City of God

What is the importance of mise-en-scene and/or sound in creating meaning and generating responses in the film you have studied?






In City of God there is a scene in which a character called 'Knockout Ned' house is destroyed and people are killed. The mise-en-scene shows that they are a poor family within the favela's like everyone else however you can see they have worked hard to get what they have by the shots showing the audience their possessions.



The scene starts just after Li'l Zè has sexually abused Knockout Ned's girlfriend. Inside the house the audience can see the family together, the camera's close ups help the audience to gain the emotion from the actors performance as a part of mise-en-scene. This enables the audience to sympathise and gain the preferred reading of the fact that they are a close family. This calm situation then becomes the complete opposite when Li'l Zè is calling Knockout Ned outside. The camera changes to become hand held creating a sense of realism and panic. Additionally a couple of seconds before this you can see a contrast in high key lighting and low key lighting within the room which can then link to the fact that the family has inner conflict between them with some wanting to do good and some wanting to go and fight against lil ze.












flash forward
takes you away from realism
shows that he's decision is made as soon as he picks up the knife