City of God (2002 film)
City of God (Portuguese: Cidade de Deus) is a 2002 Brazilian epic crime film directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund. Bráulio Mantovani's script is adapted from the 1997 novel of the same name written by Paulo Lins, but the plot is also loosely based on real events. It depicts the growth of organized crime in the Cidade de Deus suburb of Rio de Janeiro, between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1980s, with the film's closure depicting the war between the drug dealer Li'l Zé and vigilante-turned-criminal Knockout Ned. The tagline is "If you run, the beast catches you; if you stay, the beast eats you."
City of God
Cidade de Deus
- Andrea Barata Ribeiro
- Maurício Andrade Ramos
- Antônio Pinto
- Ed Cortês
- O2 Filmes
- VideoFilmes
- Hank Levine Film
- Globo Filmes
- Studio Canal[1]
- Wild Bunch[2]
- Lumière[3] (Brazil)
- Mars Distribution (France)[4]
- Constantin Film (Germany)[4]
- Miramax Films[5] (Select territories)
- 18 May 2002 (Cannes)
- 30 August 2002 (Brazil)
- 17 January 2003 (United States)
- 12 March 2003 (France)
- 8 May 2003 (Germany)
130 minutes
Portuguese
$3.3 million[6]
$30.6 million[7]
The cast includes Alexandre Rodrigues, Leandro Firmino, Jonathan and Phellipe Haagensen, Douglas Silva, Daniel Zettel, and Seu Jorge. Most of the actors were, in fact, residents of favelas such as Vidigal and the Cidade de Deus itself.
City Of God received widespread critical acclaim and garnered four nominations at the 76th Academy Awards; Best Cinematography (César Charlone), Best Director (Meirelles), Best Film Editing (Daniel Rezende), and Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) (Mantovani). In 2003, it was Brazil's entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but it did not end up being nominated as one of the five finalists. It is frequently listed by many critics and audiences as one of the greatest films of the 21st century and one of the best films of all-time.
Meirelles and Lund went on to create the City of Men TV series and its 2007 film adaptation, which share some of the actors (notably leads Silva and Darlan Cunha) and their setting with City of God.
Production[edit]
City of God was filmed on 16mm film stock.[8]
On the bonus DVD, it is revealed that the only professional actor with years of filming experience was Matheus Nachtergaele, who played the supporting role of Carrot.[9] Most of the remaining cast were from real-life favelas, and in some cases, even the real-life City of God favela itself. According to Meirelles, amateur actors were used for two reasons: the lack of available professional black actors, and the desire for authenticity. Meirelles explained: "Today I can open a casting call and have 500 black actors, but just ten years ago this possibility did not exist. In Brazil, there were three or four young black actors and at the same time I felt that actors from the middle class could not make the film. I needed authenticity."[10]
Beginning around 2000, about a hundred children and young people were hand-picked and placed into an "actors' workshop" for several months. In contrast to more traditional methods (e.g. studying theatre and rehearsing), it focused on simulating authentic street war scenes, such as a hold-up, scuffle, and shoot-out. A lot came from improvisation, as it was thought better to create an authentic, gritty atmosphere. This way, the inexperienced cast soon learned to move and act naturally. After filming, the crew could not leave the cast to return to their old lives in the favelas. Help groups were set up to help those involved in the production to build more promising futures.[11]: 135–139
Meirelles went into the film with the intention of staying true to the "casual nature" of the violence in the novel by Lins. Critic Jean Oppenheimer wrote on the production of the film saying that: "A second guiding principle was to avoid glamorising the violence" and that "many of the killings are either shown indistinctly or kept out of frame."[11]: 26–32
Because the real Cidade de Deus favela was in conflict, a large majority of the film was shot in Cidade Alta, a different favela within Rio. During the production, slumlords did not allow for the production company to have their own security, so local security guards were hired for the safety of the set.[12]
Lund and Meirelles filmed the short film Golden Gate as a test run[9] while casting for City of God was in the initial stages.[13]
The score to the film composed by Antonio Pinto and Ed Córtes. It was followed by two remix albums. Songs from the film:
