How far does the impact of the films you have studied for this topic depend on distinctive uses of film techniques?

During the 'Urban Stories' topic we have studied La Haine, a french film directed by Mathieu Kassovitz.
I believe this film uses many technical codes in order to create the 'impact' that it has, it depends on these significantly.

One technical code that La Haine uses is framing, Kassovitz used this film technique to comment on the conflict and relationship between characters, especially between the 3 main characters, Said, Vinz and Hubert.

The 3 protagonists are mostly always shown in this order with Said in between/seperating Hubert and Vinz; this shows that he is the one that brings them all together.

Another film technique Kassovitz used is the use of the 360 degree turn, some of the scenes where this technique occurs are, when they hear the scooter go past in the projects and when they go to visit Abdul in the police station.  This 360 degree turn is used to show that the problems that are faced by France, especially Paris, are ever occurring and that they will never be solved as when they get close to solving them, the problems arise again. This is supported by the story that 'Mr Toilet' tells to Said, Vinz and Hubert whilst in the bathroom in Paris, he talks about how his friend was running for the leaving train but every time he reached to grab the train, his trousers fell down, putting him back to the start again, much like the problems in Paris. The problems that Kassovitz is commenting on are the common riots that take place across France, the most recent one being the 2005 riots.

These riots are not started by just one event, this links in with the recurring "ticking clock" sound whenever a new chapter starts in La Haine, the ticking clock resembles a time bomb just waiting to go off. This means the tension and disorder is building up and awaiting one event, one catalyst which starts the riots, in the film this is the hospitalisation of Abdul.

Kassovitz also wanted to show how people, especially Vinz, are effected by american culture.
A scene where this is prominent is when Vinz is in the bathroom and reenacts the scene from 'Taxi Driver', a well known Martin Scorcese film starring Robert De Niro.
This scene begins with a surreal mirror shot where the camera moves towards the back of Vinz's head and passes over him as he bends over to spit into the sink, we are then met with Vinz facing the camera as if the camera passed through the mirror, this in itself is Kassovitz saying to the audience "this is real life, this isn't just a film, this is reality" as he makes the camera "break through" to the real world.

This type of shot, with Vinz aiming a gun etc is repeated throughout the film. I believe this shows the tension the french people are feeling as each time he is seen in this situation he is a little bit more "serious" about doing it, despite the fact that he was scarred after seeing the guy getting shot in paris.
It is also stating that violence (connoted by the gun) is at the centre of the situation aka france, especially the projects in which they dwell; this is also supported by the quote "The world only goes round through misunderstanding" by Charles Baudelaire who was a french poet, he also appears graffitied on the wall within the projects.

This scene also supports the previous statement about guns (violence and crime) being the centre of the situation, this is because when 'Notre Dame' runs out to arrest a "youth", his gun is in the centre of the frame throughout the entire scene. He uses it to attempt to control the youths; this just shows how prominent violence, which is connoted by the gun, is in these projects.

About violence and crime being the centre of the situation, the recurrence of the gun being in the centre shows that these kind of actions (crime) is a daily occurrence in the projects, this is supported by the scene where Hubert does a drug deal and Said and Vinz are not paying any attention to it and carrying on with their conversation. The background of this scene also comments on how crime "controls" the projects, the graffiti is of Michelangelo's, Creation of Adam, this is because Hubert is on the side of 'Gods' hand and he is the one dealing the drugs and the man on the left is buying the drugs and he is on the 'Adam' side.