La Haine: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity- for Everyone?

La Haine (Kassovitz, 1995) tells the story of three young men who are second generation immigrants living in the Banlieue in France. The film focuses on the relationship they have with the police and the racial and class discrimination they face. As well as the struggle of where they fit in culturally, are they French or are they of their parent’s heritage? The French slogan is Liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality, fraternity) yet looking at Kassovitz film it seems that this is not always true for all that live in France. 

 

"Given that the Banlieue is also the principal location of France's marginalised ethnic minorities, cinematic representations of the Banlieue cannot easily ignore the representation of ethnic differences.” (Tarr, 2012). This is true of La Haine as it was filmed on location it gives a questionably true representation of life in the Banlieue. As La Haine takes place in the days following a riot from the beginning the audience can see how the citizens, especially the youth, of the Banlieue are unfairly targeted by the police due to their ethnicity. It has been reported that people have died from police slip ups whilst being held in custody and police brutality, this is also shown in La Haine “in one famous scene, two policemen sadistically molest Hubert and Saïd while a trainee officer watches.” (Vincendeau, 2012). This is further shown in the ending of the movie when Saïd and Vinz are stopped by the police for no reason resulting in Vinz being shot accidently by the police officer. Such police brutality and harassment shows how the French slogan of liberty, equality and fraternity does not apply to the second generation immigrants. 

 Throughout La Haine there is also the theme that the young people growing up in the Banlieue do not feel that they fit into one culture, they are torn between being French and whatever their parents culture may be. The boys also seem to have turned away from choosing either identity and have looked to American culture instead. When we enter Vinz’s house we see Jewish iconography throughout the house however, as soon as we enter his room it is filled with American iconography. “Vinz does a De Niro imitation (“Who you talkin' to?”). There's break-dancing in the movie. Perhaps they like U.S. culture because it is not French, and they do not feel very French, either.” (Ebert, 1996). This point that Ebert makes can be evidenced further through the dj set in which two different generations songs are mixed together to perhaps signify the torn identities. The way in which their identities are torn signifies that they do not feel part of the fraternity that France expresses every French citizen is a part of.

In conclusion it is apparent that the way in which La Haine portrays life in France shows that liberty, equality and fraternity is not the case for everyone. As for mentioned the film shows how racial inequality is very apparent not only in the banlieues but also in the cities as well. The alienation of the boys in Paris is signified through the dolly back zoom and the whole film being in black and white shows the bleakness of there lives.

Student Blog:

The student blog https://up747885.wordpress.com/page/2/ in my opinion is excellent. Its layout is very engaging and easy to follow with many pictures and video clips to break up the text. It shows lots of evidence of research and subject knowledge of the films especially in the post ‘Is Humanising Hitler Problomatic?’

Bibliography

Ebert, R. (1996, April 19). Hate (La Haine). Retrieved April 2015, from RogerEbert: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/hate-la-haine-1996

Kassovitz, M. (Director). (1995). La Haine [Motion Picture]. France.

Tarr, C. (2012). Reframing Difference: Beur and Banlieue Filmmaking in France. Manchester: Manchester University Press.

Vincendeau, G. (2012, May 8th). La haine and after:Arts, Politics, and the Banlieue. Retrieved from Current : http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/642-la-haine-and-after-arts-politics-and-the-banlieue

The Devil's Backbone: more Fantasy than Fact?

The Spanish Civil War was fought between the years of 1936 and 1939 and has had a huge impact on Spanish citizens. The war was fought between the Republicans and the Nationalists (Fascists) who were led by Francisco Franco and ultimately won the war (click this link for a brief video overview of the Spanish Civil war). During Franco's rule of Spain films were highly censored showing the civil war not as a horrible battle but a holy crusade. After Franco's death however filmmakers were free to make films as they wished and many films about the Spanish civil war were released. One key director who made films which were set during the Civil War is Guillermo Del Toro.

Guillermo Del Toro on set ofThe Devil's Backbone.

Del Toros’s film The Devil’s Backbone (Toro G. d., 2001) is set during the civil war and shows a boys orphanage in the Spanish countryside, where one night a bomb lands and a boy is murdered who then proceeds to haunt the orphanage. The plot of the film sounds reminiscent of a children’s ghost story, pure fantasy. However, the ghost story shows more than this, it signifies the loss of innocence that occurred in children during the civil war as seen in other films such as Butterfly Tongue (Cuerda, 1999). This is emphasised at the end of the film when all of the adults have died and “children- the most vulnerable potential victims- must themselves resort to violence in order to save their lives and re-establish any sense of humanist values and of a civilized culture.” (Derry, 2009 ). Del Toro said himself in an interview that he wanted “the ghost story to prove the same thing that I wanted to prove in Pan's Labyrinth, that is the only real monsters are human.” (Toro G. D., 2006). This is shown through the character of Jacinto who represents the fascist side whose greed ultimately becomes his downfall as the gold weighs him down when he is pushed into the water.

