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.