City of god

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

I think that the mise-en-scene is really important in the film City of god. I think that the importance of mise-en-scene is apparent in one of the starting and ending scenes. in this scene it shows the character Lil-dice sat with the tender trio, Goose, Clipper and Shaggy, in this scene lil-dice is sat at the top of a pile of bricks this is an important aspect of the mise-en-scene because these bricks, to me, represent the building blocks to the city of god and because of Lil-dices positioning on these blocks it not only shows his power over the tender trio but also fore shadows what is going to come, that he will have the power over the city of god, also in this scene there is a lot of light and there is a clear sky, this could mean that there is hope for the future. Later in the film after his friend Benny dies, (his best friend and good influence) the mise-en-scene shows him with his back agains a wall made of the initial building blocks that he sat on, this shows meaning to me because it is almost like he is on top of the city ruling over it, but also means that he has completely turned his back on the City, like he doesn't really care about it anymore. The sky and the whole look of the film is an awful lot darker as well, this could mean that there isn't hope anymore and just shows the recurring motif that no matter what you do you can't escape from it.

Another scene that really emphasises the importance of mine-en-scene in this film is, "The story of the apartment." The beginning of this scene shows a very well furnished, well decorated apartment filled with food, owned by a woman,"Dona zelia" selling drugs to support her family at this time it was the early 60s when women had more power, there is a static camera used, i think that this is used to make the deterioration of the apartment more apparent, this montage sequence is the first one that you see in the film and because of its use of cross dissolves, i think that it was used to show the progression of time and shows you how long it takes for the apartment to deteriorate, later in the sequence there becomes less furniture, the wallpaper is replaced with nude posters of woman and instead of a bread knife on the cloth covered table, there is a meat cleaver sticking out of it, to me it just shows how quickly things can escalate in the city of god. Also in this scene you see the slow deterioration of domestication, to me it shows the animalistic nature of the people who live there, you can't domesticate a wild animal and as the take continues you can see the the people taking over get more and more malicious. I think that this scene in a way portrays what happens throughout the whole film, things slowly get worse and worse until it is almost unliveable.

Research catalogue

Dysfunctional families are a common theme in Steven Spielberg's films, does this make him an auteur?

Item 1- 'E.T.'(film)-1982

This is my focus film, for me this defines Steven Spielberg as an auteur. It backs up my idea of how he uses dysfunctional families in his work, a lot of the things that happened in his childhood are reflected in this film. There is a divorced family in e.t. just like in Spielberg's childhood, dysfunctional families are a common theme within Spielberg's films and I think that this theme is very apparent in 'E.T.'

Item 2- 'A.I.' (film)-2001

I picked this because it shows again the use of dysfunctional families, this wasn't originally Spielberg's but you can tell that the film is his, and I think that the narrative shows his presence as an auteur. Throughout the main protagonist is trying to be reunited with his family that is now dysfunctional, this is a recurring theme in a lot of Spielberg's films and that's why I think that this film backs up my theory.

Item 3- 'The Colour Purple', (film)-1985

This film is really helpful because it not only repeats the theme and backs up my theory, the story is of a woman who has to live in a dysfunctional family and how she overcomes this. It was Spielberg's first serious film which I think helped to define him as an auteur because he then later went on to make such films as Schindler's list.

Item 4- Spielberg A Retrospective, Richard Schicknel (book)

I found the information in this book to be really useful it explains a lot about his life and the relation between his personal life and his films which really helps me to make connections and backs up the theory that Spielberg is an auteur, I found that the most useful was page 1 and the chapter The Colour Purple. I will be using quotes from this in my presentation script.

Item 5- Pocket Essentials Steven Spielberg, James Clarke(book)

I found that the most helpful part of the book was the chapter 'To Fly', starting from page 40 to page 43. it was helpful because the information in this chapter backed up my ideas of Spielberg being an auteur, it has lots of information about his film e.t. which in my opinion is the most useful film for backing up my argument of him being an auteur, because of its representation of dysfunctional families. I didn't find the rest of this book that helpful but I will use quotes from other sections of this book in my presentation script.

