Power, poverty and conflict

City of God and La Haine research and exam prep

Power
La Haine:
Power is very much a physical presence. The authorities use brute force and intimidation to have power of the projects, and if they want you to do something, you will do it. Although they tend to stay out of the projects, and they have their own hierarchy of power, who all unite again the one common enemy, the system.
Power is also in correlation with money, it's not so much if you have money you have power, but more if you have no money, you have a severe lack of power and your voice won't be heard.
The film is also very male dominated, the three main characters are all male, the members of authority are all male, and every single person on the rooftop scene is male.
Power can also be based on location, if you are from the city centre, you have a lot more of a change of getting a job. If (by your postcode) you live in a project outside of Paris, you will get turned down from most jobs and be stuck in a rut.
Power is also visually represented by the gun the Vinz carries throughout. He talks and talks about shooting an officer for revenge, and we know by the ending that the gun shows visually the power. As soon as he gives up the gun, he gets shot.

Poverty
Poverty is represented visually but also subliminally through the actions of the characters and through the decisions the director Kassovitz made in some shots.
The three characters, in particular the shot where they are sitting around and Hubert is kicking the syringe. The shots are significantly longer, to show specifically that there is nothing for the three to do except sit around all day in the Projects. Another example is the scene on the roof, where yet again there is about 50-60 men sitting on a roof doing absolutely nothing with their day.
Poverty is also shown through the sheer need for escapism from their own society in the projects.
Inside Hubert's bedroom he has nothing from French culture, everything is American. The posters, the boxing culture and the black panther poster. The main theme of escapism is by the constant references to American culture throughout. The music when Hubert is in his room, the haircut Sayid gets, and the scene when the rap song is played throughout the whole project.

Conflict
Conflict is a constant theme throughout the film, whether it be internally against each other in the projects, uniting with each other against the authorities, or just through the divide created through poverty against the projects and the City Centre.
Conflict between the projects and the authorities is created straight away in the montage in the intro. It is worth noting the clips were deliberately manipulated to appear as a linear series of events, where we see the protestors harmlessly dancing and not damaging anything or anyone. Then the police strike first, using unreasonable force against them, which sparks of this 'war' between the two. You see the police gearing up for effectively what is war, whereas the protestors are under armed. Through the manipulation of the clips, we see the divide, and we side with the protestors, because we see them as the victim in the situation. The song choice was a bold choice, Burnin' and Lootin' by Bob Marley, this was because the meaning behind Bob as a spearhead for fighting the system, and the lyrics support this. "This morning, I woke up in a curfew."

Genre Convention
La Haine is world cinema. This means that we can understand the film and enjoy it, but we can not truly take the preferred reading, or take the same reading as a Non-French person living in France. We can see that they have a hard time, and that there is a huge divide and problem within the society, but we cannot understand what it feels like to be in that situation. The way it is unconventional is because of the origin of why it was filmed. The director made this film as a response to a real shooting, and this film is heavily influenced and based on realism.

Narrative Convention
The film is linear













City of God: