Weekly analysis La haine

La Haine 1995- Mathieu Kassovitz

La Haine is a drama, in particular a social realism film about real life pride, friendship and social conflict which touches on the themes of police brutality and injustice. The movie was released in 1995 by director Mathieu Kassovitz. The director had a personal for the police and wanted to convey the state of the law enforcement in France, despite that he was unbiased due to in the scene where the police officer was driving the three protagonists from the hospital there was a quote (which I’m paraphrasing) “Not all pigs are bad people”. Despite his hate for the law enforcement the director showed his intention to convey the message about how "hatred breads hate". However, La Haine can be likened to movies such as Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing due to they have similar themes of police brutality and hate. 

The movie tries to convey the dark undertones of Paris that is continuously associated with luxury, love and ‘swarve’ classy characters. The director completely contrasts the conventional way Paris is presented. He shows the characters as people who lack luxury and the posh classy charm associated with the French. The characters such as Vinz is a materially deprived Jewish man, living on an estate housing with his family. He's a Man lacking the ‘swarve,’ classy and gentle character instead he's a man whose confuses aggression for strength and uses it as a way of earning respect and at the end he’s shown how being able to kill doesn't associate with strength.

The director also subverts from the conventional presentation of Paris though his lack of colour in La Haine. The lack of colour symbolises the dark and bleak life of strife and brutality experienced by the lower class youth living in Paris. It used as a device to represent the state of Paris with its police brutality and violence in a negative way. The director intended it to use it to reinforce the messages shown in La Haine which was possibly why he believed showing it with colour wouldn't work as it doesn't give La Haine the atmosphere the director intends to portray.  

The director further contrasts it by showing the difference in class between the characters and the conventional French middle class stereotype. This was best done in the scene of the party with the middle class French people. The scene conveyed that the middle class and lower classes in France couldn't associate or understand each other. This lack of understanding led to conflict and created stereotypical perspective which lead to the people in the room acting upon the characteristics they expected to see in people of a different class. Example being the quote "of the estate," also Vinz and Said belief that the girl wouldn't like them due to them being of lower class. This belief or expectation lead to them acting aggressively and bashful towards the girls and causing a disruption at the party. This signifies that the director wanted to convey a message possibly targeted at the middle class and/or police that if you expect a person or people to act in a certain way, for example lower classes people being expected to be thuggish, they could possibly be expected to live up to the expectation also known as a ‘self-fulfilling prophesy’ just as how them being perceived as being thuggish and low lead to them acting it out and trashing the party. 

  

Watchmen scene anal

Watchmen- Scene analysis

Watchmen is a hybrid genre movie set in an alternate universe, that is based on the 1986-87 DC comic’s graphic novel called Watchmen, written by Alan Moore. This film incorporates elements of action, science fiction and drama though its uses of genre conventions in the movie. It was directed by director Zach Snyder and released in 2009; it was produced by DC Comics and also legendary pictures and was made using a budget of 120 million USD. The featured themes are nostalgia, teamwork and friendship because the characters are reminiscent of how the team used to be before they split up and the movie focuses on the lives some of the characters of the new watchmen currently live as individuals. This essay will be discussing the opening scene sequence of Watchmen and its use of mise-en scene and cinematography to convey meaning. The opening scene/title sequence is a slide show of shots that are exposition of the minute men’s contribution to alternate America and span between the timeline of 1940 to 1970’s. The chosen song used in this scene is Bob Dylan’s “The times they are a changing” realised in 1965, adds to the authenticity of the cultural and historical setting of the images and shots the opening scene uses.

The cinematography towards the start of the opening scene effectively shows the superhero’s in their glory days. It does this through its use of low angle shots to methodically show that the characters where lorded and adored by the public. One example of this is a shot of Silk Spectre in the shot where she clinches the newspaper standing in front of policemen. The use of low angle shot of her positioned in the centre displays the character as important and powerful.

In particular, the low angle shot of Silk Spectre, as well as the sound of a camera flashing, conveys how she was considered a celebrity more so to show the audience the status and respect she received. The low angle shot of her is used as symbolism of her being placed on a pedestal and is positioned in a way so the audience can look up at her and see we are below her mirroring the way society in the setting of the alternate universe saw superheroes as above them.

The mise-en scene works well the with the cinematography to establish the situation and setting. The use of technical and visual codes to show us as the audience in the first four shots of the opening title sequence that it’s centred around superheroes, due to the use of costume and they are adored and respected like celebrities though the silhouettes of paparazzi taking pictures and camera’s. For example, the shot of the superhero The Comedian holding a bank robber shows the audience that that he’s a superhero as he’s wearing a mask and colourful clothing and holding a guy with a swag filled with money. The shape of the camera shows the audience that these where old style camera which conveys the shots from the title sequence are set during the past.

Furthermore, in that particular shot of the comedian smiling at the camera and while holding the hostile bank robber, his facial expression conveys that the character is prioritized fame. The action of smiling at the camera while holding the robber shows he’s concerned about his image to the press or for his audience. 

