City of God - What is the importance of mise-en-scene and/or sound in creating meaning and generating response in the films you have studied? City of God

The mise-en-scene in City of God is a key element when it comes to creating the meaning in the narrative.  

The montage scene of 'The Story of the Apartment' creates strong meaning as well as generating a response with the use of the mise-en-scene throughout the scene.The scene starts with a dissolve that establishes that the next piece of footage is as a flashback to tell the story. The start of the flashback, the apartment is lit with high key lighting that sets the feeling of a warm and homely environment which is what the apartments was although it was being used as a drug den it was so that Dona Zelia could support her family.  As the narrative darkens so does the lighting and the appearance of the apartment; as the cross dissolve from it being Dona Zelia's apartment to Big Boy taking control of it the mise-en-scene changes to a more dangerous, and illegal looking place to be, when Big Boy pulls Dona Zelia out of the apartment she grabs onto the table cloth pulling it off the table and all the items falling to the ground showing that being in the drug business won't turn out well, your whole world will come crashing down, Meirelles (director) took this concept and made it real through her trying to hold onto what she has before it all falls within a matter of seconds. This part of the montage shoes how little the men of the favelas think of the women, as although it is Dona Zelia's apartment Big Boy just takes advantage of her and takes over her home; however in the 10 years alter documentary it stated that although there  hasn't been a massive amount of progress in the situation of life in the favelas women are becoming to get stronger and starting to gain more rights/respect than what they had in 2002 when City of God was made  As the scene progresses the mise-en-scene changes the audiences perception of what is happening, because as Big Boy takes over, the apartment loses its homely look and starts to look like an empty shell of a home; which, in my eyes, is what happens when drugs become a big part of somebody's life, they begin to lose sight on everything that is truly important and only focus on the drugs that are taking over they lives. The knife that is lodged into the table, I feel, shows this point well as its unsafe to have a sharp object half stuck into a table, in a home like when the apartment belonged to Dona Zelia that would never have happened due to it being her and her daughters' home, however when Big Boy throws her out and it is no longer hers, there is no need for it to be a safe environment because they are using the apartment as their den for their drug business which is also shown in this part of the montage as when Carrot hands drugs over to one of the neighbourhood kids they use as dealers. The whole of this scene shows through the cross dissolves of the mise-en-scene changing as drugs take over family life and life in general.

The second scene I feel uses mise-en-scene to create meaning and response is the scene where Lil Zé makes Steak and Fries shoot one of the runt as it creates such a strong response because the setting of the scene is obviously a real favela like the whole film so it attracts the audiences ethos to be touched by the reality they’re shown through this film. Also the two runts being backed into the corner shows that there is no escaping people like Lil Zé’s gang while living in the favelas and they were to be feared, in the 10 years later documentary the younger of the two runts revealed that while filming City of God he was made to fear Leandro Firmino (Lil Zé) as a person rather than his character, so while shooting this scene the younger runts fear would have been real not acting, this brings a feel of verisimilitude to this scene; this being what creates a strong response from the audience as knowing the child is really in fear while filming brings out an emotional attachment to the character and in a woman’s case her motherly instincts would kick in and would be hit hard emotionally by this scene and want to protect the child in the film. Also this scene has a shallow depth of focus making the gun in Lil Zé’s hand the focal point of this scene, hinting that this scene will not end well because the gun is the main focus. Not only does this scene generate a response for the audience but also the actors, as after being in this emotionally heavy scene Darlan Cunha (Steak and Fries) couldn’t talk about being in this film when asked about it in the 10 years later documentary because it was too real for him.

La Haine - What is the importance of mise-en-scene and/or sound in creating meaning and generating response in the films you have studied? La Haine

Mathieu Kassovitz, director of La Haine (Hate), uses mise-en-scene and sound throughout the film to create meaning and the generate a response and in this essay I aim to demonstrate how he does this by focusing on two scenes form the film.

The scene where as an audience we're in Hubert's room Kassovitz's use of mise-en-scene tells us a lot about Hubert's character without saying anything, just solely through the use of the setting and the props. As the scene starts you straight away see Hubert prepping some sort of drug to sell in order to get money which is something his family seem to be low of, this small action itself speaks masses about how the current situation is in the projects in a way that just to get by and survive a young teen needs to sell illegal drugs so that his family can eat and have a roof over their head. This small but significant part of the shot makes me sympathise with Hubert because he has to do something this drastic to make sure him and his family can live somewhat comfortably. While this is happening, in the background of the shot you can see a pair of boxing and gloves and some dumbbells on the side and to the right side of that you can see a poster from the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City of Tommie Smith and John Carlos showing the black power salute as a silent protest during the medal ceremony against racial discrimination, which in the sense of being on Hubert's wall shows how he's proud of his race and how far it's come. The non-diegetic sounds during this scene is very soulful and meaningful and that also creates a feeling for the audience to feel while watching this scene, as its so mellow and soothing it allows those watching to share the same relaxed mood as Hubert at this point.

Another scene that uses mise-en-scene to create meaning as well as generating a response is when the three (Huber, Saïd and Vinz) go to Paris to meet Astérix so that Saïd can get his money. As soon as we see inside of Asterix's flat there is an obvious difference between the Parisian flats in comparison to the flats in the projects. The diegetic music portrays a clear division between life in the city and life on the edge, as in Paris opera is played yet in the projects its westernised rap music which shows no links to French culture; the difference in genre of music also shows the class gap as opera is often associated with the higher class. On the wall in Asterix's flat he has a photo of the never ending staircase illusion which represents that the issues that these people live in are never ending and keep going round in circles, that there is no end in sight for these riots; this photo in Asterix's flat shows this in a very subtle and artistic way. Asterix offers the boys a line of coke which he has already out on the table which shows the difference in the amount of money he has when compared to those in the projects; the higher class in drug reflects the higher social class in Paris.