Compare the attitudes to poverty conveyed in the films you have studied for this topic. [35]
During the scene in the art gallery, we get a good look at the wealthy people's attitude to poverty based on the mise-en-scene of the scene. Throughout the scene when the camera is focused on the the three protagonists we can catch glimpses in the background of the facial expressions of the more wealthy people. Early in the scene when Hubert and Vinz are looking at a piece of dog artwork, an old man that could possibly be the curator walks right in front of the camera allowing the audience to clearly see his facial expression, which looks like a shocked and disgusted face. This expression lets us know that the old man doesn't think that the poor should be at an art gallery and that they aren't wealthy enough to appreciate art like everyone else at the party, and it gives the impression that he wants the three to leave the exhibition. About mid way through the scene at the food stand we witness two people, a man and a women, keep glancing at the three boys as they fill their mouths with food and drink. The two people act surprised to see them eat like animals and appear to be also disgusted with their eating habits, this suggests that they are not accustomed to how the less fortunate eat their food that they get, since the wealthy are raised with an education and taught how to be polite, while those from a poor background aren't taught how to be since they had no education. This also suggests that poverty stricken people aren't a common sight in the streets of paris which could be why everyone acts surprised to see them at an art gallery. The music in the scene also shows the difference between the poor and rich, as we hear in the gallery the diegetic sound is classical music, which is completely different to the projects where the music is influenced from western culture. This could suggest that the government only cares about the rich enough to keep them within french culture but care so little about the poor that they aren't prevented from having any western influence on them. The way the rich speak to the three boys also shows their attitude to poverty as they speak down to them, resulting in vinz acting aggressive trying to defend them. At the end of the scene just as the three boys left, the host of the exhibition closes the door and says "off the estates", this shows us that the people in paris base those from the projects off stereotypes of being criminals and aggressive and having no culture of their own. The way he says it also indicates that it may not be an uncommon sight to see in paris since he says it casually and not surprisingly like it is the first time it has happened. So the movie makes it seem that the attitude people have towards poverty has built up from years of people from the projects coming to paris and support their own stereotypes against them.
In City of God during the Motel scene we get to see how poverty is conveyed in the film, we see that the tender trio who are all poor or come from a background of poverty, treat the upper class and wealthy people as scum, by threatening them and stealing from them, showing that the poor in city of god have no respect for the wealthy of the country. For example we see a low angle shot of shaggy repeatedly kicking a women on the floor, the shot shows that shaggy is in power even though he is poorer than the people he is beating and robbing
