Model question: La Haine and City of God

The films I have studied in this topic, La Haine and City of God, cause debate in a variety of ways.

Matthew Kassovitz’s social-political film, La Haine, presents a challenging view of France and eliminates the stereotypical view of Paris as the city of love. The ongoing conflict in France is clearly portrayed in La Haine through the perspective of three immigrants, Said, Hubert and Vinz. Origins and culture is abolished in France and you are either identified as non-french or french.

This is shown in particular in the art gallery scene, where the issue of social class is presented. As Vinz, Said and Hubert live in the Les Banlieues, the poorer side of France, they are judged and outcasted at this middle-class event. They become the centre of attention as they are different; they are destructive and don’t speak in a formal manner. The media scene, where Vinz, Hubert and Said are confronted by a journalist also shows this social issue. The journalists are looking for something specific, which is shown how they reverse backwards and question the trio about the riots. They are looking for under class people, who are associated to be the cause of the riots. Vinz, Hubert and Said are causally taking drugs and sitting in a park showing they are unemployed and have no prospects, which is exactly what the media are looking for. They antagonise Vinz in particular and record the footage which will be broadcasted later to the public; they portray the underclass as rude and obnoxious. The area around them is bleak and cage like, which represents them as animalistic which is reinforced by the media recording the footage of them. The trio are shot at a low angle to show that this is their environment, this is where they are in control.

La Haine challenges the audience expectations throughout the entire film as it was written by Kassovitz to comment on the social position of non-French people in the projects. This being said there are certain scenes that attempt to challenge expectations more than others. The montage scene at the start was used by Kassovitz to present the 'real' Paris and not the unrealistic representation that we are fed through the media and other films such as Amelie which present Paris as bright, beautiful and the city of love. The montage shows real footage of riots and police brutality in Paris over a 10 year time gap but it is edited as if it all happened the previous night. Kassovitz does this to try to link the montage to the storyline as it is based the day after a young non-French male is killed during a riot. There is a certain shot in which a group of peaceful protesters dance in front of the police, not doing any harm but trying to voice their opinion. The shot then cuts to a different shot in which a policeman throws a rock at rioters in the distance. He is seen to be 'dancing' as well but in an aggressive and aggravated way which proposes that he is actually enjoying the violence. The shots are edited together to look like they are the same event when in actuality they could of been years apart. This attempts to challenge the audiences expectations as they may not have known about the riots as they haven't been shown in the media to the extent that La Haine showed it.

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.

The beach scene within the film COG, shows the idyllic beach location of Rio, which prior to watching the film, is what we as an audience expect to see. The beach scene represents how this film meets audience expectations through existing ideologies we have upon Rio, such that there are many ideologies people have upon Rio, however the idyllic beaches of Rio are the most recognisable feature of Rio. As a result the film, is reinforcing our current beliefs therefore not challenging us as an audience, and simply offering a POV, which we already had. However, the film depicts the incorrect idea that the within the beach scene, that the problems are removed when the film is shot outside of the favelas, which we know depicts an unrealistic view that the problems within Rio are solely created from the favelas, and not through political influences which created the underlining issues to begin with. 

In conclusion, this answer shows how La Haine makes more of a debate than City of God. La Haine challenges the dominant ideology whilst City of God does not.