Practise Question 'La Haine'

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

Throughout the film 'La Haine', we see a consistent theme of the three French teenagers and the environment in which they live being a very Westernised culture. We're constantly reminded of the juxtaposition of what we expect of France and what we're being shown of their poverty culture. For me the distinctive techniques used in 'La Haine' are in the scene where a youth is blasting music out from his window, I believe this scene does justice for the opposition. We're revealed a mid shot of the lad mixing two significant songs. This shot reveals some of the mise en-scene highlighting the mixing table and the very large speakers suggesting he's about to be disruptive towards the neighbourhood. Leaving us to further assume where he got the money to pay for this equipment, resulting in committing a crime. He continues mixing the song 'Sound Of The Police' which is iconic as there is a recurring motif of the diegetic police siren throughout the film conveying what their cultures is used to crime and seeing so much violence as the 'norm'. The camera then cuts to a forward tracking, low-angled establishing shot while the music is the background. This is significant as it is emphasising where this particular life style, this class comes in society, which is at the very bottom on the socio-economic scale, also known as the underclass. This establishing shot reveals the emptiness and dirt of their culture as its something we don't expect France to be like. Mixing this typical gangster song with the old traditional song 'Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien' by Edith Piaf creates a clear juxtaposition as this French song is what we would expect more so of the French culture rather than what this film depicts as a whole. This distinctive use of songs portrays the contrast and the symbolic initial expectations of French culture shown through the traditional song by Piaf, and how La Haine reveals what really happens in the underclass class of society and successfully highlights the level of violence that occurs through the film techniques and the use of the 'Sound Of The Police' song.