This film is a foreign language Social Realism Crime/Drama about the lives of three friends, Vinz, Hubert and Saïd. An argument can be made for which character is the protagonist since a pecking order can be deciphered through the films narrative and cinematography, although the film is most likely intended by the filmmakers to follow a multi-protagonist storyline in order to increase diversity amongst the plot. The three friends represent three minority areas of French society, African, Jewish and Arab, all are immigrant cultures that have made their way into society. This character design choice helps influence the audience’s thoughts towards the film as they can better relate with the ‘underdog’ complex that each of these characters has. The linear driven story progresses over the course of a single day, the filmmakers use time stamps throughout in order to show the passing of real time and how much chaos can occur in a single day. Rather than taking place over the course of multiple days, weeks or years, a single day gives a better frame of reference for the events that the film is alluding to. The film is based around the riots and police brutality that were very common at the time. This insight into the lives of three diverse young men is a way to provide French culture with knowledge of the effects that these riots and vicious events have. This film explores themes of police brutality, violence, poverty, hierarchy and power.
The origins of all three characters, the projects, is looked down upon by middle class society in France, therefore they face discrimination from those about and around them every single day. This is one of the conflicts in the film that they must overcome, this is where the ‘underdog complex’ comes in to play The audience are further attached to these characters because they have much more motivation for their actions since they are hanging on by a thread. We see the state in which they live, in very cramped small spaces. In Vinz’s case he lives with his sister, mother and grandmother and has to share a room with his sister. This already provides into his thirst for masculinity being surrounding by women at home but also boosts his state of mind, having to feel like he needs to prove himself and provide for his family.
The cinematography plays a massive part in the film as it is used to highlight power, poverty and the pecking order between the three main characters, it is a subtle technique but works very efficently. Constantly Vinz is questioned due to him being all 'talk,' and this is showed very disticntly on two occassions. The first being when him and Said get Hubert to speak to the girls for themselves as they lacked confidence, then the second was when he said he was going to shoot the skinhead but ended up bailing once again and almost throwing up.
Further into the film’s cinematography, we can see various out of body shots, creating a surreal situation by having the character’s look directly into the camera. This happens several times mainly with Vinz and Saïd, particularly at the very start of the film. This is used in order to connect the audience with the characters by removing the barrier of the screen, creating an effect as if the characters are in the room with the audience. Often in the film, objects and characters are pointed directly at the camera. One repetitious example is the gun, whether it is Vinz with his fingers or the actual gun, it is a symbol of power that is constantly played around with by accentuating its destructive features. Its action and sound is used twice as a scene transition in order to create a more fluid experience in the film.
