Themes explored in La Haine and City of God

Introduction

La Haine is a very realistic film, the cinematography is basic – so nothing is glorified, and denotes a documentary feel to the film. This can be clearly seen in the introduction to the film in which archived footage is used. This archived footage is unscripted, meaning the audience can experience the true context to which the film is set. The films genre also indicates to the audience that the film is realistic. The Social Realism genre often tackles tough issues, which is doesn’t glorify but instead shows a very realistic and sometimes gritty view of that issue. It is definitely more thought-provoking, this is reinforced by the films open ended narrative which is open the interpretation. The police man could have shot Vinz, thus re-fuelling the cycle of crime that started the film. Or Vinz kills the police-man, in which he gets his wish throughout the film, which will get media coverage and fuel more police brutality against non-French citizens.

In contrast to this, City of God displays a glorified view of the issues it tackles. In general, this film isn’t very realistic; the cinematography is very stylised and constantly breaks the 4^th wall with the audience. This can be seen in the introduction to the film, where each shot is edgy and inconsistent, utilising different shot types and angles. We see chicken being prepared to eat, there is happy music playing and shots show a generally happy atmosphere. However, the issue of poverty is glorified here - the audience are told that the slum environment is cheery and not one is starving. In La Haine and City of God there are three main themes explored.

Power

In La Haine, Power is shown as a constant struggle between the two main rivals - the Police and Non-French citizens. This is shown on the scene where our three main characters; Said, Vinz, and Hubert, go to the rooftop to hang about with others. They are then confronted by the Police and the visual divide between the two groups is shown. The Police demand that the group comes off the rooftop, and threatens them by saying they will be ‘aggressively removed’ if they don’t comply. This demand shows that in the hierarchy of power, the Police are above the non-French citizens.

City of God’s plot is all about power and the power struggles in Rio as the favela grows. Main gangs are often shooting each other for turf and control of districts in the favela. In City of God, we follow the character Lil Ze as he climbs from a runt to the main gangster behind a whole drug organisation. However, at the end of the film, we see his progress shatter as he is killed by runts, bottom of the hierarchy of power. This represents the cycle of violence, and therefore power, in the film.

Poverty

As it is the more realistic of the two, La Haine offers the audience a more realistic view on poverty. An example of this is the shop scene, in which one of our main characters, Vinz, wants to buy a specific pepper – but is one franc short. So instead he has to buy the cheaper pepper. Although not entirely noticeable by the audience, this, with other examples, adds to the subliminal buy realistic portrayal of wealth. Which was scarce in the districts which where poverty stricken. Another example of the realistic view of poverty is shown when Hubert deals drugs to gain money and help his mother with the bill, he is not dramatized as a huge drug lord, the scene is shot completely normal, which adds to the realistic tone. This shows that these crimes are seen as casual to survive in the criminal environment.

City of God offers a more dramatized and attractive view of poverty in the favela. In real life; favelas are plagued with sewage and hygiene problems, and house the poorest in the city. However in the film, many scenes do not show these derelict shanties, or starving people. Instead, it shows the characters on the calm beach, staring into the clear water and preparing food and dancing, being positive. This adds to the glamourized feel of the movie.

Conflict

As well as the previously mentioned police versus non-french conflict theme in La Haine, the film also features a third contender, widely seen as ‘passive’ and ‘non-bias’ – the media. The media has a very twisted role in La Haine, this can be clearly seen in the 'TV Reporter scene' in La Haine. The trio are simply minding their own business on a park, they are not bothering anyone. Suddenly, a car drives past them on the above road, then reverses back and starts recording the trio. In the 'safety' of their car, they ask for an interview and start accusing the trio of partaking in the riots. The three then start shouting at the woman and the camera man, the next shot is a POV shot of the camera. This signifies what the French population see, its Vinz shouting towards the camera, and it provides no context and is mediated, this demonises Vinz and reinforces Vinz as a threat, feeding justification to police corruption. There are many elements of this scene which makes it look like a drive in zoo, firstly they are in an enclosed space with bars surrounding them, there is also a large hippo in the background. Also, the low angle shot positions the TV reporter in a position of power as well as making them look like wild caged animals from above.

This can be related to real life Media incidents in France, an example of this would be when famous TV presenter Pascal Sevran was asked about a quote from his book, it read 'The cock of blacks is responsible for the famine in Africa', he justified this by saying 'its the truth! - Africa bursts of all children who are born to it without parents having means of nourishing them..'

In La Haine, conflict is very much a main theme. In the intro, we are introduced to this theme in the shot where both the police and the gang are having a stand-off, with our main character in the center of the erupting chaos. This is related to the power theme and also the cycle of crime in the favela criminal environment.

Overall, I think each of the themes are represented more true to reality and fair in LA Haine over City of God, which prefers a stylised method of storytelling in its cinematography versus the documentary style in use in La Haine.