La Haine

What is the importance of misè en scene and or sound in creating meaning and generating response in the films you have studied

In Hubert’s bedroom scene Mise en scene is important because it shows you how Americanised it is in the banlieus of France. In the scene you can see many different posters on Hubert’s wall. One of these posters is of the 1968 Olympic black power salute. This shows that Hubert has been americanised. As well as this you can also see lots of boxing posters and memorabilia all from America but you never see any French culture in Hubert’s room. In the scene you also hear Hubert Listening to American soul music. This shows that Hubert is once again americanised but also shows that Hubert himself has a soul. While the Soul music is playing you see a montage of Hubert cutting up hash and then rolling and smoking a joint. This shows that drugs are not something that the people who live in the banlieus can escape from. You then see a mid shot oh Hubert looking out of his window at the people on the street below him. This is shot as a mid shot with the frame of the window in shot which gives you the idea that Hubert, and everyone else, is trapped in the outskirts of France and that they will never get out.

The next scene is of the DJ scratching the records in his room. In this scene you see the records spinning round which fits in with the recurring motif, which runs throughout the film, of everything going round in a circle. In this scene you also see a mid shot from behind the DJ in which you can see that on the back of his t-shirt it says cypress hill. Cypress Hill are a multicultural rap group from America. This again shows that everyone in the banlieus has been americanised but also that all the people in the banlieus are multicultural just like the rap group Cypress hill. The DJ then starts playing a remix of a French version of the NWA song fuck the police and Non je ne regrette rien (no regrets) by Edith Piaf. This is one of the only references to French culture throughout the film. This shows that there is very little French culture left in the banlieus because it has all been americanised. While the song is playing you see a bird’s eye view shot, taken from a drone, going over the banlieus. This shot was used to show the vastness of the Banlieus and also how all of the apartment blocks in the banlieus are set out in circles. This fits in with the recurring motif of everything going round in circles and there not being any escape from the lives the three characters live.