URBAN STORIES

Power, Poverty & Conflict

Section A

URBAN STORIESCommon 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.

URBAN STORIESCommon Issues:

• 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

URBAN STORIESContext of time and place:

ProductionFilm

Representation of the city:The city as a character in itselfInfluence of the urban environment on the characters

Representation of Power:Physical / Authority / Power / Gender / Social ClassMoney / Family

Representation of Poverty:Material / Emotional / Education / Opportunity

Representation of Conflict:Physical / Psychological (of the mind!) / Emotional / Material / Social & Cultural / Family & relationships

Are all Urban Stories the

same?Why/Why not?

What solutions do

the films offer for social

problems?

Conflict is represented

how?

How significant is

sound to these films?

What cinematic techniques

are common?

Can characters oppose

dominant power/how?

Contextual issues are important -

why?

Is ethnicity a significant

theme/why?

Is poverty a constant

theme/why?

City of God Contexts The narrative of City of God (2002) spans three decades from the Sixties to the late Eighties. It is the story of a favela (slum/shanty town) and its inhabitants through these turbulent times. Brazil has ‘nearly unrivalled economic inequality’ (Gilligan, 2006) and an estimated 6.5 million inhabitants live in favelas. These people live in extreme poverty and are surrounded by gang violence and the drug trade. The selling and use of cocaine increased through these decades and is depicted in the film.

FavelasA favela is a slum in Brazil, most often within urban areas. The first favelas appeared in the late 19th century and were built by soldiers who had nowhere to live. They were the places where former slaves with no land ownership and no options for work lived. Over the years, many former black slaves moved in. 

Even before the first favela came into being, poor citizens were pushed away from the city and forced to live in the far suburbs. However, most modern favelas appeared in the 1970s due to rural exodus, when many people left rural areas of Brazil and moved to cities. Unable to find places to live, many people ended up in favelas.

11.4 million of the 190 million people living in Brazil reside in areas of irregular occupation definable by lack of public services or urbanisation.

La Haine Contexts On the other hand, La Haine (1995) is set in the 1990s and the protagonists live in ‘les banlieues’ (housing estates) on the outskirts of Paris. It also deals with police brutality, racism and civil unrest. It opens with immediate context: real footage of the riots that regularly took place between youths and police between 1986 and 1996 (and were continuing during filming). The director, Mathieu Kassovitz, has often stated that he was inspired to write the film when he heard the story of: a young Zairian, Makome M’Bowole [who] was shot in 1993. He was killed at point blank range while in police custody and handcuffed to a radiator.

La Haine  

“The world only goes round by misunderstanding” Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) – French poet/Cultural critic (his image appears at the end of the film on the wall opposite the station, just before the final confrontation).  This can be used to link the social issues contained within the narrative of La Haine and with many aspects of the cinematography.

Chungking ExpressContexts First and foremost, Chungking Express (1994) is about relationships in an urban environment. The Hong Kong that we see in Wong's film is a densely populated, multi-national environment that influences the characters. He said, "I think a lot of city people have a lot of emotions but sometimes they can't find the people to express them to. That's something the characters in the film share. Tony talks to a bar of soap; Faye steals into Tony's home and gets satisfaction from arranging other people's stuff; and Takeshi has his pineapples. They all project their emotions on certain objects."

Hong KongOn 1 July 1997, the transfer of sovereignty of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China took place, officially marking the end of Hong Kong's 156 years under British colonial governance. As the last Crown Colony of the United Kingdom, the loss of Hong Kong also represented the end of the British Empire.

PrincessesContexts Princesses (2005) is about female relationships in an urban environment. The princesas in the film are two prostitutes: Caye, a Spaniard who is hiding her profession from her family, and Zulema, who is saving money to send to her family in the Dominican Republic. The two women ply their trade on the streets of Madrid. In the urban atmosphere of Madrid, Caye is able to blend in with common folk. Zule takes to the streets in search of “work” amongst the other immigrant prostitutes. Although she speaks Spanish, it is known that Latin American Spanish is distinguishable from that of Spain. Being a foreigner, Zule is automatically alienated from the locals, unlike Cay.

Representations - MaleYoung men from ethnic minorities are the main social group represented in both films. Each film has a young black male protagonist: Rocket in City of God and Hubert in La Haine. The American ‘hood’ film sub-genre often has a character that is trying to reject a life of crime and escape the trappings of the ‘hood’ in which he lives.

