compare and contrast La Haine and City of God

Compare and contrast core texts La Hain and City of God.

City of God directed by, Fernando Mierelles, Katia Lund in 2002, and La Haine directed by, Casa Veti in 1995, are two very similar films in the locations they are set in, the background of the characters and the messages they portray; even though these two films are shot and set in different countries. The genre of the films are also the same as they are both urban crime films. La Haine is a film based in a working class estate in France and is influenced/based on the events of the riots which took place in France around the time the film was made. It is a tale of three friends both involved in a power struggle to be top dog of the group, but also seek revenge for the people who brought brutality to their estate. City of God is located in the favelas within Brazil and follows the life of a young man seeking to find a living through photography even though gang crime and drugs is all that surrounds him.

There are many similarities within the themes between the two films, the main one of these being poverty, shown through the location that both films are set in one being a council estate and the other being the favela. Poverty is also shown through the main character in La Haine as when we are first introduced to Vinz the use of a pan shot round his room is used and mise-en–scene with posters of wrestlers and Marilyn Monroe to tell us that he shares a room with his sister showing his family are too poor to afford a house with separate rooms for them.  Another theme shown in both films is revenge shown through the performance of the main character s and the use of props especially guns to portray power and anger for example the gun used as power in La Hain in the end scene when we see the conversion of power between Vinz and Hubert when Vinz hands over the gun. Another similar them that is shown in both films is the urge to escape from poverty, we are shown this in La hain with a crash zoom on to Vinz’s bright gold ring, suggesting to us he likes to give the appearance that he is not poor meaning he doesn’t like to be poor. It’s also shown in La Haine through the mise-en-scene in Vinz’ room with a picture of a sunny beach paradise along the wall by Vinz’ bed showing he wants to escape to paradise. This theme is also represented in City of God through the prop of the camera; Rocket is intent on having the camera because he knows it is his ticket out of poverty.

There are also similarities between representations of both films. In both films police are seen as crocked or brutal, we see this in city of god in the very end scene where we are shown from shots of rockets camera and through the use of props, these being the money and the box, that the police are crocked because they are paid off by li’l Ze. We also see crocked and brutal police in La Haine, which we are shown through a medium room shot of Hubert and said being beaten up by the police.

Both films are also similar in the fact that they both use real life events to base their films around, la haine using the riots in Paris and City of God using the gang war in the favela. The audience know this because in La Haine they use real life hand held footage of the riots to start of the film and in City of God they use a close up news interview with the actual ‘Knockout Ned’ to finish the film.

 However there are differences between the representations of young people in both films, this is because in La Hain young people are represented as being disrespectful and lazy this is suggested through Siads performance when he shouts at the old man and also through the close up of Vinz sleeping when it is clearly midday. Where as in City of God young people are shown as respectable and hardworking only with rocket though, as at the beginning of the film the fish stall shows us that rocket is hardworking as he is selling fish from a very young age. Furthermore there are also massive differences between the endings of both films these being the fact that in La Haine we see Vinz get shot in the head and we are left with a medium shot of hubert and the policeman pointing guns at each other than a crash zoom to Said and a blackout in synch with a gunshot, leaving us unsure of what has happened and the main characters in a horrible situation. Where as in City of god we are told by monologues on screen that rockets pictures gave him a job in photography leaving us knowing the main character lived happily.

In conclusion both of these films are very similar and in truth havge very little differences apart from in some cases like representations and what they leave the audience with.