La Haine

Filmed entirely in black and white with strong hand-held work, La Haines visual style is tenacious and daring, owing as much to the rawness of classic cinema verite as it does to contemporary music video.

Pierre Aims' exemplary cinematography innovates and energizes the film, drawing the audience into the melee. Rooftop party scenes are filmed hand-held, unbroken, the festivities jarred by the unwelcome arrival of armed Gendarmes. Heightening the tension and sense of nailbitten urban claustrophobia, the camera swings chaotically between protagonists at fist level. The audience is repeatedly drawn into intense situations, into the midst of the occasional skirmishes that pepper the film.

The visuals peak with the panoramic journey over the housing project to the tune of KRS-Ones "Sound a da police" mixed with Edith Piaf by French Deckmeister CutKiller. The camera concentrates on CutKiller mixing at his decks in his bedroom and sails out of the window and drifts high above children playing in the courtyard below (how this was filmed is a perpetual mystery to me, anybody who has any feedback on this matter: CLICK ON MAIL BELOW!).