La Haine

817 Words2 Pages

La Haine differs from the classic Hollywood style subsequently being classified as art cinema. The Classic Hollywood style is fundamentally built on the principle of continuity editing style. Art cinema films are coined to describe films made more for artistic reasons than commercial ones, often as a personal statement by the filmmaker. In essence, The Art cinema style is prone to break the rules that the classic Hollywood style has set for expressionism and realism. La Haine proves to be different in all five components of film language in comparison to the classic Hollywood narrative in the way that they are used.
The first film component can be analysed from the opening scene to the closing; the script. The movie begins with the scenes of the riots as Hubert tells the story of the man falling from the building. There is then a four to five minute montage of the police brutality riots in France. We then see the characters and it seems as if the film starts in the middle. We are first induced Saïd as he tags his name on the police car. Though the story does follow a linear plot, the film still different form the classic Hollywood style due to the fact that the characters have no goal, the usually the main focus in a Hollywood movie. La Haine is essentially following three friends over a period of almost a day as they cope during the riots; this is the basis of the plot, goalless. The audience is never sure what events will follow in future scenes, differing from the Hollywood narrative where at some point the goal is mentioned, subsequently creating some plot predictability. The characters are also more complex than in a Hollywood movie and that is why it succeeds. Hollywood likes their heroes. Often the Hollywood hero will ove...

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...n for the remaining character, though the film stops at a certain point.
The cinematography in this final scene is unique in comparison to other scenes of the movie. The camera placement is a uniquely art cinema; as Vincent and Saïd were being ambushed the camera’s focus is on Hubert’s reaction. While running towards his friend’s the camera placement is low to the ground, Hubert’s legs frame’s the scene of his friend in trouble.
This film differs from the Hollywood style through the use of Mise-en-scene, Cinematography, Editing, Sound and script. The opening and closing scenes are a good example of how it follows the art cinema criteria and how it differs from the Hollywood style.

Works Cited

BFI Screenonline: Glossary of Film and Television Terms. (n.d.). BFI Screenonline. Retrieved December 3, 2012, from http://www.screenonline.org.uk/education/glossary.html

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