City of God: Approaches to Exam Responses

What is the importance of mise-en-scène and/or sound in creating meaning and generating response in the films you have studied?

• Describe the mise-en-scene in each scene (in detail) and discuss what meaning is conveyed to the viewer in light of your knowledge of the culture of each social environment.

• Discuss how the environment has changed over the course of time in some detail - refer to the way that issues of power, poverty and conflict has changed social structures.

• How does the mise-en-scene reflect and/or reinforce key social messages?

• How does sound reflect or reinforce those key social messages - diegetic and non-diegetic?

• Who has the power at key points in the narrative?

• How did they gain this power?

• What are the consequences of this struggle for control? 

• Consider how friendships, relationships and gender are affected  by these struggles.