Santi- The Ghost 

When thinking of how the supernatural is important in Del Toros films it could be seen as metaphorical, Santi haunting the children can be seen as a metaphor for how the civil war will always haunt Spain. This allegory of the ghost being likened to the war can be furthered in the Doctor's final speech in which he says “What is a Ghost? A tragedy condemned to repeat itself time and again? A moment of pain perhaps.” (Toro G. d., 2001) The same answer could be said if the word ghost was simply changed to war. “Although the orphanage lies on a remote and dusty plateau far away from the front line, the threat and dread of war is omnipresent.” (Smith, 2001). This is shown from the constant presence of the bomb in the courtyard, the mention of the civil war throughout the film and the men being lined up and shot when Dr Casares goes into town.

 

The Bomb in the Courtyard

In conclusion it can be suggested that The Devil’s Backbone shows an allegorical take on The Spanish Civil War. The fantasy elements in Del Toro’s films means that they “can be interpreted both from national and transnational perspectives” (Davies , Shaw, & Tierney , 2014, p. 84). Audiences who know nothing about the Spanish civil war can still enjoy the film without reading into the deeper meanings.

Bibliography

Cuerda, J. L. (Director). (1999). Butterfly Tounge [Motion Picture]. Spanish .

Davies , A., Shaw, D., & Tierney , D. (2014). The Transnational Fantasies of Guillermo Del Toro. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Derry, C. (2009 ). Dark Dreams 2.0: A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film from the. Washington : McFarland .

Smith, N. (2001, November 27). The Devil's Backbone . Retrieved March 25, 2015, from BBC Film Reviews: http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/11/26/the_devils_backbone_2001_review.shtml

Toro, G. d. (Director). (2001). The Devil's Backbone [Motion Picture]. Spain.

Toro, G. D. (2006, November 21). Guillermo Del Toro. (M. Kermode, Interviewer) The Guardian .

European Extreme: Entertainment or Exploitation?

Dogme: Self-Promotion or Genius?

Swedish Cinema: Politics or Philosophy?

Does Almodovar present a controversially sympathetic representation of a paedophile priest?

La Haine: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity- for Everyone?

Cinema Du Look: Spectacle over Substance?

How New was the New Wave?

How Influential was Neo-realism?

Italian neo-realism is a film movement that took place during the years of 1945-1952 as a reaction against Hollywood glamour and Mussolini’s fascist regime and censorship on films. It is arguably one of the most influential film movements in film history it ”marked a significant stage in the transformation of cinema from the classical forms which dominated in Europe and the US prior to world war two.” (Shiel, 2006, p. 1)The new cinematic techniques which neo-realism brought to cinema such as filming on location, realism stories about everyday people and their struggles and a documentary aesthetic are now techniques audiences would consider transnational but neo-realism started the trend for such forms.

  Andre Bazin called neo-realism a cinema of “fact” and “reconstructed reportage.” (Bondanella, 2009, p. 61). This take on neo-realist films is clearly seen in a film such as The Bicycle Thief ( De Sica, 1948); “Antonio Ricci (Lamberto Maggiorani), unemployed for two years, finally receives as job as a billposter, but he must have a personal bicycle to keep the job.” (Bondanella, 2009, p. 85). However as often is seen in neo-realism films there is no happy ending and when Antonio’s bicycle is stolen and him and his son Bruno search for it, coming very close at points, they are ultimately unsuccessful. (Click on the link to read more about The Bicycle Thief and neo-realsim:The roots of neorealism )  This is not an exciting nor a comical or dramatized narrative as Bazin says it is a story simply reporting what has happened to this man, a story which is fictional but could easily be a real life event. This documentary style film making that emerged from Italy during this period has a place in today’s cinema with many films focusing on the mundane lives of people and often the community’s they live in as opposed to just the main characters. Films such as the banlieue film La Haine ( Kassovitz, 1995) and the English film This is England ( Meadows, 2006) similar to The Bicycle Thieves show working class people in a poorer part of the country struggling to live and get by.

La Haine

The Bicycle Thief 

This is England

However, it is not just the realism aspect that has been mimicked by other European film industries, Martin Scorsese in an Interview in the video below talks of how as a child growing up he was influenced by neo-realism films and has used some of these techniques and themes in many of his films especially the movie Raging Bull (Scorsese, 1980). He dubs neorealism as “the most precious moment in film history.”  ( Iannone , 2014) .Therefor neorealism has not only influenced lower budget European or Latin American films in some case but Hollywood blockbusters by auteur directors who have incorporated neorealism film making ideas into their auteur style.

