Thoughts on 'La Haine'

I think that 'La Haine' was a very powerful film because the opening scenes allowed me see the context of which it is set in. The opening footage of rioting and police brutality gives us the picture that there is a town or suburb currently in a distressing situation, and the following introduction of the main characters enables us to see what life is like in those conditions.

The cinematography captured the setting of the run-down suburbs and the youth culture with believable efforts. The constant tracking and panning shots really helped me to grip on to the importance of each main character - It was very hard to lose focus of them. The combination of digetic and non-digetic sound was also another interesting factor. This was because during the scene when Vince was in his room, I thought it the music was non-digetic, but when he turned the stereo off, the music also stopped, meaning that it was really digetic.