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A Level WJEC Film Studies City of God (2002) and Mustang (2015) Grade A Essay
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A Level WJEC Film Studies City of God (2002) and Mustang (2015) Grade A Essay, focusing on mise en scene and performance
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Global Film Mustang and City of God - AnswerExplore how aspects of performance and mise en scene are used to enrich meaning
in your two chosen films. Make detailed reference to particular sequences in your
answer.
In Meirelles’ City of God (2002) and Erguven’s Mustang (2015), meaning is created through
our understanding of the messages and values of the film, which we can deduce through
analysing the mise en scene and performance. In City of God, the theme of poverty and how
it’s a pervasive and inescapable reality for the residents of the favela due to the cycle of
violence perpetuated by social inequality. In Mustang, gender is represented as the central
theme of the film. It explores the restrictive and repressive nature of the girls’ lives whilst
living under the dominant patriarchal values of the conservative rural village in Turkey, the
film explores the significance of individual agency in the face of oppression, which is why
their escape works as a form of liberation.
In the opening scene of City of God, the favela is a microcosm for Brazil as a whole, with a
very turbulent political background during the years the film was set and we, as the
spectators, are being thrown into the world of poverty and struggle. To demonstrate this, the
shot types create a chaotic nature, with crash zooms and whip pans mirroring the feeling of
adrenaline and rush from the atmosphere. This could also be an intertextual reference to the
MTV/Early 2000s style that makes audiences feel emersed; however, not comfortable
because we are positioned as outsiders and the experience of being thrown in does not feel
safe. Within the mise en scene, through extreme close-ups and cuts to a Dutch angle and
bird’s eye view shots, we are subjected to the confined spaces people are living in, with the
electricity lines scattered everywhere, demonstrating the characters’ environment forcing
them to be caged in an almost claustrophobic maze. In addition, the high-angle shot makes
us look down on them, like we are elevated, further enforcing their position in society whilst
living in absolute poverty.
Later on in the scene, when the scene cuts to Rocket it is like a breath of fresh air, the long
shots, slow-paced editing, and slow camera movement reflecting the stable and almost
isolated mise en scene introduce Rocket as the protagonist. It could also foreshadow that,
despite growing up in that environment, Rocket doesn’t become a product of his
environment, and has a chance at a brighter future. In addition, the chicken serves as a motif
throughout the film, it almost replicates Rocket’s constant need to escape from the chaotic
cycle of violence and poverty, to succeed. This is reinforced when the mise en scene and
performance turn chaotic when Lil Ze appears, the props of guns are also symbolic of power
and control within the favela. However, Rocket steers away from this dynamic as the truth
and his camera is his weapon.
Moreover, the characters lined up with guns, including children within the ‘blue era,’
contrasts with the sixties when they were playing with footballs. The Flashback to the Sixties
uses clockwork sounds to communicate it and Rocket is stood in the same spot he was in in
the eighties; the favela has grown up around him, whilst he has not moved. This works as a
metaphor for how Brazil has changed in these years, people are stuck in the situation they
are in whilst the world moves around them. In addition, the costumes of creams and golds,
with a warm atmosphere connote a sense of nostalgia and the gunshot into the football
symbolises the death of their childhood innocence when growing up in an environment like
this.
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