Rocket and Hubert both conform to this archetype, and reject crime as a way of life. Rocket flirts with crime but cannot go through with muggings and hold-ups due to his compassionate nature. He tries working at a supermarket but is fired for his connections to the favela. By the end of the film he has become a successful photographer because of his access to the gangs and knowledge of the favela.

Similarly, Hubert rejects the rioting of the other youths on his estate. He runs a gym that he worked hard to get a grant for, and promotes boxing as a sport for young people to get involved in. The audience first meets him in the ruined gym after the rioters have trashed and burnt it in the previous night’s riots. The film ends with Hubert sucked in to potentially committing the murder of a police officer (or being murdered himself) as retaliation for the shooting of his friend. Characters who try to escape the ghetto life are often stopped from doing so by circumstances out of their control – or even by death (also Benny in City of God).

Representations - FemaleWomen from contrasting social backgrounds represented in each film. Each film has contrasting female protagonists: Caye in Princesses and Faye in Chungking Express. The women are coping with vastly differing issues but share similar narratives as they struggle to cope/escape the dominant ways of life that the urban environment offers them.

It’s interesting to compare the men versus the women in Chungking Express. There are four focalizations in the film: the woman in the blond wig, Cop 223, Faye, and Cop 663. We peer inside the thinking and feeling of the men, thanks to the interior monologues, but not similarly into the insides of the women. The women are only viewed from the outside and remain opaque and fascinatingly unpredictable. Apparently for Wong Kar Wai, women are eternally mysterious characters: enchanting, but perhaps ultimately unknowable.

Princesses sees Caye, a middle-class prostitute who makes her living in Madrid, with the help of her constantly ringing mobile phone. Her neighbour, Zulema is an illegal immigrant from the Dominican Republic who works as a street prostitute, hoping to save enough money to bring over her young son.Though her middle-class prostitute pals disparage the immigrants for under-cutting their prices, Caye nonetheless becomes friends with Zulema after taking her to hospital when one of her clients beats her up. As their relationship deepens, the two women share their hopes and desires and attempt to help each other out.

Approach to analysis/discussion POINT: Make a point that directly answers the

question (regarding a key social issue). EXAMPLE: Refer in detail to a scene that re-

enforces that central issue (be specific & technically detailed).

EXPLAIN: Discuss/debate the key theme &/or issues raised within the scene and the whole film, as well as how it relates to the Urban Stories topic and its wider context (give your own views also).

URBAN STORIES

5. How far does the impact of the films you have studied for this topic depend on distinctive uses of film techniques? [35]

Level 4 • A sound appreciation of the films studied with an ability to make detailed and close reference to telling and relevant film techniques in the context of telling “urban stories”

• A detailed and sophisticated knowledge and understanding of what is distinctive in the films studied – particularly in their deployment of specific film techniques

• An ability to argue for the particular and notable impact made by specific techniques within the overall impact of films - by reference to film detail

• (The very best candidates) may suggest that other factors besides film technique are of as great or greater significance, for example performance.

6. How far do the films you have studied for this topic offer an analysis of the social issues they present? [35]

Level 4 • A detailed and sophisticated knowledge and understanding of the films studied and of the issues they deal with• A sound appreciation of the social dimension of these issues• An ability to develop an argument on the extent to which the films explicitly or implicitly offer an analysis of social issues – and the extent to which these films while “showing” social issues do not in fact offer any understanding of them.• (The very best candidates) may develop a further argument about the adequacy of the analysis offered by a chosen film – whether, for example, it is ideologically ambiguous or flawed by sentimentality

A*

A

B

C

Urban Stories

RepresentationContexts

Audio-visual form as creative expression

Social, Cultural & Political Power, Poverty & Conflict

3 X

Scene Analysis for

each film

= 17.5 marks

AO1 – Demonstrate knowledge & understanding of film as an audio-visual form of creative expression, together with its contexts of production and reception

Camera/LightingMise-en-scene/Sound

Section A:

Meanings?

Responses?

Power, Poverty & Conflict

Social/Cultural/Political

= 17.5 marks

AO2 – Apply knowledge & understanding of common critical approaches as well as the responses that are created

Characters/CRASH

Mise-en-scene/Sound

Camera/Lighting

‘A’ Grade Exam

Response

Total = 35 marks

CONTENT

Films:‘La Haine’(France)

‘City of God’(Brazil)

‘Chungking Express’(Hong Kong)‘Princesses’

(Spain)