  In conclusion it is evident that neorealism is hugely influential when looking at film history and film of today.  It is not only the realism aspect of film narratives that has been used in many films since but even something as simple as on location shooting. Prior to neorealism nearly all films where filmed inside studios but due to the main studio in Italy at the time being occupied the filmmakers had to take the street. Something like this which was not done for the aesthetic look but purely because it was the only way to make a film is now a popular filming technique in thousands of films and even television shows across the world.

 (Word Count- 514)

Bibliography

De Sica, V. (Director). (1948). The Bicycle Thief [Motion Picture]. Italy.

Iannone , P. (2014, June 13). The roots of neorealism . Retrieved Febuary 12, 2015, from Sight & Sound Magazine : http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/deep-focus/roots-neorealism

Kassovitz, M. (Director). (1995). La Haine [Motion Picture]. French.

Meadows, S. (Director). (2006). This is England [Motion Picture]. UK.

Bondanella, P. (2009). A History of Italian Cinema. New York : Continuum International Pub. Group.

Scorsese, M. (Director). (1980). Raging Bull [Motion Picture]. USA.

Shiel, M. (2006). Italian Neorealism: Rebuilding the Cinematic City. London : Wallflower Press.

The Lives of Others: Controversy or Necessity?

                                            Lives of Others: Controversy or Necessity?



The Lives of Others was directed by Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck in 2006, it was not only a success in Germany but around the world as well, winning best foreign language film of the year at the 2007 Oscars award ceremony. However due to the content and subject matters it can be dubbed a controversial movie. It sees a member of the Stasi “Secret police agency of the former German Democratic Republic (East Germany).” (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2013) spying on a couple who it is believed are disloyal to East Germany. As Ebert notes the Member of the Stasi “Sits in an attic day after day, night after night, spying on the people in the flat below.” (Ebert,2007). This invasion of privacy and lack of trust shown in the film shows the fearful conditions that people in East Germany had to live in. Yet this historical depiction of what Germany was like during the Berlin wall being up is what makes it such a necessity as the Berlin wall was something reported around the world and affected many people not just those in Germany. Therefor a film showing the true story is considered necessary by many.

As the film The Lives of Others shows and Miller perfectly describes “The Stasi was present during every discussion like the monster in a horror film.”(Miller,1999. P.95.).However, this historical depiction of the Stasi is not only what makes The Lives of Others so controversial; it is also the attachment that Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler develops towards the couple he is surveying. It can be argued that he begins to fall in love with the women, approaching her in a public and eventually turning against the Stasi principles to try to save the couple from being convicted of any wrong doings. However, it has been disputed that “The film doesn't accurately portray the way totalitarian systems work, because it needs to leave room for its hero to act humanely.” (Funder, 2007). The antagonist in the movie having such a change of heart makes the film more controversial as it does not show the accurate lives of people in East Germany and how the Stasi truly acted. This may anger many viewers especially viewers who may have been victimized by the Stasi in the past as they feel that the Stasi members have been shown in a more positive light, almost as heroes.





The necessity of such a film to be made is still apparent however as some would say “ It was impossible not to view the film as a political statement, and in what it shows about the East Germany communist regime, it will always remain a great political film.” (Scott and Taylor, 2014.P.103.). The film does still show as mentioned previously the lives people in East Germany had to lead, constantly being fearful of who was watching them or overhearing what they were saying. The corruption of the powerful men in charge at the time and how women were treated by these men as throw away objects. Women are not respected in this film. As shown with Christa-Maria Sieland prostituting herself in order to keep her social status and Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler hiring a prostitute to fulfil the loneliness’ in his life. Therefor due to the historical content of the film and the fictional alteration of the historical content The Lives of Others is both a necessary and a controversial film.

Works cited

Ebert, R. (2007). The Lives Of Others. [Blog] RogerEbert. Available at: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-lives-of-others-2007-1 [Accessed 6 Jan. 2015].


Encyclopedia Britannica, (2013). Stasi | East German government. [online] Available at: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/563751/Stasi [Accessed 6 Jan. 2015].


Funder, A. (2007). Tyranny of terror. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/may/05/featuresreviews.guardianreview12 [Accessed 7 Jan. 2015]


Miller, B. (1999). Narratives of guilt and compliance in unified Germany. London [u.a.]: Routledge.


Scott, C. and Taylor, F. (2014). Totalitarianism on Screen. Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky.

The Lives of Others. (2006). [film] Wiedemann & Berg Filmproduktion,: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck[Director].

Dekalog: Communism or Catholicism?

Kieślowski, K. (Director). (1989). Dekalog [Motion Picture]. Poland : Sender Freies Berlin.

Is Svankmajer Responding to Puppetry or Politics?

           Svankmajer, J. (Director). (2000). Otesanek [Motion Picture]. Czech : Athanor.

Can Art Start a Revolution?

Eisenstein , S. (Director). (1925). Battleship Potemkin [Motion Picture]. Soviet Union : Goskino .