens could be described as being quite gruesome, and if there was intense music playing in the background it would make the audience feel uneasy and scared. Yet because they have used joyful music in the background, it makes the audience feel differently towards the scenes. There is then a scene where one of the chickens in the coop jumps down into the street in order to escape from its inevitable fate. The camera then immediately pans down to a plate full of blood, with chicken feathers to the side of it. The use of this shot immediately after the chicken escapes could show this is what ultimately happens to every chicken, and what should soon be the remains of this one also. The music then immediately stops, without any kind of fade out, so it is very sudden which creates a feeling of suspense. We then see a group of young boys start to chase after the chicken and some non diagetic music starts to play. They are all frantically trying to make sure they catch this chicken, which indicates how they do not have enough money to pay for one from a shop, they must catch it and kill it so they can eat. An overhead shot is then shown of the boys still running after the chicken and the sounds we can here are of the boys shouting, the music and we also hear a couple of gun shots. We then see an older male from the group push an elderly looking man over for not helping to catch the chicken, and he then pulls a gun out of his pocket. From this scene we can deduct that this man is quite a violent character. We then see the rest of the boys in the group pull out guns from their pockets as well. This shows

that this is quite a rough and dangerous area where there is a high crime rate, and that they must all be carrying guns with them as a sense of protection. The mise en scene of this film is quite specific. The streets are very narrow, cramped and dirty which shows that there is a poor quality of housing in this area. The lighting is quite dark and murky which adds to the feeling of tension that runs throughout the second half of the opening. The group of boys that were chasing after the chicken were all wearing quite old and grubby clothing which adds to the assumption that they are not very wealthy. It is easy to tell that this opening sequence was filmed on location, without the use of a set as the area looks very real.