La HaineLa HaineRéalisateur

Mathieu Kassovitz

Lesson Objectives:In this lesson, you will learn to

analyse the opening scene of the film and discuss its effect on the

audience.

Watch the opening scene of La HaineLa Haine and take notes on the

following:Ou? Quand? Qui? Son?

Couleurs? Ambiance? Dialogue? Action/ activité?

Virtuoso noir: the aesthetics of La HaineLa Haine

• The film begins with a grainy image of a young man, seen from the back, facing a line of police and shouting at them.

• “ vous n’êtes que des assassins. Vous tirez. C’est facile.

Nous, on n’a pas d’armes, on a que des cailloux ” • “You are nothing but assassins. It is easy for you, you have weapons. We only have stones”

• His look and accent immediately establish him as from the banlieu. There is no music.

• There follows a black screen with the beginning of the credits and then a man’s voice (Hubert) telling a story about a man falling from a 50 floor building, over a terrestrial globe that bursts into flames as a home-made bomb (in a bottle) is thrown at it.

• In those few seconds, several themes are planted.

Themes

• Uneven confrontation between young people and the police.

• Violence• The banlieu• Notion that the situation is global• It will lead to an explosion

• In the first few seconds: the “message” of the film.

Then...

• Immediately afterwards, a montage of news reel images begins, over which the credits are imposed.

• Soundtrack: Bob Marley “Burnin’ and lootin’”, identifiable and political.

• “ How many rivers do we have to cross, Before we can talk to the Boss.”

• Refers to the police as “uniforms of brutality”

Duration.

• 5 minutes and 9 seconds. • Kassovitz watched hours of newsreel

footage over the 10 years leading up to La Haine.

• On first viewing, appears as a blur of images of police and young demonstrators moving rapidly.

• Average shot length = 4 seconds (some images slowed down.

• Looking more closely, we can divide the montage into 3 sections.

First Section

• Shots of CRS police and young people.• CRS = Compagnies Républicaines de Sécurité (CRS)

are the riot control forces and general reserve of the French National Police.

• Ranks of police uniforms against softer shapes of students.

• Students begin with quiet marching and dancing but end with looting.

• In synchronisation with the words on the soundtrack.

Second section

• Individual violence evoking 2 victims of police violence and the demonstrations that follow their deaths.

• See the body of “Malik Oussekine” which medics are trying to revive.

• A poster says “n’oubliez pas, la police tue”• CRS = SS• Graffiti asking for justice to be done for

Makome M’Bowole. “Que justice soit faite pour Mako”

• 2 deaths, seven years apart appear merged.

Third Section• Sections 1 and 2 shot during the day, 3rd

section shows banlieu at night.• Burning Centre Commercial.• Violence is more extreme suggesting

retaliation for police violence in the first 2 sections.

• 1/3 way through, Bob Marley song decreases, replaced by shouting, breaking glass, thuds.

• Towards the end, voice over of a television presenter talking to camera, finally a picture of Abdel reportedly in a coma in hospital.

• The montage is identified as television when it is switched off and fades to a white spot before the film proper begins.

Conclusion

• Documentary style, preparing us for the fiction to come.

• Structure and progression, contains the shape of the film to come.

• Greater violence, day to night, contrast between city and banlieu.

• Blurs the boundary between reality and fiction in image and sound.

• Move from montage to fiction contrasts grainy, dirty blurred figures of riot at night, with sharp elegant black and white day time images.

• The switch from television to film.