La Haine

La Haine 

by Mathieu Kassovitz

Three young friends

Themes
The story is seemingly about three friends from the estates, but beneath the surface we recognise criticisms of the whole society. 'The film-makers need to show the boredom of everyday life for young unemployed people living in the working class satellite towns around Paris.' The strong anti-police attitude is such a distinguishable element of this period, which still affects French cinema today.

Editing
  Editing is what divides this stylish film from a simple documentary or community project. The film-makers draw clear metaphors between reality and other texts, such as the recurring image of falling.

   'A single static shot of our three central characters sitting equidistant from each other in a bleak, waste area is held for some time and then a flash-forward edit is used to a shot of the same the characters in the same space but occupying slightly different positions within the frame. Because they have moved slightly, we experience the cut as 'jump', a jump forward than in time. It is the combination of holding the initial shot for longer than we might normally expect and then using a distinctive editing cut that ensures the required meaning is conveyed clearly and effectively to the viewer.' The confusion is often reinforced by the blurring of reality with hallucinations, such as the cow walking on the streets of the estate.

Colours:
   The scene in the art gallery is a very important mosaic piece in the panoramic picture of Paris. The city today is considered to be the capital of culture and art in Europe. However, in this film it is represented rather negatively through the perspective of the poor and neglected members of society. The setting itself, the white walls and the simplistic design of the building, recalls the London gallery of the snobbish American artist Whistler, whose 1883 exhibition was a milestone in presenting art. The colour white gives a cold, sterile, unwelcoming sense to the environment, where the characters really feel out of place. The artefacts in the room ghostly remind us to those infamous works of modern art made by painters such as Marcel Duchamp and Le Corbusier, who follows this idea of creating exclusive, elitist art for a small, sophisticated audience. The divisive  racist connotations of the colour white still live in many relics of the 20th century, such as the marble monuments of Mussolini in Rome. What is relevant in the context of this film is the strong sense of alienation. The above associations suggest that the director intended to make a mockery of the artistic, wealthy Parisian elite.

Resources:

• AS Film Studies (2008) by Sarah Casey Benyahia, Freddie Gaffney and John White
• The History of Art in Three Colours. Episode 3: White. (2012) BBC, presented by Dr James Fox