COG: How does 'City of God' represent masculinity as aggressive?
In 'City of God', we are made to feel intimidated and uncomfortable when it comes to male aggression. The proportion between the amount of men and women we see in the film is so substantial that it makes us really concentrate on male dominance. This aggression is shown through the mise-en-scene, editing, sound, lighting and cinematography. Despite not being an essential character, Shorty plays a part in probably the most sensitive and disturbing scenes in the film. In this scene, Shorty discovers his wife cheating on him and he takes his exasperation out by killing his wife with a shovel. The fast paced editing makes virtually impossible to sympathise with the wife as we only get a quick take of her screaming and hiding herself in the corner of the room. The camera immediately cuts to a low angled, hand-held shot of Shorty approaching his wife (the camera). The use of this cinematography emphasises male aggression and dominance and the idea of the camera being hand-hel
Elliott, this is good in parts. It would have been good to have a little more information in regards to the social and political changes that happened throughout the time the film covers and what impact these changes had.
ReplyDeleteIf you could add more information specifically focusing on the political and social changes I think that will absolutely help in your further understanding of the film.
All the best
Mr Cooper