The document discusses several urban stories portrayed in films that deal with issues of power, poverty, and conflict arising from social and cultural environments. It analyzes two films - City of God, set in Rio de Janeiro about gang violence among poor youth, and La Haine, set in the outskirts of Paris about ethnic minority groups living with limited opportunities. Both films depict societies lacking identity due to Western globalization, and characters descending into violence, crime, or lethargy due to their social conditions and upbringings in unequal, discriminatory environments dominated by more powerful ideologies.

1. Urban stories
Power, Poverty
and Conflict

2. Urban stories
Power, Poverty and Conflict
Common Issues:
A culture dominated by a more powerful
ideology.
A portrait of a culture in a particular place at
crucial time of development.
An inability for sustained romantic alliances
due to social conditions and upbringing.

3. Urban stories
A feeling of social or cultural insignificance.
A descent into violence, drug use, crime,
alcoholism or lethargy.
Conflicts arising as a result of social and/or
cultural environments.
Societies lacking in identity due to Western
Globalisation

4. Urban stories
Different Environments/Times
‘La Haine’
‘Projects’ on the outskirts of Paris for ethnic
minority groups, who were ‘assimilated’ into
French society, with no opportunity for work
or progression as they were promised.
‘City Of God’
The poor and lower working class minorities
living in Rio de Janeiro are treated as an
underclass. With limited prospects the young
males drift in to a life a crime due to limited
prospects in the ‘favelas’.

5. City of God
(Fernando
Meirelles,
2002)

6. Urban
•The favelas act as a place for the gangs to plan and start a
war
•Favelas act as a place for the gangs to be ‘safe’ and
‘wanted’ in terms of being with others.
•The ‘City of God’ is an urban city, as a lot of crime and
corruption such as the wars against the gangs and the
regular looting and shooting crimes.
•Many look beyond the favela to find a better life e.g.
Rocket wants to get away from drugs and crime, Angelica
and Benny want to start a farm.
•The favela is about gaining control and power.

7. Power
•The film is about gaining power in the favela and doing well in the
business of drugs.
•Lil Ze/Dice is obsessed with power, anyone that faces him either
die or end up working for him.
•Violence breeds more violence.
•Lil Ze/Dice is behind the motel heist, he is also shown to be a
psychopath.
•Goose takes Lil Dice’s money, Lil Dice ends up killing Goose “Oh
Goose I’ve got something for you”.
•Lil Dice sees a voodoo shames guy, he gives Lil Dice a new name
and a mullet/necklace, he is now Lil Ze. “If you wear this when
having sex you will die”.
•Power is the single thing that corrupts society.
•The police have less power than Lil Ze as they are corrupt.
•The drug gang lack little responsibility, their main priority is selling
drugs and not getting caught.
•What this film does offer is some perspective into the socialized
power of peer groups, but what is thinly explained is why Rocket
yearns for something more than fitting into criminal enterprises.

8. Poverty
•The conditions of the poor are presented as unable to be altered except by
an individual getting out of the slums and leaving everyone else there.
•There are few choices, slim chances and narrow and vicious minds
present in the film, this contributes to the poverty.
•Not just guns and little resources they have contribute to poverty, but the
fact that there is little social behaviour.
•The conditions of life are shown to be disturbing and corrupt.
•Everybody has a need to belong somewhere.
•Poverty is shown in a negative way through the narrative and technical
features of the film.
•The film employs three different shades for each decade, the 60s has a
gold tint, the 70s there is a blue tint, in order the show the sinister side of
the city, as well as to reflect the poor living conditions in the favelas
•The narrative shows the issue of poverty due to where the characters live
and how they behave. It shows the both the roots and the effects of poverty
as the story begins in the 1960s before the events in the 70s and 80s. The
earlier events are shot with bright colours with a very open environment
which can suggest freedom, whereas 2 decades later, the city descends
into poverty which is visualised in much darker tones and colours as the
characters become more violent and turn to crime and drugs.
•Due to the amount of poverty, many have resorted in crime to get by in
life.

