FM4 - Urban Stories: City of God/La Haine

Student Work:

Short Responses to Exam Questions (Note: Full responses will have to be more detailed)

Explore how stylistic choices contribute to the representation of the urban experience in the films you have studied for this topic.

1. Power

2. False Hope

3. No Escape

4. Class Conflict

5. Fraternity

6. Violence

In both of the texts stylistic features play a vital part in representing the urban experience of each character. In La Haine, the urban lifestyle is often explored using camera angles and mise en scene. In the escalator scene, the stereotypical middle class ‘Le pen’ voter comes down the stairs, showing a visual decline down to the character’s level. The binary opposition between rich and poor is explored as the camera is looking up at him, just as the character’s are looking up at the rich in society. As well as this, they can not go up the escalator, showing the ‘glass ceiling’ effect of urban experience. This visual conflict is also explored using mise en scene. Vinz is pictured looking through a railing which shows how he is imprisoned by society and therefore imprisoned by his urban lifestyle. It is these stylistic choices that represent urban experience as being a place in which the character’s can not escape : they are looking up at the rich and judgmental in society and have no way of ‘rising up’ to the top of society.

Sound is also a key factor in La Haine that subsequently creates an accurate representation of the urban experience. The ticking sound shows the passing of time, and how the character’s are forced into doing nothing by the society they live in. This compares well with ‘City of God’ which also uses a ticking sound, showing the passing of time as a negative aspect of the urban experience.

This also compares well with the use of stylistic features in ‘City of God’. Similarly to La Haine, City of God uses a visual binary opposition to show the lack of escape from the ‘favelas’. In the final scene, Rocket is standing between the gangs and the police and the camera pans around to show he has no escape. On one side of him are the police and the other side is the gangs.

Stylistic features are also used in the editing of the film. During the scene in which Lil Ze rapes Knockout Ned’s girlfriend, the visuals fade in and out. On a literal level, this shows the fading in and out of consciousness. Metaphorically this scene shows how the weaker people in society are fading in and out, the powerful members of society ‘raping’ them and keeping them in the same place.

In both La Haine and City of God, stylistic choices are used to represent the urban experience in a certain way. In both films the mis-en-scene is used to create the idea of conflicting cultural ideologies. In La Haine the idea of the conflict between western and european culture is shown using mise-en-scene – in the scene where they are walking through the neighborhood, someone puts large speakers outside and plays loud hip-hop music which includes French lyrics. This is a typically American style of music and shows the conflict of ideologies between their French roots and the American culture they aspire to be a part of. This shot also shows someone ‘mixing’ records, bringing in different elements to create something new and integrated – this gives a clear message to the audience about social integration and how positive it is. This shot gives a clear indication that the urban experience is a negative thing simply because different races and religions are separated and segregated.

Both La Haine and City of God show contrasting and mirroring themes not just when it comes to comparing them against each other but also within themselves. The 'taken for granted' view of urban life as a life that is lesser in every sense to that of the higher classes is an idea that is quite clearly shown via the fact that La Haine is shot in black and white, portraying their lives as emptier, darker, with a dull present and future.

However, La Haine’s three main characters Hubert, Said, and Vinz represent the motto of France; Fraternity, Liberty, and Equality. These three youth members of the French 'urban class' represent the true essence of the country and shows that there is a certain respect and value to this lifestyle. This then suggests that their way of life is more valuable. However, although throughout the majority of this film the three main characters are often shot together they also branch off into their own worlds of isolation in which they long for a life much different from their own. In this we see an aspect of escapism most clearly represented by the postmodern intertwining of other films, such as Taxi Driver. This idealisation of Hollywood shows a wanting of a false, unachievable dream demonstrating another way in which their urban lives will fail them.

City of God differs in this sense with no character wanting to become a fictionalised idol but instead they want for a much more basic life, they live at the points of extremes and then long for a simple life, away from the favelas. In their childhood they had this life with more idyllic, open surroundings and the 'robin hood' like thugs, the tender trio.

In both films ‘La Haine’ and ‘City of God’ the stylistic choices add to the key themes. In La Haine the whole film is shot in black and white, as well as using real news footage, adding to the documentary feel and sense of reality. This stylistic choice shows that this is like the news footage of the riots, adding to the urban experience of living in France within the ‘projects’. Even the name of the area suggests an experiment and reinforces the idea that the inhabitants are trapped in this place. The film was based on real life events and the opening credits give the audience a sense of verisimilitude or realism through the use of real life archive news footage.

A key moment in City of God is when Benny is attempting to leave the favelas, the strobe lighting representing the sense of chaos in the events. The use of low key lighting after this scene also shows how crime controls their lives as well as indicating that you can never get out and are trapped in this place with no choice over your own life.

Poverty, power and conflict are represented cinematically in the films ‘La Haine’ and ‘City of God’ by many features, one being the narrative shaping. Disruptive narrative in City of God, such as the narrative loops in the apartment story that runs throughout the film, and the continuous, smooth flow of La Haine show key moments to portray the developing of the film to a point of chaotic disruption.

Cinematic detail such as the ticking clock in La Haine displays 24 hours inside one city. This attitude towards the urban experience is that it is quick, quick to live and quick to die – the characters seem to have no choice over their narrative time, as if their fate is simply set in stone and they are too ‘mindless’, as they are often described, to decide their future.

In City of God, between fifteen and twenty years pass by, showing the changing of the mise en scene as the favela develops and the characters age. The narrative time is different to that of La Haine, but it is still essentially the story of a place that does not change in its views towards these poverty-stricken individuals who are grouped together, their fate already sealed by their environment.