Another one for my students, this is an example of an answer for Section A of the A2 Film Studies exam. Section A covers world cinema and there is a focus on urban stories and how they deal with issues of power, poverty and conflict. The films looked at are City of God, La Haine and Tsotsi.
Do
you think it is necessary to locate world cinema films within their social and
political contexts in order to appreciate them fully?
World cinema films often deal with
important and serious social issues.
They are frequently more realistic and socially and politically relevant
to the countries in which they are produced.
Knowledge of the context in which the films are produced can help
audiences to appreciate the films in a fuller and more rewarding way. City of God, La Haine and Tsotsi all feature
narratives that revolve around issues of power, poverty and conflict and
accurately represent the specific elements of the countries that they are from.
Film making traditions: American Independent Cinema and The history of Brazilian cinema
City of God and La Haine are both influenced by past
films in cinematic history. City of God
comes from a tradition of Brazilian and Latin American cinema that has often
been revolutionary and uses a documentary style. The founders of Third Cinema wanted film to
be a revolutionary medium with the power to make the poor people of developing
countries realise how exploited they are and that they should do something to
improve their situations. Cinema Novo of
Brazil was a movement that followed this by aiming to reveal oppression to the
oppressed people. City of God is interesting because although it might have aspects
of documentary style such as handheld cameras, it is far more like a Hollywood film in terms of traditional generic conventions
such as having a single hero (Rocket) who can escape the favelas through a
career in photography. Though it shows
the hardships and tragic circumstances of the favelas, it does not overly agitate
viewers or encourage them to be revolutionary.
It suggests that one man can exploit his access to the favelas to help
him escape a life of poverty and crime, not that society can be changed through
collective action.
La Haine on the other hand is useful to
consider in the context of American independent cinema. The director Matthieu Kassovitz was inspired
by the early works of Martin Scorsese such as Mean Streets and Taxi Driver. Also ‘hood’ films like New Jack City feed into the hip-hop inspired
culture and music of the film. Knowledge
of the references to Taxi Driver particularly with Vinz pretending to shoot at
the mirror, but also the long flowing tracking shots enhance appreciation of
the film and help the audience to position La Haine as auteur cinema. Like so many American ‘hood’ movies it deals
with young men struggling to leave the hood but being forced into cycles of escalating
violence.
White
middle class filmmakers, production, distribution and exploitation
Both films are made by white middle class
filmmakers who have gone on to work in American cinema. Kassovitz comes from a family with a
background in film and the directors of City of God, Fernando Meirelles and
Katia Lund received funding for the film from Brazils biggest TV and
commercials companies. This has led some
to accuse the films of being exploitative of the people they represent. The elite in society make films about people
in poverty and screen these films to audiences at international film
festivals. They then make huge profits
that do not benefit the people of the favelas and les banlieues. Similarly Tsotsi is made by white South
African Gavin Hood who has also gone on to work in Hollywood on X-Men: Origins: Wolverine. In this context, the films could be seen as
helping to perpetuate some negative images of people in poverty and keeping the
elite in power by making them profit.
The films could be seen as exploitation by the rich and some theorists have
referred to the increasing trend for film and TV about favelas as
‘slumsploitation’.
However some would
also argue that these films give underrepresented people in the media a voice
and serious issues such as poverty and crime can be brought to the attention of
wide audiences. There are also many
positive representations of these marginalised people and the films do not
appear to hold hegemonic values. La
Haine for example was viewed by France’s
cabinet at a special screening. This was
to help those in power to see what it is like for those in poverty who are rioting
on the streets at night and to help change their attitudes and policies.
Real
life stories
It is important to note that two of the
films are based on true stories. City of
God is based on a book written by a real inhabitant of the favelas who really
did become a successful photographer.
Many of the characters in the film are based on real people such as
Knockout Ned and the real Ned is shown talking in the credits of the film. Similarly, La Haine uses real footage of the
riots in the opening credits and was inspired by the murder of youth while in
police custody. Tsotsi is also based on
a book and features a story of a thug in a township but this is not based on a factual
person. City of God and La Haine gain
much of their power from the knowledge that they are based on real stories of
violence, prejudice, corruption and brutality.
Despite their entertaining use of genre conventions, they are about real
stories and are therefore informed by their social and political context.
Social
and political issues: racism, emasculation, exclusion, police corruption and
brutality
All of the world cinema films studied deal
with social and political issues in their narratives. They all represent racist societies where
ethnic groups are marginalised and excluded from the elite and even the middle
class. The youths in La Haine are from
diverse backgrounds and are targeted by police and skinheads for their
ethnicities. In City of God, the favela
dwellers are mostly black, the descendants of slaves brought over from Africa
by colonialism. Tsotsi shows the racial
and economic divide between those with power and wealth in South Africa and those without in the townships
of Soweto.
The films also deal with the emasculation
of modern males who no longer feel like they are ‘real’ men. Since feminism and the increase of women in
the workplace, more and more men are unemployed and are less often the
providers for their families. These
unemployed and angry young men are aggressive towards women like the youths are
in the art gallery scene in La Haine and Lil Ze is towards Ned’s
girlfriend. Tsotsi becomes more feminine
as he takes care of a baby he has stolen.
All these men are struggling to maintain a sense of masculinity in the
modern world.
Police corruption and brutality are also
dealt with in City of God
showing the shooting of an innocent young man and the selling of guns to gangs
by the police. The youths in La Haine
are tortured and the whole film revolves around the death of a youth in custody
and was even inspired by a similar real event.
These social issues are highly relevant to the films stories and an
awareness of their reality adds to the power of the narratives.
Genre
and escapism
On the other hand, these films work as
entertaining examples of genre cinema.
They can be enjoyed as escapism for people from other countries with
very little or even no knowledge of the social and political contexts. The favelas and les banlieues are depressing
but to an extent interesting and vaguely exotic locations and the inclusion of
gangster film iconography makes the films appealing to a mass audience. The guns, drugs, rise and fall of evil
villains like Lil Ze and redemptive character arcs of protagonists such as
Tsotsi and Vinz all make these films accessible and enjoyable without awareness
of the social and political context.
Also the films offer some of this context within their screenplays and
have scenes that inform and educate the audience about the contexts. For example City of God does refer to the corruption of police
and La Haine even uses real footage of riots to show the reality of the story
it tells. However this reference to
real-life context is less prominent than the engaging and exciting stories that
are told and without knowledge of the reality of the situations, some viewers
may be less moved by the films.
Overall I would suggest that knowledge of
the social and political context is vital for a full appreciation of the films
studied. It makes audiences fully
realise the based in reality elements of the films and the hardships and
prejudice that real people are facing around the world. Enjoying the films for their generic
conventions such as guns, drugs and violence is too simplistic and finding out
about the contexts that have produced these films will allow for viewers to
engage in a more active and therefore more rewarding viewing experience.
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