9. Conflict
•Conflict invades every minute of the film.
•Characters and random people die everywhere.
•The whole film in a way is about one massive war that
has begun since the 1970s.
•The moment when the children make Lil Ze angry, he
shoots two of the ‘runts’ in their feet. (no choice)
•The conflict between the police and the gangs.
•The conflict between honesty and dishonesty.
•The conflict between the values of the women – who
want their men to settle down and lead a ‘normal’ life.

10. Question
What is the importance of mise en scene
and / or sound in creating meaning and
generating response in the films you have
studied?

11. Highlight the key words so that you are able to use
them in your answer to the question. This will make
sure that you are sticking to the question asked and
not moving off on a descriptive trail
What is the importance of mise en scene and / or sound in
creating meaning and generating response in the films
you have studied?

12. Highlight the key words so that you are able to use
them in your answer to the question. This will make
sure that you are sticking to the question asked and
not moving off on a descriptive trail
What is the importance of mise en scene and / or sound in
creating meaning and generating response in the films
you have studied?

13. Re word the title of the question into a quick
sentence of intent to get you focussed on the
essay that you will write

14. Re word the title of the question into a quick
sentence of intent to get you focussed on the
essay that you will write
Sound and mise en scene is used to great affect
in many of the films that have been studied.
They are often used to complement the
narrative generating further emotional
response and meaning.

15. Note down some points that you will raise when answering
this question
You should spend about 5 minutes doing this

16. Note down some points that you will raise when answering
this question
You should spend about 5 minutes doing this
• Music
• Sound effects
• Dialogue
• Mise en scene contrasts
• Mise en scene messages

17. What issues could you include?

18. What issues could you include?
• Racism & Exclusion
• Realism
• Discrimination
• (In)Equality
• Liberty/Rebellion
• Fraternity (Brotherhood)
• Class (Political – Assimilation?)
• Westernisation (Social/Cultural)

19. Write your answer...
• What are some of the dos and don’ts?

20. Write your answer...
• Go through each point and cross them off as you go
• Give an example or two for each point and possibly one
which is the exception to the rule
• Try to refer to specific scenes / quotations from the films
• Do not tell the stories / describe the films in too much
detail
• Explain how your examples prove your points and
answer the question (using words from the question)
• Ensure that you are sticking to the correct time limit

21. Urban stories
Applying research knowledge
Greater understanding of how contextual
issues are incorporated into technical
codes
The importance of discussing the social
consequences of time & place
Developing your ability to recognise an
‘Urban Story’

22. Urban stories
Approach to analysis/discussion
Develop your knowledge of Urban Stories
through research into the social
environments of each text.
Focus upon the key themes & issues
raised within this type of World Cinema.
Give technical aspects that re-enforce the
central issues specific detailed attention.

23. Music
• The music that is used in the films has been well chosen to have a great impact on the
meaning and response within the films, linking in to the social and historical context as
well as informing the audience about the characters
• La Haine plays no non diegetic music within the film at all as it would affect the stark realism of
the film. There is often music within the film though but it is presented by people playing music or
switching on tapes. An example of this is when a DJ turn his speakers to the crown and mixes a
Hip Hop song, KRS One Sound of the Police, with a traditional French song, Je ne Regret Rien,
by Edith Piaf. The contrasting music illustrates the conflicting influence on the characters culture
and identity. Within Chunking Express, the diegetic but almost dreamlike repetition of California
Dreaming by the Mammas and Pappas by Faye illustrates her longing for America as well as the
invasion of American ideologies and all round influences onto the East and the people within it.
• The characters often turn away from their own culture to identity another often American one,
however, this is illustrative of a post modern situation where people are not identifying with a true
and particular identity but the one which is presented to us through the media and popular culture
that has sprung out of it, illustrated in Vinz’s poster of American icons, his repetition of the phrase
from the film Taxi Driver as well as Faye’s obsession with a song that is representative of hippy
ideals that have been taken over a capitalistic and materialistic culture

