Fernando Meirelles announced himself to the world twenty one years ago with his ground-breaking urban drama CITY OF GOD – and the film has been given a new lease of cinematic life thanks to The Festival Agency who are giving it a reissue and a chance for modern audiences (not that they weren’t that back in 2002) to discover and rediscover life in the Rio favelas.
Based on a book by Paulo Lins, who grew up in the favela environment, CITY OF GOD chronicles the life and bloody times of Rocket (Alexandre Rodrigues) who is our guide and narrator through the cross-narrative stories of hardline kids and youths determined to make their way through the immoral underbelly of Rio, transposing three decades from the 1960s to the 1980s.
At the heart of the film is a variety of colourful characters whose fates are entwined and shaped in the shadow of crime and dishonour (and a fair amount of punishment along the way) as the lure of big dreams with even bigger hoards of drugs, guns and essential violence.
He also has eyes for Angelica (Alicia Braga), whom he takes a shine to and wants to have a future with whilst trying to make it as a photographer. However, his main nemesis is L’il Ze (manifested in a truly intimidating and occasionally terrifying performance from Leandro Firmino), who has desired true power in the City of God from childhood.
Caught amidst all this is Knockout Ned (Seu Jorge) who becomes part of the escalating gang war that is thriving. Rocket, however, does desire something more that the lure of the gun and the occasional snort….
Think of John Woo‘s HARD BOILED and Spike Lee‘s DO THE RIGHT THING as two other examples where the ballistic energy of the camerawork and editing flourish. Couple it here with the stirring performances and sharply adapted script of a story based on real events and you have one of the truly extraordinary cinematic achievements of modern cinema, a film that whilst it has a very low-brow moral high ground at its’ heart does provide some heartfelt moments amidst the carnage.
CITY OF GOD is in turns both epic and intimate, subverting a
familiar crime drama in the realm of American fare such as CARLITO’S WAY, CASINO and GOODFELLAS into something above and beyond the possibilities established.
Making no apologies at any time (plenty of shocks along the way as powerful as they were on original release after bowing back in the day at the Cannes Film Festival), the film was well-deserving of it’s numerous award accolades and nominations.
A great testament of classic cinema motifs.
CITY OF GOD is re-released in cinemas from February 23rd, 2024.
Please follow and like us:
