The importance of mise-en-scene and sound in La Haine

What's the importance of mise-en-scene and/or sound in creating meaning and generating response in the films you have studied? (La Haine)


Mise-en-scene and sound are two of the biggest ways in which la Haine creates both meaning and generating response. For example, the scene in which the DJ mixes the two songs, NWA's Fuck tha Police and Edith Piaf's Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien respectively, uses both sound and miss-en-scene to generate meaning and audience response. The scene opens with a med-long shot of Hubert in his bedroom and it is dominated by American culture, as in the mise-en-scene you can see posters of Muhammand Ali and the 1968 Olympics black power salute by the athletes. The meaning of this is that Hubert, like the rest of France, is dominated by American culture, instead of having posters of French boxers and athletes, he has posters of American boxers and athletes because the American culture simply dominates the French culture. Furthermore, I personally think Hubert could represent equality in the French motto- which is equality, liberty and Brotherhood, as we can see a poster of the 1968 Olympics black power salute by the athletes, which clearly shows that Hubert believes in equality and doesn't believe in discrimination against anyone. My argument is made stronger later on when Hubert talks about equality to Vinz on rooftop near the Effiel Tower, he even mentioned the French motto to Vinz, making my argument stronger and more conclusive. There's then a med shot of Hubert in the window which shows that he is trapped and he can't escape the projects. Hubert is also wearing an Everlast shirt, an American clothing line, which is further evidence that the American culture dominates the French culture. There's then a shot from Hubert's POV which pans around the people from the projects. It's in the shot, through the mise-en-scene, which we really start to see how diverse and multi-cultural the projects are in France. Not just how diverse they are in race but also in age as there are children in the same playground as adults. The camera then pans up to a DJ putting his speakers out of his window and I believe it's here where we truly start to realise how much American culture has dominated French culture because this shot looks like it's in America, not Paris. This can be seen through the mise-en-scene of the children wearing tracksuits, Vinz smoking weed and then having a DJ playing music out of his window. After a shots of the DJ getting ready to play his mix, we get a long panning shot which pans all over the projects and shows how large the projects are in scale and it's here where sound becomes important in generating meaning and response. This is because the DJ mixes 2 songs together and them songs are NWA's Fuck tha Police and Edith Piaf's Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien respectively. This further explains to us the audience how much the French culture is dominated by the American culture. This is because Edith Piaf's Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien is the only real bit of French culture is the whole film and even then it's dominated by an American song NWA's Fuck tha Police, so whatever French culture is left in France still gets included with/dominated by a bit of American culture. Therefore, this scene, through the use of mise-en-scene and sound, really does show us how much American culture is dominated by French culture. 

The final scene is another good scene which generates response and meaning through it's use of mise-en-scene. There is a 3 shot of the 3 leads together, Saiid in the middle as he has been throughout the film and in the background is a picture of Charles Baudelaire, who was a French poet and he famously said 'the world only goes around through misunderstanding'. Firstly, it's interesting that a French poet would be on a wall in the projects as most of them are uneducated and some even to read and write. Secondly, 'the world' is a recurring motif in the film as it shows up in the mise-en-scene throughout the film. This is because the film is trying to say that this quote by Charles Baudelaire is true and this film is evidence of that. Later on in the scene, alarms and sirens can be heard and this is another recurring motif throughout the film. This is done however to show that in the projects, there is always danger and risk for the people who live and this is way they ultimately are always and cannot escape the projects.