La haine ( French Film) COMENTARY - Essay Example

This paper will analyse a scene from this movie and describe why the particular scene has considerable significance in the film. The scene analysed here takes place in 9.3 to 10.10 minutes of the film. Scene Analysis The three young friends; Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Hubert (Hubert Kounde), and Said (Said Taghmaoui), are the major characters in this movie. Among the three friends, Vinz is a Jewish and a character filled with rage. He keeps heroic notions of a gangster in his mind and therefore he tries to attain respect by killing a cop.

In a scene, Vinz tries to impersonate the character ‘Travis Bickle’ played by Robert De Niro for the movie ‘Taxi Driver’. Vinz imitates Travis Bickle in front of a mirror and asks, “You talking to me?” Then he points his fingers like a gun and shoots. This imitation cannot be considered as just a sudden emotional expression because he repeats the ‘gun firing imitation’ twice during the film. I do believe that this scene is of great importance in the movie for several reasons. First, this scene plays a crucial role demonstrating the character of Vinz.

As mentioned already, he perceives himself as a gangster and tries to win respect through violence. In fact, Vinz is not such a heartless person but his worse life experiences have filled him with rage. As he is not involved in any gangster group, he tries to adopt the characteristics of an underworld hero and to transform himself into a cruel-minded person. He deliberately attempts to bring maximum brutality into his eyes while imitating the character played by Robert De Niro. Vinz has a gun and he is looking for an opportunity to kill a cop and thereby win respect among his friends.

Hence, this impersonation can be considered as a preparation for his future actions. However, Vinz is scared of doing actions that he believed to be helpful to win respect as a gangster. To illustrate, in a scene, some anti-immigrant skinheads assault Vinz’s friends Said and Hubert cruelly. Vinz rushes to the spot and brings an end to the fight by pointing his gun toward the skinheads. Although Vinz got one of them at his gun point, he becomes reluctant to execute his dream and finally Vinz allows the skinhead to flee.

This incident later forces him to accept the fact that he cannot be a heartless gangster as he dreamed. Referring to this scene, it is clear that Vinz deliberately impersonates Travis Bickle so as to convince himself that he has the courage to kill someone. In other words, he tries to convince himself that killing someone is not such a difficult task and to make certain that the deed looks so cool. The beauty of this film is that it is shot in black and white. In fact, it reminds the viewer of the fact that instead of sharing the colours of life, Kassovitz clearly wanted to show the hard realities of life; black and white, or the contrast between virtue and vice.

According to some reviews, the decision to show the film in black and white has even deeper meaning (La Haine, n.d.). In fact, the film was first shot in colour and then converted to black and white. As Siciliano (2007) points out, this black and white portrayal indicates the colourless life of people in France as a result of the relentless repression and suppression they faced from the French state (Loshitzky 2010). Yet another view point about the colourlessness, according to Siciliano (2007) is that the black and white portrayal helps understand the eeriness and dreariness surrounding the