SSC Film Studies

How far should the films you have studied for this topic be seen in relation to their particular time and place?

The films I have studied for this topic have different connotations of the worlds they are set in; for example in La Haine it was based on an actual event; the death of an 18 year old black youth shot dead during interrogation by the police in 1992. This context gives the central concern for the film, but the riots and the violence happening between the police and the young people is much more on a wider social context and this film directly challenges the audience’s expectations throughout the entire film as Kassovitz wanted to comment on the social position of non-French people within the projects. 

The montage scene at the start of the film was used by Kassovitz to present the real image of Paris and not the unrealistic representation that we are fed by the media and other films such as Amelie. The opening scene of the film gives the audience an understanding of how bad the riots in France were over a ten year period; the riot montage shows the film in real light creating a realistic framework. It can be said that the riots that are taking place are not related to one specific incident but rather  on reflect on an underlying tension, fear and the problem with the French society. There is a certain shot within this scene which shows a group of peaceful protesters dancing in front of the police, not doing any harm but trying to voice their opinion. The shot then cuts to a policeman throwing a rock at rioters in the distance. He is seen to be 'dancing' as well but in a more aggressive and aggravated way. The shots are edited together to look like they are actually from the same event when in reality they could have been years apart. This attempts to challenge the audience’s 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, this also prepares the audience for a realistic account of how Paris actually is and how at the time the film was made French society wasn't as ‘perfect’ as its portrayed in the media.  This footage is set to a Bob Marley song ‘burnin & lootin’ creating a link between what is real and what is fake in the film as it’s referring to some of the scenes that appear within the film. As Bob Marley is associated with radical politics and a willingness to confront state authorities and associated youth culture as being repressive, these challenges are expectations of French society.

The media scene and Hubert’s bedroom scene show a realistic image of how social class is; the media also takes on a big part in how young people in the projects are treated; as the media reject the kids in the projects, therefore meaning that the kids in the projects then reject the media. A key scene that shows this tension between the people in the projects and the media is the TV crews’ attempts to interview them about the riots. Straightaway the trio are subjected as wildlife, as the TV crew are seen looking down on them as they are in an enclosed environment. The media purposely antagonised the trio and then broadcasted the fall out of Vinz swearing; this therefore manipulates the audiences idea of what the people in the projects are like as there is only one POV being demonstrated and this reinforces the middle classes and up classes ideas of what the people in the projects are like. An example of where the media portray in the people in a negative way in reality, is 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 'it’s the truth! - Africa bursts of all children who are born to it without parents having means of nourishing them....’ 

Poverty is also shown through the sheer need for escapism from their own society in the projects. This issue is shown once inside Hubert’s bedroom; he is depicted as being the main bread winner selling drugs to support his family, being a particularly popular thing to do in the projects at the time the film was made. Inside Hubert’s bedroom he has nothing about French culture, everything is American, for example the posters, the boxing culture and the Black Panther poster. The main theme of escapism is by the consent references to American culture throughout the film. 

Social exclusion is seen on the tower block rooftop, the art gallery, and in the empty high-tech shopping mall, this would seem to be creating an underclass. As the throughout the film the mise- en- scene and the cinematography emphasise the isolation felt by the characters. As once in Paris we don't see any tourists or any expanding population of the urban environment; but rather the trio are isolated due to their class, race, ethnicity and position in the world. They don't fit in the part of France and this is directly shown with the cinematography. The art gallery scene is a scene in particular that shows the isolation felt by the trio,  Vinz, Said and Hubert live in the Les Banlieues, the poorer side of France and this can be picked upon straight away, they are judged and out casted at this middle-class event due to that.  They become the centre of attention as they are different; they are destructive and don’t speak in a formal manner. In addition, by transporting the trio into the central of Paris strong contracts are able to be given with the middle- class experience found there. This also places a problem firmly within the heart if French society rather than leaving it as a peripheral issue out in the projects.

 The youths in La Haine are from diverse backgrounds and are targeted by police and skinheads for their ethnicities. One key scene that focuses on the police brutality in France is the interrogation scene between the police, Said and Hubert in Paris. They are brought in by the police due to causing a minor disturbance in the flats when trying to enter a building. When Hubert, Said and Vinz come out of the building, we see the police waiting outside and they automatically pick out Hubert and Said to target; because of the colour of their skin and they can tell that they are from an ethnic background. Vinz is not arrested because of his skin tone can easily blend in and be mistaken for being French as his religion is the only thing that is stopping his being accepted to French culture. They then get taken to the police station for an interrogation, which sees the police being very intimidating and racist towards them, giving them more authority. This links in with the Makome M’Bowle case, two police officers tortured him and shot him while he was handcuffed to a radiator; one of 300 deaths caused by police brutality in France. This continual cycle of violence indicates that there is a deep lying problem in French society, especially among the immigrants and the police.

