La Haine - Past exam question

Explore how the opening sequence of La Haine contributes to the key themes of your chosen film?


The opening sequence of La Haine uses real footage of the 1986 riots, with Bob Marley's 'Burnin & Lootin' playing over it.
The footage used adds realism to the opening sequence, immediately introducing the audience to the idea that this really happened; it s an ongoing struggle. We are made to feel like this is not just a fictional story, it is the point of view of the citizens, a point of view we very rarely see through the media.
This is shown when the fictional news report comes on; the media bias toward the police is quickly shown, with the beating of a young man considered 'police misconduct'. The news report neglects to mention the reason for the riots, only what happened and what the police did to deal with it; this paints the rioters as the 'enemy', which is a contrast from the view Kassovitz wanted to portray.
The riot footage fits perfectly with 'Burnin & Lootin' by the 'iconic rebel' Bob Marley, as a lot of things we see on screen are directly referenced in the song. The line "they were all dressed in uniforms of brutality", played over scenes of the police dealing with rioters, pins the police as the 'antagonists', which is the point of view that Kassovitz wishes to pass on to the audience in order to make them think about what is happening in Paris in a different light.
A theme present throughout the film is a sense of inevitability, which we see in the film using the countdown clocks. This theme is established in the opening sequence through Hubert's voice-over, which suggests the central message of impending crisis and chaos in society. Hubert suggests this crisis will end, but how it ends is up to the target audience (French people). As well as this, the petrol bomb hitting the earth suggests that people are doing it to themselves, they are the ones ruining the earth. This is also a representation of the theme of conflict, and shows the message of anti-establishment that the three main characters represent.
The theme of poverty is not shown in as much depth as power and conflict, though early on in the real footage we see a man shouting at the police, saying something along the lines of "you have guns, we only have stones" suggesting that these rioters are so impoverished that they don't even have any forms of weapon to fight with, not even a baseball bat, all they have is stones.
The footage of the riots grounds the film in reality and creates a 'realist framework' that the film takes place within; therefore preparing the audience for a realistic account of Paris life.
Finally, we see the cast list is split into 'the projects', 'the police', and 'the Parisians'. Thus, even the cast are segregated, which introduces the theme of segregation early on in the film.