Meaning and Response II: Aesthetics in City of God and Pan's Labyrinth

“…strongly emotive experience…One of the most exciting, powerful and moving examples of Latin American Cinema…thrilling and sophisticated filmmaking”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“Cinema doesn’t get more exhilarating than this”
Nev Pierce, BBC Film Review

“An intoxicating shot of cinematic adrenaline”
BBCi Films

“If the first five minutes of ‘City of God’ don’t suck you in, it’s time to scoop out your eyes and get new ones”
Sick-boy.com
Contrast the aesthetics of the sixties (sepia-toned) and the seventies

Discuss the stylistic nature of the film - including criticisms - despite the fact that it is social realist - this aesthetic runs throughout - both the scenes in the sixties and seventies

Discuss the use of the camera - freezes, enhanced sound effects of clicks etc - much of the film's aesthetic id from the perspective of a camera documenting real events, capturing what is really happening - which is what the director intended to do with the film (bring the plight of the poor/socially deprived to the middle classes in Brazil who are unaware of what is really happening in Brazil.
LINNK TO
Buscapé / Rocket, the documenter and voiceover in City of God, is based on the photographer Wilson Rodrigues. He becomes Rodrigues at the end of the film and his association with photography enhances his “neutral” view of events. The poverty and violence are seen through the viewfinder of his camera, he documents the final shoot out. He is the one who informs us what is taking place both on a local level (the City of God itself) and at a national level (the slums of Brazil). City of God mixes the notion of the reporter with his objective camera that is able to reveal the truth of a sordid and violent area with the films own highly manipulated and constructed style.