La Haine Essay- Film Techniquies

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

One of the films i have studied on this topic is the 1995 French film La Haine directed by Mathieu Kassoviz. This film shows the story of three youths that live in La Banlieues or the projects on the outskirts of Paris. With the name the projects it sounds like that area is an experiment. The area that La Haine is set is a lower class area with around twenty miles out of Paris, it seems that i is almost designed to keep the poor out of the middle class centre of the city. Throughout the film the camera shots used are of 180 or 360 degrees. This is to show that no matter what happens or how the French revolt things will never change. In 1994 there was riots in France on which this film is based, ten years later in 2004 the same thing happened again and riots broke out in Paris. The 360 degree camera shots also present Paris itself as the Director Mathieu Kassovits says that "Paris is laid out like a snail" as it goes round in circles. This is not just shown in the camera movements but also in the movement of the people in the film. Such as the breakdancing shown in the picture below. The young man is spinning round on his head, he spins so much that it takes him a few moments to realise that the police have raided the building and everyone has ran away. Showing how oblivious to the problems of Paris people can be.

This film does have very distinctive uses of mise en scene, for example the clothing that Vinz, Hubert and Said wear. Through their clothing we can tell that they are very westerised. The nike and addidas sports wear clothing are big American brands. Throughout the film the westernisation is shown in the music that is played, it is usually american hip hop or rap music. Also when we are introduced to Vinz there is a 360 degree camera pan around his room. With everything we see in Vinz's room the audienec discovers everything about him. There is a poster with a picture weed on it, a picture of Bruce Lee and Maralyn Monroe on his wall. And a collection of low top trainers. Everything we see in his room tells us that he is very westernised, he had American film starts om his wall and American brand trainers. This is also shown when we get a 180 degree camera pan on Huberts room. They all share the enjoyment of drugs, Hubert especially as he is also a drug dealer. When in his room we get a close up shot of the Hash he is cutting up ready to sell.

Another film technique that is common throughout La Haine is the way the three main characters are seen in frame. Said is always seen to be in the middle of Hubert and Vinz, almost as if he is stopping them from having conflict. This is because Said is the only character that has some form of older male influence in his life which is his older brother. Vinz and Hubert have no male influence, this is wear Said steps in as he is constantly bringing them together.