Film report

Michael Igboka

Voice of God film report

This film is a psychological, supernatural, thriller about how human nature provokes us to abide by the will of authority figures, especially when the figure is intangible such the entity god. The film has themes of hatred, shown through how the damaged girl dealt with the hatred towards her situation and the hatred she had towards her step mother and despair that Sam felt towards her situation. The film also has a theme of loss of innocence because a girl who had never killed before murdered her step mother. Another theme is madness because the girl hears voices. The story is also similar to the story in the bible where God tells Abraham to kill his son just to test his faith in Genesis 22. The name Samuel is symbolic to the biblical figure Samuel who god called in the night. The film shows conventions of thriller through its dark lighting and decent from a normal situation into a very abnormal situation involving supernatural entity. However, it keeps he question of whether the God was actually a real entity talking to her or a figment of her imagination, similar to how people view God in the western modern world due to secularisation. This essay will be discussing the use of micro features, mainly Mise-en Scene and cinematography.

The cinematography in this film uses a lot of one shots at the beginning and progressively starts to do more shots in a scene and the shots also seem to become more close up. For example, it begins with the introduction of the character as she comes through the door and goes up the stairs all in one wide shot, but as we get into the story and learn about the character the shots start to get closer and closer to her eyes and face and there are more transitions from shot too shot. The opening wide shot suggests that Samuel on the surface is a very normal looking teenage girl, as she’s in uniform, although during the bird eye view shot of her laying on her bed and the voice comes in and says “Why are you sad my child” the camera start to get closer and closer to her face symbolising the audience getting closer to the character for them to see that she’s an abnormal girl, because she hears voices.

Furthermore, the films progressive increase in shot changes and transitions the character is symbolic of the character’s emotion of fear and panic. As in the murder scene the shots there are a lot fade to black highlighting the panic she felt as she killed her step mother. This was done purposefully to reinforce that the character hasn’t killed anyone before and was legally innocent before that night.

The Mise-en scene in her room shows a large amount of white (the wall, her cloths and her furniture), which is symbolic of her innocence. However, the main symbol of her innocence is her hands. Her hands are constantly shown in the camera frame throughout the film, and when they are shown they aren’t shaking and they are clean. At the point when the voice shouts at her and she runs of the bed, her hands begin to shake showing her innocence is decaying because that the point she decides she has to kill her mother, which is evident through the quote “Yes lord”, however her hands aren’t completely stained until after she kills her mother. The red is symbolic of danger showing the girl has gone from innocent to dangerous.

Furthermore, wall paper shows a bird in a cage, this symbolic of her feeling trapped due to her mental state and the voice she hears and the fact she believes that the voice is god when its only her imagination (the film shows that the voice isn’t god in the quote “Why does my lord ask why when he’s all knowing?” this shows it’s not god because God wouldn’t have asked “why”) shows that she has to do whatever this voice tells her  because this voice is her god and she can’t escape this voice similar to how a person cannot escape from god.

Ultimately this short film overly conveys its story and meaning through its use of dialogue but covertly shows it through micro features, such as its Cinematography for example its wide shot towards the start and increase in close ups as it goes on and its mise-en scene such as its use of white and Samuel’s hands to convey innocence. This movie directed by me has its weakness such as the continuity error of the blood already on the table when she puts the bloody statue down, and the poor camera quality due to lack of access to better lighting and equipment. 

Weekly film

A Street Car Named Desire 1951- Elia Kazan 

Genre: drama

Themes: Domestic violence and abuse, Insecurity, madness. 

Screen play: Tennessee Williams, Oscar saul

Cast 

Marlon Brando- Stanley Kowalski 

Vivien Leigh

Kim Hunter

Karl Madlen

Awards: 

Weekly film

One flew over the cuckoo's nest 1975- Milos Forman

Genre: Drama

Themes: Evil, Manipulation, Corruption, Friendship, Growth. 

Story by: Ken Kesey

Screen play: Bo Goldman Lawrence Hauben

Producer: Michael Douglas, Saul Zaentz

Cast

Jack Nicholson= Randle McMurphy

Louise Fletcher= Nurse Ratched

Danny Devito= Martini

Brad Dourif= Billy Biddit 

Will Sampson- Chief Bromden

Sydney Lassick= Charley Cheswick

William Redfield= Dale Harding 

Christopher Lloyd= Taber

Awards: Academy award for best picture, 

Academy awards for best actor- Jack Nicholson 

Academy award for best actress- Louise Fletcher

Academy awards for best director- Milos Forman

Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay

Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama- Jack Nicholson 

ETC

Weekly film

12 Angry Men 1957- Sidney Lumet

Genre: Drama, mystery,
Themes: Prejudice, Class, belief
Screen play: Reginald Rose
Story by: Reginald Rose
Producer: Orion-Nova productions

Cast




 Henry Fonda= Juror 8


Lee J. Cobb= Juror 3


Jack Klugman= Juror 5


Martin Balsam= Juror 1


E. G. Marshall= Juror 4


Jack Warden= Juror 7


Ed Begley= Juror 10


John Fiedler= Juror 2

Joseph Sweeney= Juror 9

George Voskovec= Juror 11

Edward Binns= Juror 6


Robert Webber= Juror 12



Awards: Bafta award for best foreign actor = Henry Fonda 1958
Edgar award for best motion picture screenplay= Reginald Rose 1958
Writers guild of america award for best written drama= Reginald Rose 1958
Bodil award for best american film= Sidney Lumet 1960
Golden bear award for best motion picture= Sidney Lumet 1957
PGA hall of fame motion picute 1997