Item 6- Steven and Stanley. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qW5RJz6YvpI (interview)

In this interview there are a lot of helpful quotations that will be useful for me to use with in my presentation script, it also discusses how Spielberg made A.I. his own even though it was originally Stanley Kubrick's, this backs up my argument that Spielberg is an auteur.

Item 7- A Cinema Of Loneliness by Robert Kolker, (book)

I found this book helpful, in the book it shows analysed photographs of scenes from my focus films. This is helpful because it shows how he uses different shots to express family problems, and this relates to my question by telling me that he does use dysfunctional families.

Item 8- http://www.theyshootpictures.com/spielbergsteven.htm (article)

I found this article relatively helpful, some of the content in this article backs up my question and helps me to argue my point. I found one particular quote that states that Spielberg does use dysfunctional families with in a lot of his films, this quote will be used in my presentation script.

Item 9- Steven Spielberg on his 29 films, from Duel to bridge if spies- telegraph- (picture gallery.)

Although this doesn't necessarily help me answer my proposal a lot of the quotes that are found on this slide show will be helpful for my presentation script, because I can use the pictures from the slide on the projector.

Item 10-A. I and Spielberg 1- (article)

I think that this can be helpful because there are points in here that argue for and against reasons why Spielberg made his films the way that he did. This is useful to me because I can use some of the ideas from this article to back up my point of view.

Item 11- http://sensesofcinema.com/2006/great-directors/spielberg/ (article)

This is incredibly useful; the article discusses what makes Spielberg an auteur. A section in this article is from the perspective of John Baxter who is one of Spielberg's biographers. He has a huge insight as to why Spielberg makes films the way that he does. I think that it will be really helpful to use quotes from him in my presentation script.

Item 12- http://time.com/3544502/spielberg-movies/ (documentary/ article)

The first paragraph of this article is really good, it completely backs up my ideas that he uses dysfunctional families in his films and that this makes him an auteur. This article explains lots of different ways that Spielberg is an auteur but this specific paragraph is really useful to me as I will and can use it in my presentation script to prove my opinion.

Item 13- Spielberg- 'The Culture Show' BBC2 (documentary) 2006

The documentary discusses lots of different films that Spielberg has made, although it does talk about my films completely. Spielberg mentions details about my focus films and also other films he has made that have a similar theme to the ones I have chosen to discuss. Spielberg also discusses how he represents family in his work. This will be really useful when I come to write my presentation script as it has really good quotes relevant to my question. Spielberg also relates my focus film to his real life, this is really helpful because it proves my argument.

Item 14- 'Teach Yourself Film Studies' by Warren Buckland (2010)

This book discusses what makes a director an auteur, it is extremely helpful to me as it goes into detail about what makes someone an auteur. It has information that I can use to back up my argument and it also has lots of useful quotes that I will use in my presentation script.

Item 15 - Rejected items.

'Schindler's List'- I was going to use this film as an example however I thought that The Colour Purple was a little more appropriate as it was his first serious film and I think that it was more useful to answer my question than Schindler's List.

The Passions and Techniques of Spielberg. (an analysis by Steven Benedict)- I did find this useful but I don't think that it helps answer my question and therefore I rejected it. The analysis does talk about what Spielberg did production wise but didn't go into much detail to why he did something, it didn't discuss the relation of his films to his own life.

Steven Spielberg by Paul Bullock (article the director’s chair)- I think that this was helpful, it explains why he might make the films the way he does and it does ink to his childhood however I don't think that this helps answer my question of whether his use of dysfunctional families makes him an auteur.

Steven Spielberg's techniques and themes by Steven Benedict- Although I found this you tube video helpful because it did back up my idea that Seven Spielberg is an auteur, it showed it in a way that wouldn't be helpful in answering my question. It highlighted how his religious and spiritual themes made him an auteur were as I think that dysfunctional families do have a big part in it also.