Complete Answer: La Haine and City Of God

How far do the films you have studied for this topic challenge the audience, generating debate about the worlds they represent?

The films I have studied for this section are La Haine and City of God. I found that even though they are both crime films they both contain completely different takes on the genre. La Haine is a realistic depiction of life as an non-French in the projects whereas City of God creates a stylistic view of life in Rio.

La Haine challenges audiences to rethink their romanticised perceptions of Paris and France. The opening montage of the riots during the nineties is a far cry from the usual images we see of France. Police violence and brutality are shown as they attack rioters, the shots being edited to look as if the police are unprovoked in their attacks against the 'peaceful' protestors. The realistic framework manipulates the audience into viewing the film as realistic. This generates the debate of police using extreme force, especially when the police appear more like a military squad with armoured vans and weapons. Also the scene of the police interrogation against Hubert and Said.  It shows how racism is institutionalised into society as the young police officer is being taught torture techniques.

The opening scene of La Haine begins with a riot montage that took place over a ten-year period; straightaway this challenges the audience’s typical ideology of French society. The fact that the director uses real life footage gives the audience a more significant effect as he try’s to manipulate us in order for us to take on the message more, how to show how non- French people are targeted not just due to their race but also because of their class. People usually associate French society with love, romance, and culture. As with the film Amelie that will looked at in contrast to this film we see that the people are mostly white, it is very French not may other religions are seen, the director in this film has also digital removed any graffiti that can bee seen throughout the scenes; this therefore gives the audience a false idea of what French culture is actually like. Meanwhile La Haine gives us a more realistic view of what French society is like but because the audience isn’t use to this it challenges our ideologies.

Unlike La Haine, City of God has a clear resolution where the runts take over from Lil Ze after shooting him. In City of God we are shown clear generic conventions of crime films such as the rise and fall of a criminal. This convention is shown through the character of Lil Ze as he is represented as a victim of crime at first when he is a child and kills Rocket's older brother, however when he takes over the drug business and becomes head of the City of God the audience see that Lil Ze is actually a villain as he turns the City of God into a war zone where we are shown more conventions of crime such as blood, violence, guns and gang wars. The resolution of City of God shows the villain being shot and the runts taking over, this shows that the victims of Lil Ze's crimes have now become head of the City of God and therefore the film represents a cycle of violence within the favelas. This would cause debate within the audience as City of God does not show a realistic representation of Brazil, instead it tries to meet audience expectations and is made to entertain rather than to educate the audience and show them what life is actually like in the favelas.

This beach scene is full of wide shots this is to symbolise that out of the Favelas people are actually given a chance. This is done on purpose as the director is trying to compare the life of people in the Favelas and outside of the favela's. Outside of the Favela's it is all blue sun shining showing a happy life but when we get back into the favela's the sudden shock of bleakness hits bringing up the debate why do people live in a happy life and some people live in a cramped life. Also this beach is never touched by the violence which try's to show that the violence is contained into one specific area as the government is trying to hide it compared to other people's lives that is what the film tries to do at least.   

To conclude, I believe that La Haine attempts to challenge audiences expectations more than City of God because it creates an unrealistic view of life in the favelas.