La Haine Stylistic Choices and National Cinema

La Haine, as a piece of national cinema, adopts a new set of rules for film making - the film rejects the expected, generic conventions of a social-realism/crime/drama film, not because the director has consciously avoided them but because the narrative does not demand it. The stylistic choices made by Mathieu Kassovitz throughout the film not only define the look of the film but also its meaning and morals. La Haine is very much an unconventional film by definition, and offers a completely unique perspective of France, Paris in particular, that totally rejects the dominant cultural ideology that audiences are used to.

In terms of genre, labelling La Haine into any specific category is problematic. The film demonstrates tropes of a social-realism film on many levels - it takes the dominant cultural ideology, adhered to in other French films such as Amelie, and rejects it to offer audiences a more gritty, realistic representation of urban France. We see themes like time and the 'us vs them' mentality, which often appear in social-realism films, but from a more complex perspective that subvert generic conventions and leave the characters' place in the diegesis more profound. On a more aesthetic level, we are introduced to a dark, uncomfortable Paris seen only through tight alley ways and back streets; the Eiffel Tower, our only real connection to the mainstream Paris, is shut off before our eyes. This is heavily reminiscent of a social realism film as it relies more so, in fact, on audience's expectations of Paris in order to leave a greater impact when it is torched down. That said, there are also numerous elements of a crime-drama film embedded within La Haine; we follow the lives of three anti-establishment, unsatisfied boys who are surrounded by corruption, abuse and crime, and are shaped completely by this upbringing. Crime is celebrated by the trio, through Vinz's trigger happy attitude towards killing a police officer, or the casual drug deal on the part of Hubert. Still, though, Kassovitz rejects a lot of the generic elements of both genres in order to create his own hybrid, and to tailor to the diegesis more appropriately. 

City of God celebrates crime in a different way. The aesthetic resemblance to Scorsese demonstrates the conventional rise and fall character arc of Lil Ze, but also heavily relies on stylistically pleasing scenes to produce a cathartic response from audiences. The difference between City of God and La Haine here is the representation of the nation that they came from; Rio, in particular, is misrepresented as the focus is less on the effects of crime and more on the crime itself. La Haine, however, portrays the projects in Paris as a neglected, soul destroying prison, and has shaped the characters that we know. 

An example of this would be through the narrative structure, or the seeming deficit of one. We follow a sporadic series of events within a random group of friends, often taking on an observer's perspective of their lives. A lot of the film consists of the characters waiting around for something to happen, lending heavily to the theme of time, but also allowing for the film to build up to the final moments of the film. We reach no narrative resolution - the repeated shot of Said at the end of the film to the start of the film shows that no change has come to the world as a result of the actions taken by these three characters. It is likely that more protests will follow after the timeline of the film ends, as at the beginning of the film, as nothing was achieved; there were no goals, no character motivations that linked to the narrative development, and the character arcs were scarce. This is fundamentally unconventional as one of the primary factors of a linear narrative is a cohesive and conclusive resolution, which this film lacks completely. Instead, we see the morals of the film demonstrated - 'so far, so good..' 

It is also important to note that there is little use of character types in La Haine. Our affinity with Vinz and Hubert offer two very different perspectives, and so pin pointing assets like protagonists and antagonists is troublesome. This, however, only contributes to the film's realistic nature - we, as human beings, are far too complex to be categorised by something as binary as hero and villain roles. Virtues are skewed, and subsequently, the way in which we see groups like law enforcement and minorities in France are warped and multi-dimensional. The relationship we build with Hubert acts as the only real voice of reason for the viewer; he has goals and a desire for change, unlike Said and Vinz who have accepted their 'place in society.' Hubert seems to remain close to his morals, refusing to see any kind of killing as beneficial - when running from police, Vinz is (seemingly) moments from shooting a police officer, but is interrupted by Hubert who simply knocks him unconscious. This safety net we have, in a character who is aiming for freedom from the projects, is then shattered at the end of the film when he is either killed by or kills a police officer.