Murder on the orient express (2017) by Kenneth Branagh

Murder on the Orient Express is a 2017 American mystery drama film directed by Kenneth Branagh with a screenplay by Michael Green, based on the 1934 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie. The film stars Branagh as Hercule Poirot, with Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, Derek Jacobi, Leslie Odom Jr., Michelle Pfeiffer, and Daisy Ridley in supporting roles. The film is the fourth adaptation of Christie's novel, following a 1974 film, a 2001 TV film, and a 2010 episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot. Poirot is a fictional world-renowned detective who seeks to solve a murder on the famous European train in the 1930s.

The themes that ran throughout this film were status, wealth and murder. Status was presented through the different characters of different financial status in this film. Furthermore, wealth is presented through each of the characters as they were all in different class carriages, which determined the difference between who was the upper class and who was lower. This film built up a lot of tension from the audience to wonder who the killer was. 

"Stylish production and an all-star ensemble keep this Murder on the Orient Express from running off the rails, even if it never quite builds up to its classic predecessor's illustrious head of steam."

Rust and Bone by Jacques Audiard

Rust and Bone (French: De rouille et d'os) is a 2012 French–Belgian romantic drama film directed by Jacques Audiard, starring Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts, based on Craig Davidson's short story collection of the same name. It tells the story of an unemployed 25-year-old man who falls in love with a woman who trains killer whales.

The film competed for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and received positive early reviews and a ten-minute standing ovation at the end of its screening. It was a critical and box office hit in France and was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award, two Golden Globes, two BAFTA Awards, three Magritte Awards, and nine César Awards, winning four, including Most Promising Actor for Matthias Schoenaerts.

This film presents meanings through various powerful scenes. This film is less focused on society and events occurring; this film focuses on the characters. The theme that this film was presented was poverty as the father and son in the opening scene was scavenging for food on the train to eat. Another theme that was reoccurring was hope, and this was shown through the protagonists not giving up on the fight and on herself for losing her legs.

Furthermore, Alian never gave up on fighting whether it was for money or not, and this symbolises how he valued his masculinity. Stephanie represents woman empowerment as she never gave up on herself after losing her legs and still carried on normal. The end scene of Alian, Stephanie and son walking together in the light symbolises the theme of hope and ended the film on high note. Whereas the other films watched (la haine) represented that they was trapped in poverty.

Comparing 'La Haine' and 'City of god'

City of God is a 2002 Brazilian crime film directed by Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund, released in its home country in 2002 and worldwide in 2003. The story was adapted by Bráulio Mantovani from the 1997 novel of the same name written by Paulo Lins, but based on real events. It depicts the growth of organized crime in the Cidade de Deus suburb of Rio de Janeiro, between the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1980s, with the closure of the film depicting the war between the drug dealer Li'l Zé . The film received worldwide critical acclaim, receiving four Academy Award nominations in 2004: Best Cinematography (César Charlone), Best Director (Meirelles), Best Editing (Daniel Rezende) and Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay) (Mantovani).

La Haine is a French black and white crime written by Mathieu Kassovitz. ‘La Haine’ is French for the word ‘hate’ and later in the film you depict how this theme is presented throughout the film. This was distributed by Canal+ and located the film in France. The budget of the film was $2.6 million and had a box office was $15.3 million. This film gave an insight of the subcultures and poverty of France. During the film release their was issues with it being released as the government didn’t agree with what the film was portraying. However, Kassovitz did this to show the views of France that was hidden by the government and director ensured he wanted to show the subculture’s life in poverty, conflict, etc.  Furthermore, this film differs from other French films as films of this time often portrayed films of the middle class life, whereas the film ‘La Haine’ completely contrasts with all these films.

Both films are foreign films that share the same themes of drugs, crimes; violence, etc. however are presented in two different locations. Also, City of God is presented in a cyclical structure, which makes the story understood from beginning to end. La Haine is presented through a non-linear narrative. In comparison to La Haine, City of God does the opposite introduction to the film. City of God has a quicker pace to the start sequence of the film , which throws the audience straight into action whereas La Haine slowly shows real events making me, as a spectator, think about the real event that is occurring  first, before being introduced to the character.

In the opening scene of La Haine, a documentary was shown of the French riots. This presented the theme of conflict between the police and the civilians fighting back by rioting, stealing and looting.  One civilian said ‘you may have guns, but we have stones’, which shows even though stones are not more powerful over a gun, they still are willing to attack back and are remorseless; presents that they have nothing to lose.  Throughout this documentary, police officers was attacking people, which presents the theme of power the police had over people as they are seen as an elite organisation. The use of the documentary is useful to present the realism of the film, and what the audience need to be prepared for. Furthermore, the use of the reggae music was used when presenting the documentary which can make the audience predict and identify the type of characters are involved in this film. The end of the documentary showed a young coloured male stated in the documentary to have been put in hospital, this shows how he presents all the rioters that have been attacked.  Moreover, there are a lot of cutting/ flashing scenes throughout the film, which jumps from one event to another which is a good way to keep the audience engaged with the time zone it changes to.

In the opening scene of City of God, The tagline is "If you run, the beast catches you; if you stay, the beast eats you" this is indicative that the story presents the idea of poverty, violence and drugs being the lifestyle that is inescapable. At the beginning of the scene, there was close up and flashing shots of people drinking, cheering, sharpening a knife and plucking chickens. Through this culture is presented and the theme of violence is continuously presented through the sharpening of the knife. Furthermore, performance of Lil Ze is presented as he was the first person to be shown in this scene, which is key as we can already depict that he is the antagonist of the film as he doesn’t carry a good impression from this very scene. He is holding a gun and laughing, the performance here presents Lil Ze in superior yet intimidating way. Furthermore, the camera angle looking up at Lil ze presents him with dominance showing that the director wants the audience with dominance. And could be potentially showing the power he has, which he hadn’t had before.