La Haine Opening

Explore how the opening sequence of La Haine contributes to the key themes of your chosen films. [35]

The first shot we see is that of a petrol bomb being thrown at an image of the audience, this suggests that we are entering a world of disorder and chaos, it could also be used to show how the immigrants worlds are literally burning to the ground. Hubert's narration introduces the films central message of an impending crisis in French society that can be reinforced bu the use of time stamps through the movie as if counting down to something. The story he tells about the man falling from the building suggests that the crisis will end but how it will end is up the the French.

La Haine opens with a montage of real riot footage which instantly gives the film a sense of realism and creates a realist framework that the film takes place within. The use of hand held POV riot footage could have also been used to place the audience -specifically the non French audience- in the midst of the action as this is a side of France many people have not been exposed to, this adds to the realism for them as they quickly get some background context into the riots in France before the film starts. The riot footage straight away presents the police as the agressors/antagonists of the film as we see clips of them throwing things, beating up citizens mixed with shots of them not looking serious about the situation and looking almost s if they are enjoying the riot, and provoking the rioters. Kassovitz portrays the police this way very early on so that regardless of the audiences previous preconceptions or feelings about the police that audience will side with his negative viewpoint of the police.  At the start we see what seems to be quite peaceful rioting, the citezens are marching and holding up signs, we also see a shot of them dancing around as the montage goes on the rioters become increasingly more violent and start burning things and tipping over cars, this suggests that the longer these riots have been going on the less peaceful they have become and the more aggravated and angry with their situation these people have become.

The use of Bob Marley's 'Burnin and Lootin' works as a sort of narration and mirrors the images on screen, it also suggests some sort of retribution and a fight back against the police.  The opening lyrics 'this morning i woke up in a curfew.... I was a prisoner too' suggests that these immigrants wake up in a position where they feel trapped inside their houses as if they leave there is a chance they could be beaten and even killed for no reason by the French police and that they feel like prisoners in their own houses. The next lines 'Could not recognize the faces standing over me; They were all dressed in uniforms of brutality' show how the immigrants see the police as they cannot relate or identify to the French police as they are all white and 'uniforms of brutality' suggests that the police are only there to be brutal and violent.  Later we year the lyrics 'All that we got, it seems we have lost; we must have really paid the costs' this suggests that the immigrates may have been forced to assimilate into French culture and feel that the have lost those important parts of themselves, it could also suggest that after all this unfair treatment and abuse from the police they feel they have lost everything and have nothing left to lose so have resorted to the riots.