'A' Grade Exam Response: Urban Stories

5. What is the importance of cinematography and or editing in communicating issues of power, poverty and conflict in the films you have studied for this topic? (35)

For this topic I have studied Fernando Meirelles’ 2002 film “City Of God,” Mathieu Kassovitz’s 1995 film “La Haine” and Wong Kar-Wai’s 1994 film “Chungking Express”. 

Meirelles’ “City Of God” represents the issue of conflict through the cinematography. In the opening scene you see close ups of a knife being sharpened on a rock, black outs are used to cut between shots of the knife with close ups of musical instruments, showing that the Brazilian music is diegetic. These fast paced edited shots represent the people of Rio de Janeiro as people living on the edge of a knife, not knowing whether they will live or die. This use of cinematography shows the important issue of conflict within urban stories, and what it is like to live in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

Another example of the cinematography being important when portraying the issues of urban stories is in the scene where we see Rocket and Angelica on the beach. A low angle is used to capture the ‘Runts’ as they walk towards the two, this angle shows that the kids have power over Rocket and Angelica. The little fish eats the big fish, this is representative of life in the favelas I know this because in the documentary ‘Favela Wars’ you are informed that children at the age of 10/11 are  given guns and that they have this ‘kill or be killed’ attitude; “I saw the other guys do it, so I did it too” this is a quote from an interview with a teenager in prison talking about his crime, contextually showing the theme of descent into violence, in urban stories.

As well as cinematography and editing, mise-en-scene is also important to communicate issues of power, poverty and conflict. In this particular scene we see Lil Zé invite the Runts to join him and his gang to a rooftop barbeque, as long as they join him in a fight between them and the police, showing conflict through the narrative. A low angle is used to capture the Runts walking up the stairs to Lil Zé, capturing them ascending into power through the cinematography. A midshot of Lil Zé is then captured, showing that he is still in power at this point. A high angle is then used to capture the Runts as they reach the top of the stairs; a dutch angle is then used to capture Lil Zé talking to the Runts. We see the Runts gain power through the mise-en-scene, close-ups and low angles revealing Lil Zé handing them all guns. A low angle is then used to capture one of them showing the others how to point and shoot a gun, as he shoots it in the air the fast-paced editing and music from the opening scene begins; the Runts having guns links with the contextual issue of children in the favelas being armed at a young age.

Meirelles selected unknown actors in order to create verisimilitude within City of God. Wong Kar-Wai’s 1994 film “Chungking Express” didn’t use unknown actors to create verisimilitude; he used two famous stars, Faye Wong and Takeshi. Cinéma Vérité and verisimilitude can be seen within the scene where the characters Faye and Cop 663 are walking down the streets of Hong Kong, captured through the use of a wide shot and tracking shot. Diegetic sound of the surrounding environment can be heard adding to the verisimilitude style. You can see through the wide shot that people in the street are watching and looking into the camera’s watching the stars.

Chungking Express uses cinematography to represent the issue of power, through the reoccurring motif of time running out. During the first narrative, the character Cop 223 is captured through the use of a wide shot, showing him sitting in the restaurant ‘Midnight Express’ as he waits for his ex-girlfriend May to come back to him. Close ups of ticking clocks, and expiry dates on cans of pineapples Cop 223 buys, show the reoccurring motif of time running out through the cinematography and mise-en-scene as well as the theme that everything has expiration dates. Hong Kong remained in power until 1997 where they were ‘handed back’ to China; the people of Hong Kong were used to Westernised culture and having a choice and were worried about what will happen when China takes over in three years, linking to the reoccurring motif of expiry dates and time running out, captured through the use of cinematography and mise-en-scene to portray the theme of power.

Mathieu Kassovitz’s 1995 film “La Haine” communicates conflict through the cinematography and editing within the opening scene. In this scene we are introduced to one of the characters Saïd, who is captured through the use of a mid-shot after the title sequence containing real footage of the Paris riots. The mid-shot of Saïd zooms into a close-up capturing him with his eyes closed, then you see him open them, suggesting that the film is trying to open the eyes of the audience to how Paris really is. A close up of the back of Saïd’s head is then captured, with a zoom out into a wide shot and pan revealing police standing, armed in riot gear outside a hospital, where the character Abdul is being treated- Abdul is a real life character involved in the Paris riots. The wide shot shows the distance and conflict between the youths and the police.

The cinematography and character positioning represent the issue conflict. This can be seen in the scene where characters Vinz, Hubert and Saïd are in the bathroom in Paris. Through the use of a wide shot and use of mise-en-scene of mirrors, Saïd is positioned in the middle of Vinz and Hubert. This positioning can be seen throughout the film as the conflict between Vinz and Hubert arises.

I think that the use of cinematography is important when communicating issues to the audience as it represents characters, themes and concepts in different ways. However, I don’t think that cinematography and editing are the only things to rely on when communicating issues within urban stories, as the mise-en-scene also helps represent/ communicate these issues.