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

For this topic i have studied the film 'La Haine' and the director Mathieu Kassovitz has used a lot of filming techniques such as miss en scene to convey the message that people are being influenced by western culture, this is seen through a specific scene where there is a meeting on the roof of the gym. The miss en scene shows that everyone is influenced by western culture because everyone on the roof is wearing sport clothes and trainers, there is graffiti on the walls.







In this topic I have been studying 'La Haine' and the way Mathieu Kassovitz uses film techniques to convey a specific message of how the multicultural France is influenced by America to his audience.  This is shown through the mise en scene of Vinz and Hubert's rooms which are covered in posters of a marijuana leaf and pictures of film stars and athletes. This suggests that they are influence by people from America, Vinz the dreamer likes his action heroes such as Robert de Niro and Bruce Lee. Vinz's room is shown to the audience with a 360 degree pan around the room which suggests that Vinz is influenced by film culture. Whereas Hubert decorates his rooms with his belies, a picture of his hero on the wall and also there is a picture of the Black power at the olympics. The audience is shown to the audience with a static shot suggesting that Hubert's views are fixed. At the time in France there were a lot of riots happening about race and equality but Hubert doesn't agree with fighting like that. Mathieu shows this through two shots, having two characters opposite showing that they are not on the same side.

Also in 'La Haine' Mathieu Kassovitz shows that these people are influenced by American culture through mise en scene of what everyone is wearing. This is significantly seen in the scene on top of the gym, everyone is wearing sports gear and it looks like a scene from an American film. They are shown through a tracking shot following Said around the roof, there a lot of people on the roof from the surrounding area of France and they are all mixed race but they are all wearing similar clothing. Even when the police show up, the police are wearing casual American style clothes, one is even wearing an American football jacket.

Throughout this film there is a strong presents of Hip Hop music which is from American. This is shown through diegetic music in the scene when the DJ plays out the music from his window. He mixes a Hip Hop song with a French classic. This shows the mix of race in that environment and how these people are influenced. Hip Hop is also played on the roof of the gym which supports the American style of that scene. But in this film it is not just Hip Hop that is played throughout this film, Kassovitz shows another cultural mix in different sections of the film but mainly in the opening credits with the non diegetic music 'Burnin and lootin' but Bob Marley.

 A lot of body language in the film are copied from american films, such as Vinz in the mirror copying the scene from 'Taxi driver' but even down to the greetings they give each other, grabbing hands and going in for a slap on the back. There is also a scene where there is a DJ playing out some stereotypical music from both cultures and mix them together like the environment they are living in.