Section A of the Exam will be about ‘Urban Stories’. The paper will not name any set films but for our main films we have studied…
La Haine (Kassovitz, France, 1995)
City of God (Meirelles, Brazil, 2002)
There will be four different sections in Part A of the exam but you only have to answer one question on Urban Stories. There will be two questions and you have to choose and answer one of them.
It is likely the question will be something similar to the following:-
* How important is *insert micro aspect here* in the films you have studied? (Sound, Mise en Scene, Editing …)
* How is poverty / power / conflict represented cinematically in your films?
* Discuss the uses of narrative / genre in the films you have studied
These are the key features of good exam essays:-
* You need to write an organised answer, with an introduction, three or four paragraphs in the main part of the essay, and a conclusion.
* Your introduction should tell the examiner what films you are going to be writing about and what you’re going to say in your three or four paragraphs. (Tell them what you’re going to tell them)
* The main body of your essay will be three or four paragraphs, each about a different issue which is common to all of your films (or at least is common to the two main films and allows you to say something about any others).
* You should talk about both of your main films in each paragraph, and mention any other films that we cover. You are not going to write half an essay about La Haine and half an essay about City of God with the odd mention of other things.
* You are going to analyse and not describe – although some detailed description of sections of the films will be there as evidence in support of your analysis.
* Discuss the evidence that you do select in detail. Include cinematic detail from the films – you get marks for selecting relevant material and describing it accurately as evidence to support your analytical points.
* Use technical language accurately – write about close ups and long shots, camera pans and tilts, diegetic sound and iconography. Check your work at the end of the exam with a focus on technical language – have you used the right word there? Is there a technical term that would fit in that sentence?
* Use contextual knowledge of each country and the social/historical circumstances that inform the text. Refer to any documentary or news reports that we have viewed/read to support your argument.
* Your conclusion should pick out the major issues with a clear personal voice. Say what you think your most interesting or important point was and explain why, or say what questions you would consider if you were to take this work further, or what other films would be interesting to compare these to in an expanded study, and why.
If, for example, you have a question about Narrative, you could have your main paragaraphs about…
1. Narrative time – 24 hours in La Haine (and the cinematic detail of the ticking clock and some of the events of the day) 15-20 years in City of God (and the changing Mise en Scene as the favela develops, and the aging of the characters, and the movement from dope to cocaine).
2. Narrative shape – Continuous narrative in La Haine and disrupted narrative in CIty of God – a good chance to write about the narrative loops in the story of the apartment / the story of Lil Ze. On the other hand both are ‘episodic’ realist narratives – they link together key moments to show the development to a crisis point even if one happens over a day and the other over years.
3. Narrative space – Here there is more in common between the films – we have different country’s versions of ‘the slums’ – the favela in Brazil and the banlieue in France. European poverty is different to South American poverty and you can look at how that is shown. Aspects of mise-en-scene can be discussed and the influence of western culture in the characters lifestyle.
4. Characters and themes – can you match up similar character types from the different films? Lil’Ze and Vinz? How does La Haine work in this way? Are there obvious ‘good guys’ and ‘bad guys’ in the different films? How do we know? (Iconography? Music? Mise en Scene) How is ‘everyday life’ in the slums represented as opposed to the lives lived by the main characters? How wide a range of significant characters do we have and how many of them have any real narrative significance (Who is important outside of the main trio in La Haine? How many characters have significant if short narrative threads in City of God?
… whatever you say about each film you illustrate it with a cinematic detail – something about the mise en scene, about how a short sequence is shot and edited, about the use of music.
If you write an organised answer, which analyses the films, quotes cinematic detail as evidence and uses technical language accurately, the examiner will generally give you a grade ‘C’ and move you up if your answer is consistent throughout.
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