SSC Film Studies

How important is genre to your understanding of your focus films? (La Haine & City Of God) 

Genre is very important in understanding my focus films. Both of these films attempt to comment upon the environment in which they are set, with varying levels of success. To evaluate weather or not the genre of the film helps us the understand it, we must first establish the genre of both of our films. I believe that City Of God uses more conventions from the crime drama than any other genre of film. Firstly, the film highlights the life of a crime figure, in this case Lil Dice/Lil Ze. We see his rise to power from a child, right up to his demise. The film also glorifies this rise by presenting him almost like a kingpin of the favela, showing him with vast amounts of drugs, power, guns and money. The film also uses real life footage in order to try and establish itself as realistic, despite how generic it is. At the ending of the film, we see an interview with the real Knockout Ned, an interview which was copied word for word by the actor playing Ned in the film. Another generic convention of the crime film is the fact that they are usually set in large cities to provide a view of the criminal underworld. As we know the City Of God is in Rio De Janero, both in real life and on screen. In addition to this, the exotic locals for crime often add an element of adventure and wealth, and while City Of God attempts to be realistic in its depiction of the Favela, it is too stylized to be wholly representative. One of these stylized elements is the feeling of adventure and wealth in the film, more specifically the first half before Benny's death. We see Lil Ze and Benny presented as rich, power hungry, with extravagant taste, this is highlighted when Lil Ze cant decide what watch to wear out of his vast collection. Lil Ze also fits the description of a gangster in a stereotypical crime film, he is materialistic, street smart, immoral, meglo-maniacal and self destructive. We see many examples of this throughout the film, for an example of lil Ze being immoral, he shoots a child in the foot for stealing, and even makes him choose if he wants to be shot in either the hand or foot. Finally, the finish evaluating the genre of City Of God, the final convention of a crime film is that rivalry with other gangsters is usually a significant plot characteristic. As we know the main basis of the second half of the film is the war between Carrot and Lil Ze, a turf war that turns the slums into a battle field. 

          As we can obviously see City Of God fits perfectly into the crime genre, despite it being a world cinema film, it is too stylized and generic to be a true depiction of the City Of God. However our second film, La Haine only fits three of the conventions mentioned above.  Both City Of God and La Haine highlight the life of a crime figure or victim, but use it in different ways. La Haine uses the convention to highlight the position of the immigrants and underclass in modern French society. The audience are forced to emphasize with the three young immigrants and consider the prejudice and aggression they encounter from the French state, and other groups within French society. La Haine however, does not glorify the rise and fall of a particular criminal. It attempts to be a social realist film. It presents crime as a necessity, and does not glorify it, This is shown we see Hubert selling drugs, however he gives this money to his mother, to pay the bills. La Haine however, does use head line grabbing situations, and real life crime reports. In the beginning of the film, we see archive footage of the real French riots during the 1990's. As well as this, the death of a French migrant, was a direct influence for the director to make the film. La Haine is also set in a large city, much like City Of God, however La Haine's depiction of Paris, is stylized, but not conventionally, the entire film is shot in black and white, which removes the stereotypical view of Paris being the city of love and the epicenter of French Culture. La Haine is set in France to dispel the rose tinted view of France, and present it from the view of a migrant, such as Vinz, Said, or Hubert. However La Haine, does not show us much of a "criminal underworld" as such, as stated before it presents crime as a necessity, and the crimes shown in the film are never committed to be a part of a bigger picture, (Like City Of God with the turf war), They are either committed out of necessity, or pure anger, such as Vinz's friend shooting the bouncer of a club. La Haine does not offer us an exotic locale or an element of adventure and wealth, as it is appearing to be social realist, therefore generic conventions like this are not used in order to give a more accurate representation of the environment.