Unlike La Haine, City of God seems to be more of a mainstream film. As with La Haine you need to have some sort of prior knowledge about the actual state of the country and some of its history with minorities, as with City of God anyone can watch it and understand it. This instantly has an effect on its realistic qualities. With City of God the audience is shown a clearer generic set of conventions of a crime films such as the rise and fall of a criminal; yes City of God does comment of the extent of violence shown in the favelas but unlike La Haine it doesn't have a specific case based on it. 

The opening scene of City of God focuses on a chicken and its attempts to escape the violent death that almost inevitably awaits it. The chicken running away symbolises people that live within the favelas –“if you run they get you, if you stay they get you.’ When Lil Ze’s gang began to chase the chicken down the street they run with guns and shoot at it. People around the favelas don’t react to this as if this is a regular occurrence and part of life. The gangsters also seem to be in charge; they run down the streets with guns with not a care in the world. This is also shown when the police turn up and lil Ze tells the other gangsters not to run. They do not fear the police showing how dangerous their society is. The scene concludes with the chicken being replaced by Rocket, being positioned between the two equally threatening groups; Lil Ze’s gang and the police; as seen in the news from a personal war documentary the police seem to be in no doubt that their job is to protect the status of the quo through control of the underprivileged, suggesting how any little violence in the favelas the police immediately step in.

City of God is split into three clear yet different stories; the tender trio in the 60s, Lil’ Ze in the 70s and Knockout Ned. The glamorisation of crime is shown in the scene with the Tender Trio. In this sequence we get a clear sense of community and optimism. The crimes performed here are to help the community and not really for their own personal gain. The police also seem to be more lenient, only giving out warnings and not performing any actual arrests. This sequence is also full of sunlight, with the city being filled with a golden light, giving the city a sense of being a nice place to live despite the poverty and lack of electricity. There are also a lot of wide shots in these scenes giving off a sense of freedom that the people in this place have. This era is meant to show the time in real life when the city of god was being worked upon and was destined for great things before the coup which resulted in it being forgotten. The 1970's sequences placed in the favelas come with another stylistic shift from the director. The favelas now look completely different to that of the 60's. The colouring is even starker than that before with most shots now being shot of a night, giving the sense of it being more dangerous. The shots are even more obscured, reinforcing the feeling of fear and paranoia. The dead bodies show how there is no hope of leaving the favelas. The increased high buildings fill the frame showing how the characters now have less freedom and the sense of them now being trapped within the favelas. By the later scenes the shots become darker even more so and favelas became even more industrial. Even more shots are obscured reinforcing that the favelas are a place of fear and paranoia due to all the conflict. 

City of god shows the favelas to also be a site of gendered violence throughout the whole of the film. The City of god is represented as almost being exclusively male, with women bodies simply providing another site for men to carry out their violence, and due to this women are primarily depicted as being victims of crime, such as shorty’s wife and Knockout Ned’s girlfriend; the fact that these women are both unnamed and their identity relies solely on their partners name straightaway shows how unimportant they are. The few women that attempt to reverse the power equation by using their sexual hold of the men, encouraging them to leave the gangs; are unsuccessful and both men are unsuccessful as a result of their attempt to escape, making them both indirect victims of the violence, while being directly responsible for it. Once these women lose their men they are also removed from the narrative. This deception of how women are viewed is very similar to how women were viewed at the time the film was made. 

The audience are shown the contrast between the ugliness of the favelas and the beauty of Rio De Janeiro through the beach scene. Meirelles uses wide shots in this scene to show the glory and beauty of the famous Rio beaches. The filter is brighter and the sun is shining; showing the audience what they expect to see. 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. This scene is then compared to the favela's we can see a stark difference in the two locations. However, City of God depicts an incorrect idea that the within the beach scene, the problems of the favelas 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. 

The scene at the end of the film, when Rocket escapes a life of crime and Lil Ze is killed by the runts, shows how in fact there’s a cycle of crime within the favelas but more importantly its following the genre, and with the crime genre you see a resolution, this therefore takes away from any realism that could have been conveyed within the film. Furthermore, this also contributes to the fact that this film is a world cinema, with it being set over decades, showing how only the climax of the film is for the purpose of entertainment. 

To conclude both La Haine and City of God challenge the audience’s ideology of how these societies are different at the time each film was made. La Haine gives the audience a more realistic view on how French society actually is more so at the time the film was made. However, City of God the gives the spectator a more cosmetic view, as it doesn't significantly focus on how bad the violence in Brazil actually is.