24. Sound effects
• Sound effects are continually used to generate meaning and response in the films
that have been studied, these are varied in nature but all point to underlying
messages and values as well as the historical and social context in which the films
have been found.
• The sound of the clock ticking is one sound affect that is actually added to the realism of
La Haine. This is only found within the scene transitions where we see the time of day of
the film. This film is set on one day within a Parisian estate demonstrating the lives and
activities of those people within it. The ticking ties in with a central metaphor of someone
falling from a building and expecting bad things ahead as well as having the connotations
of a bomb that is about to go off, which is the feeling of those people who live on the
estate. At the beginning of City of God we hear a knife being sharpened which separates
the sound of people drinking, dancing and laughing. This is illustrative of the mixture of
danger within the celebrative place that Brazil is with its carnivals and tropical weather.
Noise of drums and rattling often accompanies
• As you can see sound is used in a number of different ways throughout the films studied in
order to provoke a whole range of meanings and responses

25. Dialogue
• The dialogue spoken within the films clearly is very important for the meaning
and response of an audience, without it films would often be rendered
meaningless. However, there are times when a phrase of dialogue can help to
cast meaning over the entire films and sum up a directors intentions within the
film whether it the central messages of the essence of a character.
• Hatred breeds hatred, is a line stated by Hubert in La Haine when he is debating with
Vinz in a Parisian toilet, he says this as Vinz wants revenge for the shooting of a
friend. Hubert illustrates a central point behind the films of a continuing conflict that
has been created in Paris and can be done anywhere when two sides are fighting
each other. You will not win by fighting hurting 1 of 1000 men, you will only cause the
others to want to hurt you. Rockets line of, we were a long way from the picture
postcard image of Rio de Janeiro, illustrates a point of the film which is to highlight a
true representation of a country and its difficulties..
• Dialogue then is very important in creating meaning and response but also in
summarising the message and intentions of a film

26. Mise en Scene – in contrast
• Continuing the above statement of contrasts, this is also illustrated in the mise
en scene to be found within a film.
• In La Haine the contrast of the city of Paris and the suburbs or banlieues is quite
clear, not only in the streets and attitudes of the police but also in the living conditions
of the habitants. Vinzs house where he shares a bedroom with his sister can be seen
in great contrast to the huge flat that Asterix is living in. In terms of time representing
the same place there is a clear contrast in the presentation of the sixties and
seventies of Rio and the slums. The film City of God, begins with optimism presented
in the wide open spaces and the light colours as families are moving in to the favella
to begin their lives together. This is then replaced ten years on by grey metallic
colours and corrugated iron as the film shows how the area has deteriorated when
more people arrived and little left.
• Under greater examination we can see the truth in a lot of these cases when looking
at the countries through Google earth. The contrasts are literally a stones throw
away

27. Mise en Scene and Messages
• As well as realism the mise en scene within the films often convey to us with
messages and values subtly weaved in to the film.
• A scene in La Haine where the characters are sat in a park seeing the day out and
are approached by journalists illustrates how a lot of Paris and the world view its
underclass. The scene is representative of a zoo with high walls where the
characters sit around unoccupied and visitors come and look over the fence at them.
One of the central characters even refers to this when he states that they are not in a
safari park. The bedrooms of Vinz and Hubert also show to us the characters that
they are through the posters on the walls. Hubert’s room contains a focus on his
African heritage and black role models such as Mohammid Ali; Vinz on the other hand
shows his rejection of his parents values, his distaste with laws of the society and his
need to gain another identity of his own: Bruce Lee, American wrestlers, Cypress Hill.
• Mise en Scene then can contain messages and values and portray the country in
which it is set along with the individual characters of the film.

28. Urban stories
Power, Poverty
and Conflict