City of God, Exam Question

What is the importance of mise-en-scene and/or sound in creating meaning and generating response in the films you have studied? (35)


In City of God when Knockout Ned gets shot by Otto it goes completely silent, unlike every other shot from a gun. This Scene was when Carrot's gang started a battle with Lil' Ze's gang and start shooting each other, in the middle of the battle the little boy Otto gets shot and is almost dying so Knockout Ned goes over to help him. It then enters a back story to Ottos past and his dad getting shot by Knockout Ned, Then it shows Otto shooting Knockout Ned using a silent gun shot to kill him. This shows that Knockout Ned was focussing the danger in front of him which was Lil' Ze when he got shot from behind by Otto. The reason why it was silent was because he will never hear it until it gets you, meaning the bullet was silent and he only noticed it when it killed him. The first time that Otto shot Knockout Ned it wasn't silent and sounded like a normal gun shot because it didn't kill him the first shot, but when Otto got another chance to shoot Knockout Ned he took it and it was silent because it killed him this time, this shows Ned wasn't focusing on the violence behind him and focused on the violence in front of him which is why he didn't hear the gun shot when it hit him. This use of sound shows us the theme of revenge and how even the small characters that aren't as important have a story behind them and are brought into this violent world of the favelas and will use violence to get what they want.

Another scene that I will be using is the beginning scene, it shows a knife being sharpened and very traditional music being played while they are having a fun time. The mise-en-scene in this scene shows a knife and tells us right at the beginning of the film that the people in the favelas are living on the edge of a knife. This shows us that because they are living on the edge of a knife everyone is in danger and there is violence around every corner so they have to keep safe. It then shows us almost straight after gangs pointing guns at the police and ready to start violence showing that it is very easy for people die quickly and everyone is living life on the edge of a knife. This means one slip and they will fall on top of the knife and could quickly end their life so everyone is as careful as possible when living in the favelas. Also it could show that because the knife is the first thing the film shows us so the film could be using mise-en-scene to make us think about the future of the film, is it going to use weapons and violence throughout the film, how are the people living in the favelas? This is making us think what the film will be like and generate a response, and shows us the main theme of the rest of the film. La Haine is very similar to this film with the amount of violence in the area they live and the people that live in that area are very unfortunate and live in the violence so they are also living on the edge of a knife and if they do something wrong then they could find themselves caught in the violence and get injured and killed.