Apartment Transformation

• Theatricality of removal of mobile camerawork: it is like the spectator is watching from a place in the stalls.

  
  

  Wide angle and deep focus give an exaggerated perspective to the room and the static camera standing out as important - documenting the pipe-line of the drug cartel in the favela.
• Freezeframe as Lil Ze and his gang enter the apartment, before dissolving into a flashback of the 60s when the apartment was owned by 'Dona Zelia' Indicated by the on screen graphics that give the film an episodic feel (editing)
• The mis en scene of the apartment completely changes: there are reminiscent warmer colour palette of golden yellow and soft pinks that highlight the feminine energy that was erased as the males dominated the drug scene, alongside DZ's furnishings including flower pattern divider.
• Rockets heterodiegetic narration tells the audience that she was selling the drugs for her daughters - establishing a time when morals were still input: drugs were sold for survival, it was selfless and without violence.
• The scene starts with a high key warm pink light (selling for right reasons, bringing up her daughter) and transforms to a low key dark shadowed apartment infected with corrupted violence.

  
  

  However, there is still a level of corruption in the pink.

  Like the police, DZ takes advantage of the drug addiction in the favelas giving drugs away for young boys in return for sexual favours.
• The depth of field alters between shallow and deep focus, Meirelles shifting the audience attention as the characters move around the apartment.
• Dissolving overlapping shots show big boy physically overpowering and aggressively removing Dona Zella from the apartment – pulling her hair - patriarchal favela.

  
  

  The fades show this development of time and draws our attention to different parts of the screen as people come and go - take when C kills A
• Furnishing is removed – no more bedroom, only one sofa remaining and the drug table.

  Poverty shown through the paint peeling – the lack of care for good living conditions as drugs become more important. There is a continued corruption of the youth – ‘big boy used the neighbourhood kids as dealers’ infiltrating kids in the drug trade.
• Harsh lighting creates an overexposed image, reducing the colour saturation and creating a stark impoverished appearance as masculine violent energy overtakes the apartment: as BB is removed and replaced by the next leader Carrot in a dissolve.
• Carrot is foregrounded, highlighting his status in the drug trade. This additionally shows a growth of it since business relations have been adopted: the drug trade becomes their form of corporate business.
• The mis en scene is worsening, a representation of the wider issues of depravation of the favelas as they become further away from society and civilisation outside of poverty.
• There is a recognition of the favelas worsening condition through the condition of the apartment: it is a metaphor.

  
  

  Kitchen table and fridge become damaged and used for drugs = favelas shift from family to revolved around drugs.

  
  

  Machete stabbed into the table = worsening violence

  
  

  Paraphernalia of drugs and guns = conventional for drug/gangster films but only adds a more authentic take. Shows the growing addiction to the drug (one successful money scheme) business
• Pornographic posters on the walls reflect this sexualisation of women – real women replaced with romanticised, sexual pictures. This moves away from any sense of normalcy and domesticity. Representing men as careless, and women as objects of their sexual pleasures outside of the drug trade.
• Big Boys 'either you kill him, or i'll kill you' shows the lack of humanity in disregard of Carrot's long time relationship with Aristotle: drugs come over love.

  
  

  This is reflected in the low-key lighting and deep focus of C's inability to look when he shoots A, before the dissolve removes C from the apartment completely covering the right third in darkness: C's rejection of the apartment shows it is rooted in violence.

  
  

  The police killing BB reinstates the cyclicality of violence.
• Neo-realism: Immerses spectators into the action to allow us to experience the favelas.
• Daniel Rezende's invisible editing style portrays how easily and smoothly the apartment descends into decay, a metaphor for the wider favela.
• Good for questions on editing, mis en scene and context.