City of God

How far does the impact of the films you have studied for this topic depend on distinctive uses of film techniques?

City of God depends a lot on distinctive uses of film techniques to develop themes, genre and a sense of verisimilitude.
City of God opens with flash imagery , the opening shot being an extreme close up of a knife begin sharpened on a rock, it then a fast, straight cut to a blank screen. The close up shot of a knife being sharpened along with the over exaggerated diegetic sound, of the knife helps to set a theme of violence for the film and foreshadows some of the events that are to come. The high key lighting in the knife shot and the darkness of the blank shot that makes up the flash imagery, is all put together in a sirens of fast pace editing, this suggests that the film is going to be fast paced throughout and filled with action. throughout this sequence of shots, there are also cut aways, from the knife to extreme close ups of people playing instruments, we also hear the non-diegetic sound of traditional Brazilian instruments. These cut aways help to suggest where the film might be set.
We then begin to see extreme close up shots of dead chickens, chickens being killed and one live chicken, it then becomes apparent that these fast pace cuts and shots that we are seeing, could be from the point of view of the chicken as it is part of this fast pace life that is going on, however it doesn't really know what is gong on properly, much like the audience doesn't have a clear idea of what is going on yet. the chicken is also seen blinking briskly, much like the cuts look as thought they are blinking as it cuts between the knife and a blank screen. We also know we are seeing things from the chickens point of view because of the amount of reaction shots we see of the chicken and how much attention it gets from the camera. the chicken then goes on to escape and attempt to run away to avoid facing its inevitable doom, this is significant as it introduces one of the main themes of the film. Instantly after e see the chicken get free, there is a close up shot of a bowl of blood, this suggests to the audience that the chicken is still going to die, regardless of its escape. This introduces the idea that the consequences of trying to escape is death, which is a common theme that runs throughout the film.