La Haine essay

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

Within this film there is a clear difference between the living conditions on the outskirts of Paris to Paris itself.  When the film starts and Said opens his eyes this gives off a feeling that he doesn't want to be there, like he is dreaming of a different place in where to be as he feels like the suburbs of Paris make him look inferior to others around him.  At this point in the film, every shot is either a close up or a mid shot which shows that everything is very enclosed and almost gives a claustrophobic atmosphere.  The shots also illustrate the fact that Said is very small compared to everything else, buildings tower over him as if he is insignificant.  However, when they go to Paris the shots are much wider, and all three boys are in them.  This suggests that although there is not much distance between the suburbs and Paris itself, the difference in how the boys are portrayed is very big.  This also could mean that there is a difference in wealth, due to the fact that the suburbs are in poverty from what it looks like in the film and Paris has much more wealth and many historic monuments that make Paris stand out whereas in the suburbs everyone is the same.  However, this representation of Paris is questioned when the boys are caught by the police and taken into an interview room that is completely the opposite.  This room contains posters of women half naked in the background, which is part of the mise-en-scene, showing that these policemen are 'bent' as they seem to show off their sexist views by putting pictures of naked women up around their workplace.  This infers that Paris is a corrupt place to live as the justice system puts rules in place but those who are meant to enforce those rules do the opposite behind closed doors.  Throughout the film there are also references to the fact that 'nothing is like the movies', for example when Said tries to turn off the eiffel tower by clicking his fingers and Hubert states that 'it only happens in the films' could imply that although they wish they could live in a fantasy world where everything is as they want it to be, they also realistic and know that they live in a deprived area of Paris in which they are like everyone else and they don't stand out.  

 One of the key scenes in this movie is that Vinz fantasises about killing two policemen when he finds out that Abdel has died.  He pretends to have a real gun and shoots a policemen, however we then see that this isn't real and he just lifts up his hand and forms a gun shape showing the fact that Vinz would have killed these policemen if he had the right weapon.  In the same scene we see that in the background of a close up shot of Vinz face there is what looks to be like a halo on the top of his head.  This could represent him as being a saint, however saints are dead which could gives us an insight into what happens in later scenes of the film.  This also suggests that Vinz's behaviour has changed dramatically since the start of the film.  Throughout he has experienced violence, death and threats made towards him which instead of fuelling his anger has just made him realise that he does not need any sort of behaviour like that in his life and has lead him down the right pathway to not commit any murders or be violent towards anyone.