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
The film was screened out of competition at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.[14] In Brazil, City of God garnered the largest audience for a domestic film in 2003, with over 3.1 million tickets sold, and a gross of R$18.6 million ($10.3 million).[15] The film grossed over $7.5 million in the U.S. and over US$30.5 million worldwide.[16]
Critical response[edit]
On Rotten Tomatoes, City of God has an approval rating of 91% based on reviews from 165 critics, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The website's consensus reads, "City of God offers a shocking and disturbing—but always compelling—look at life in the slums of Rio de Janeiro."[17] On Metacritic, the film holds a score of 79 out of 100 based on 33 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[18]
Colin Kennedy from Empire awarded the film a full 5 out of 5 stars, comparing it favorably to Goodfellas and writing in his review, "At once a laboratory for cinema technique and a victory for raw heart, this is a snot-nosed, blood-stained masterpiece. If you see even one or two better movies this year, you will be very lucky indeed."[19] In 2008, the magazine chose City of God as the 177th best film of all time.[20]
Film critic Roger Ebert awarded the film 4 stars out of 4, writing in his review, "City of God churns with furious energy as it plunges into the story of the slum gangs of Rio de Janeiro. Breathtaking and terrifying, urgently involved with its characters, it announces a new director of great gifts and passions: Fernando Meirelles. Remember the name."[21][22]
Filmmaker Robert Altman stated, "I don't know how Fernando Meirelles made City Of God. It's so courageous, so truthful. I think it's the best picture I've ever seen".[23] Meirelles himself cited Altman's work as an influence on his own career.[24]
The film was not without criticism. Peter Rainer of New York magazine stated that while the film was "powerful", it was also "rather numbing".[25] John Powers of LA Weekly wrote that "[the film] whirs with energy for nearly its full 130-minute running time, it is oddly lacking in emotional heft for a work that aspires to be so epic – it is essentially a tarted up exploitation picture whose business is to make ghastly things fun".[26]
Ivana Bentes, a Brazilian film critic, criticised the film for its depiction of the favela and her view that it glorified issues of poverty and violence as means of "domestication of the most radical themes of culture and Brazilian cinema ... as products for export."[27] Bentes targets the film specifically in saying that: "City of God promotes tourism in hell".[28]
City of God was ranked No.3 in Film4's "50 Films to See Before You Die", and No.7 in Empire magazine's "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010.[29] It was also ranked No.6 on The Guardian's list of "the 25 Best Action Movies Ever".[30][31] It was ranked No.1 in Paste magazine's 50 best movies of the decade of the 2000s.[32] Time listed it as one of the 100 greatest films of all time.[33][34]
In 2012, the Motion Picture Editors Guild listed City of God as the 17th best-edited film of all time based on a survey of its members.[35]
Legacy[edit]
In an interview with Slant Magazine, Meirelles states he had met with Brazil's former and current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva who told him about the impact the film has had on both policies and public security within the country. The film has also sparked major increase in film productions, with over 45 being done during 2002. Films such as The Motorcycle Diaries and The Intruder are some of the films which have used Brazil for film production.[64]
The 2013 documentary City of God – 10 Years Later reunites the cast and crew of City of God and takes a look at how their lives have changed after the original film's release. In a BBC article written at the time of the documentary's release, Firmino mentions that the cast had mixed careers after the film's release. Firmino says that Jefechander Suplino, who played Clipper, could not be found by the documentary producers. His mother, however, believes him to still be alive, but is unaware of his whereabouts. Seu Jorge, who played Knockout Ned, had a better career after the film and became a major musician, performing at the London 2012 Olympic Games closing ceremony.[65]
City of God: The Fight Rages On, a miniseries set two decades after the events of the film, will premiere in August 2024.[66]