La Haine/City of God - example question

How far can it be argued that your chosen films provide a ‘realistic’ representation of the people and places they focus on?

Both La Haine and City of God aim to portray a realistic representation of the Projects in Paris and the Favelas in Rio respectively, through the mise-en-scene and narrative.

The opening sequences for both films are particularly important as these set the scene and are the basis for introducing the film and its ideologies.

La Haine’s opening sequence introduces contemporary social issues by using real archive footage of riots in Paris, which flow into a fictional news report. This roots the film in the genre of social realism meaning the audience already feel, through this opening only, that the film will be realistic. The way the music from the opening sequence becomes diegetic when we first meet Said aurally connects reality with fiction and further provides the realistic framework in which the film will fit in.

Furthermore, this use of real archive footage to set the scene, and the use of black and white to stylise the film, gives the film a documentary style feel. This allows the audience to make a connection with the film and the pre-existing conventions of a documentary.

City of God-

• Fast paced and stylised
• Cinematic > realistic
• Actually takes place later on in the film; unrealistic due to narrative
• Set over decades; picked out key moments, mediation
• Denied a police POV
• Narrative resolution detracts from realism
• Poverty is 'cosmetic'
• Level of violence realistic

La Haine-

• No police POV
• Friendship group unrealistic?
• No narrative resolution- realistic
• Aesthetic poverty
• Level of violence realistic