Source: Den of Geek http://www.denofgeek.

com/movies/16970/world-cinema-urbanstories

World Cinema: Urban stories

News2 Feb 2011 - 12:20 Share on printShare on emailShare on stumbleuponShare on twitter </body>

How does world cinema get across the idea of a city as a character in its own right? Mr Horton has been taking a look...
In some of the most powerful drama told there is often a key player, a powerful character who not only provides context and history, but also a motivating factor for all the action. That character is, of course, the city.

Our urban metropolises are a relatively modern phenomenon, as modernisation has increasingly eroded the rural communities and driven millions into close contact with each other. Cinema is also a relatively modern phenomenon, and so it is natural that the two should have become intertwined.

The moving image is surely the only art form that can truly depict the city? Authors such as Charles Dickens may have given the city a voice, but film revealed its true nature, and through casting its eye over the sprawl, told the millions of stories which otherwise would have been ignored.

But how does this relate to world cinema in particular? A very good question.

Depicting the city as a character is a universal trait, shared by any cinema that concentrates its population in urban centres. However, it is especially relevant as a character in non-first world cinemas, where the development of a city mirrors the development of a culture or community. The city brings into sharp focus the conflicts inherent between people, while also highlighting the often found extremes of living, fabulous wealth for some and abject poverty for others.

World cinema films, with the city as a major theme, often share striking similarities with each other. The city may exist in many places, but it seemingly encourages the same problems, as well as the same dreams. They are narratively often rooted in the poorer, more desperate parts of town, where crime is both the disease and the cure.

Stylistically, too, there are many shared traits. The quasi-documentary style so recently in favour in Hollywood can be found earlier in the world cinema tales of the city. It seems that the truth of these urban stories must always be presented unvarnished, so as not to pretend there is anything hidden from the audience.

However, despite, or perhaps in spite of this, there are often new wave-inspired visual flourishes to be found in many of these films, as if to remind the audience that, while you may be watching the truth of people's lives, they still exist in the living embodiment of the modern age. The city is alive all on its own, and is the hub for new ideas. This can be seen in many films, from a wide spectrum of filmmakers, La Haine, Tsotsi, Amores Perros and Rome, Open City to name just four.

To illustrate my points further, it is probably time to have a brief look at a recent entry into the urban stories canon and how it represents its world.

Take Brazilian tour de force, City Of God. The clue is in the title. It's pretty much the story of how a city is built. And while the individual narratives told within the film are important, they are nonetheless ultimately reactive to the growth and development of Rio, and in particular, this one new development in it.

It quickly descends into chaos and anarchy, but time and again it begs the question: is it the place or the people that create the situation?

One cannot exist without the other, but the city always survives the comings and goings, the powers struggles and the intrigues.

It also exerts a pull on the characters. Much is made of the character's turning to crime in order to better themselves and/or facilitate an escape, but they always return, For example, with petty thief, Shaggy's girlfriend

, whom we see disappearing early in the narrative in a focused and emotive manner, only to be inserted back into the action without so much of an explanation. Not that there is any needed. She could not escape.

Highlighting this is the fate of Benny, an almost moral and kind criminal who seemingly represents genuine hope that there is a better life out there. A rogue bullet puts paid to that notion, and the city claims another life.

For those who argue that Rocket escapes, I say to you: where does he return to time and time again?

The aesthetics of the City Of God also tie in neatly with my points raised above. The film contains a multitude of cinematic tricks to keep the viewer constantly entertained, off kilter and energised. Whip pans, freeze frames and split screen litter the edit, and provide a sense of hyperreality to the proceedings, which dazzle and further emphasise the role of the city as a place where anything can happen, as well as alluding to its essentially constructed nature.

We have built the city just as we have built this film.

However, directly against that is the use of handheld cameras and non-professional actors, which firmly roots the piece in the naturalistic documentary world. Once again this shows the gritty reality of life on the streets. The up close and personal nature of handheld camerawork makes the audience somehow believe what they're seeing is the truth, almost.

The film mixes these two seemingly opposite styles together incredibly well, and perfectly captures the dichotomy at the heart of the modern city, and helps explain just why it has exerted such a pull on filmmakers from all over the world.

Read more: http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/16970/world-cinema-urban-stories#ixzz2d9NTRqOx