Question for La Haine

Q. What is the importance of mise-en-scene and / or sound in creating meaning and generating response in the films you have studied?

In La Haine mise-en-scene is really important. For example in the scene where they are first on the rooftop in paris they are standing by the edge with Said in the middle of the shot between Vinz and Herbert because there is conflict between Vinz and hubert. When the camera goes to a long shot you can see Paris in the background but Paris is blurred and it's blurred because it shows that Said, Vinz and Hubert don't fit in to Paris as they are underclass and Paris is more upperclass so by blurring Paris it shows that they don't fit in and that they are meant to be there but when they are in The Projects, it is all clear and shows that they do fit in to The Projects rather than Paris. Also by blurring the city Paris it shows how Paris s not meant for them and that they shouldn't really be there. This is important because it really shows how they don't it in to Paris and with them not meant to be there and they are out of their comfort zone. At first in the scene, Paris is not blurred and you can see it quite clearly but then when the camera goes to a 3 person mid shot of the characters and when it goes to the 3 person mid shot, Paris is then blurred to highlight how they do not fit in to the city and how they are not meant to be there. Also when we see Paris fir the first time there is no Eiffle tower so this shows the lack of french culture throughout the film and how Said, Vinz and Hubert are more suited to western culture as while they are standing on the rooftop, there is a lot car beeping similar to how New York is showing that when we see the characters by Paris for the first time there is no French culture and there is more western culture so the characters are influenced by western culture.
Sound is also important in La Haine. For example in the scene where the French DJ is playing music outside the window and mixes two songs. The two songs are Fuck The Police by NWA and 'Non, Je ne regrette rien' by Edith Piaf. These two songs create meaning as by saying Fuck the police it shows how the main character don't agree with the police and they don't respect the police and this down to their background and the place that they live in. this is down to the police attacking Abdul who later on in the film passes away. This song represents how the characters in The Projects feel about the police because of how the police act and treat the people in The Projects. Also with the song being American by American artists, it shows how the people in The Projects are obsessed with the western culture and there is always representations of the western culture throughout the film and Fuck the Police by NWA is another example of this. 'Non, Je ne regrette rien' creates meaning as that means I regret nothing which shows how the characters in the film don't regret anything they do and they regret the actions they make. They may not regret anything they do because the characters are uneducated and don't know the difference between right and wrong so by not regretting anything it shows how maybe they feel that they haven't done anything wrong as they wouldn't know what's wrong and right. Also by mixing these two songs together it shows that the directer Mathieu Kassovitz wants to try and mix French culture with western (American) culture as people in The Projects are massively influenced by the western culture and this shown by them wearing adidas tracksuits and by the music they listen to and the actions they do and the role models they have as Hubert has posters of Muhammad Ali in his bedroom. By mixing the cultures it shows that western cultures are taking over the traditional French cultures. Also the song 'Non, Je ne regrette bien' is one of the only traditional French culture/background that we see during the whole film which shows just how much the people in The Projects are influenced by the western culture and one of the only times we do see French culture, it's mixed with western culture to show that there is very little actual French culture in The Projects.