City of God - analysing a death scene

MISE-EN-SCENE

Location

At the beginning of this scene we are shown that the runts are located to be sitting in a tight area however there is still a good amount of light and space available to them, the light symbolizes that the runts are free and relaxed as well as the space. Further on in the scene we see the area become tighter and emptier until the only people in the street are the runts and lil Ze’s gang. This is done to emphasis that there is no escape of danger in this scene.

colour

In this scene the gang is shown to be dressed in peaceful happy colours such as green and orange, the runts are shown to be in duller costumes consisting of white and light blue, this is done to show the audience that the gang is an important figure that are dealing with thieves. Later on in the scene we are shown a shot of ‘steak’ with a gun about to shoot the runt, in this shot a great amount of white is made through chiaroscuro to show god looking down on him with lil Ze behind the gun as the devil on his shoulder. This scene is impactful and powerful because we see ‘steak’ choosing evil and the white slowly being pushed away by the gang, until there is no pure white left in the shot.

performance

The most impactful part of the scene is when the runt is shot by ‘steak’ and the smallest runt is shown to be in  pain with tears coming from his face. The director does this to show that death is not glamorous and that especially the death of a child heavily effects the audience and the other runts.

SOUND/EDITING

Sound

In this scene no music is playing to possibly emphasis that it isn't a group of teenagers but children who aren’t interested in music, it also illustrates the severity of the scene. Furthermore at the beginning of the scene the runts are laughing and are joking around until the gang comes and then only screams can be heard, this enforces the danger of lil Ze and his gang to the audience.

Editing

Once the gang arrives a lot of the shots are blurry, this could be done to show that the runts don’t fully understand the situation and that it is unclear to them. Furthermore some of the shots are taken with the gun taking up most of the screen showing how big a threat it is. One specific shot shows the gun and the soon to be dead runt behind it, this is done to foreshadow the child death and that his fate was unsure due to the choice given to ‘steak’.