Sound in the film can be diegetic or non-diegetic as the film applies both.

This is perhaps used to suggest that this death doesn’t mean anything and that it is just another death in the crossfire. For example, in the scene that shows Knockout Ned’s death, the sound is removed and all we can hear is silence. But sometimes sound is not used to add more impact in powerful scenes. While City of God makes use of its mise-en-scene, sound also becomes a key element in the film and provides an extra effect to the audience by triggering their senses because in the final confrontation scene, we don’t usually see the weapon firing but we would our imagination or assume there is a gun by the sound of the gunshot. The colour transition connotes the idea of a brighter past and a darker future. The present day scenes also concentrate more on dark night scenes to signify the theme of violence in the film. As film goes to present, the colours and lighting changes to a much dim and gloomy atmosphere and the entire colour is almost desaturated. When the film is set in the 60’s, everything’s warm and the colours are golden. The film makes strong distinctive use of colour in the mise-en-scene. This is done to add a sense of realism so that we can sympathise with the situation, like in the scene where the two children get shot by Lil’ Ze’ and his gang, we immediately sympathise with the children because of the emotions and the poor environment that surrounds them. But through the film, the audience are faced with the reality of it because we’re shown the slums of Brazil and the poor living conditions, for example, the apartment now looks run down and looks as if no one has cleaned it for ages. The film shows a hidden side to Brazil that no one has ever seen before because people are used to seeing Brazil as a place filled with glossy, glamorous, and romantic settings in maps and photos. The film is an adaptation of Paulo Lins’ 1997 novel which, both the film and the novel was inspired by true events. City of God is a 2002 Brazilian film released worldwide in 2003. The two key foreign films I’ve studied makes uses of its mise-en-scene and sound to give more intense visuals portrayed in my chosen films towards the audience.

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