La Cité de Dieu (The City of God )

La Cité de Dieu (The City of God )

Cinema Release Date: March 12, 2003
Film already available on DVD since: August 24, 2005
Directed by Fernando Meirelles, Katia Lund
With Alexandre Rodrigues, Phelipe Haagensen, Leandro Firmino da Hora, more

Original title: Cidade de deus
No children under 16 years
Brazilian feature film. Genre: Drama, Documentary
Time: 02h15min Production Year: 2002
Distributor: Mars Distribution

Intrigued by this film, which I have heard it for several years (although I did not watch it till now), I bought a DVD and wanted to take a look at it finally.

The film describes the rise of a youth group in the world of crime, in a Brazilian county, each member of the group following a different trajectory.

The first thing that shocked me is the editing hyper-jerky, more like an aesthetic of video clip of a film. I guess, in this way the director wanted us to feel the hectic nature of the lives of these young people. However, we only succeeded in tiring the retina, which prevented us from attaching to the characters. These are the ticks of a Danny Boyle at the 10th power. The staging is definitely bling-bling: you either love or you do not like it at all in the film, which was my case.

The progression of the plot is chaotic, crossing several years at once, flying over the characters' psychology, working in small independent labels from each other. It was finally only in the last quarter of an hour, through the story of an apprentice photographer, the film finds a breath , which, I think, its narrative was very interesting. The film is said hyper-violent, but since 2002 our level of acceptance of violence has greatly increased, as it now really has nothing shocking.

When I watched this movie, I was very shocked that there could a movie like this, which talked a lot of violence and delinquency in Brazilian. But overall, it is a good movie, although sometimes I could not accept it very well.

The power of a dramatic period Scorsese Goodfellas or Casino is a far cry from the elegant violence, I mean, as a choreographic version Tarantino Reservoir Dogs. after this film, Francesco Meirelles has developed a TV series on violence in the favelas in several seasons that was a great success in Brazil, City of Men. In 2008, a film by Paulo Morelli himself had declined the universe of the series on the big screen.