RyanCShowers — 12 years ago(December 16, 2013 07:14 PM)

http://feelthefilms.wordpress.com/2013/12/17/army-of-shadows-vs-la-hai ne/
Sometimes similarities and differences pop out of two films for an analyst in an overt fashion, while other instances they are not spelled out for the viewer to take notice. Overlapping similarities can be discerned from two films in French cinema that may not look like they have a lot to compare and contrast with one another on the surface, but when eyes can be opened to things we take for granted with the films, La haine (1995) and Larme des ombres (1969), translated to Army of Shadows. The gang driven films about fighting the system, rooted in violence, challenge the characters loyalties while the filmmakers play with the artistic visions.
Army of Shadows is a masterful mantelpiece of director and screenwriter, Jean-Pierre Melville. In his film, he represents a specific time in French history in its exploration of the French Resistance. Melville shows the gritty, painful truth occupied France and the struggle of the people in hiding. They were concerned with getting to the next day and hiding themselves. Safety was the most vital thing for members of the French Resistance.
The members of this organization did not value friendship with individuals, but instead loyalty to their cause. Army of Shadows is an impressive piece of cinema due to its beautiful color cinematography, rich representation of its subject matter, and the watchable factor that makes it so accessible as a feature film to audiences today.
La haines topic of discussion is pinned to something as specific as the French Resistence, in particular discussing gang violence amongst adolescences. The screenwriter also doubles as the director (Mathieu Kassovitz) like Army of Darkness, but the vision differs completely from the latter. La haine is a social commentary on the state of Frances lower class youth. With distinctive stylized shots of black and white film, La haine is laid back vision of a possible scenario while it explores its unique characters.
La haine is a more documentary-eqaue take on the violence of the street rather than Army of Shadows, which completes a whole film. This aspect defies belief of the expected about the materialistic aspect of filmmaking: it is easier to dramatize a story about the street, rather than pull the wrong notes in a complex Holocaust film.
In the making of these two films, the directors have two distinct decisions about the manner of shooting their projects. Melville choses to show us his interpretation of the French Resistence using color cinematography. Though he has many shots that take place in dark settings, the audience is still expressed the colors, something that ignites optimistic hopeful feelings, ironic because in the Resistence there is no hope, only savage actions trying to get through the next moments.
In La haine, the gang we follow for the duration of the film is not running from the police like the Resistence runs from the Nazis, they seem to have more aspiration for a better future. Strangely, La haine (a newer film by thirty years) is the feature shot in black and white photography to drown out the harshness of the world of the underprivileged.
Army of Shadows and La haine have clear subject matters about being united with people in a group that values an idea above all else. But the groups means specifically different things to the characters in the two films, theyre fighting different images of authority for different reasons, and the way the public understands these groups in modern society are different.
In Army of Shadows the characters find themselves drawn to each other through the bigger cause, withstanding from the Nazis and their extreme orders of labor and death. The characters Phillippe, Luc, and Mathilde are binded by a feeling of survival and they treat their relationships with each other like a business transaction. They have a set of rules they follow and if they disobey those set restrictions, consequences ensue that would not have if followed correctly.
The Resistence is kept in extreme secrecy and they act as carefully as humanly possible. The members do not even trust their family members enough to let them know of their role in this secret organization of goodwill and living. They try to resist the Nazis, a dictatorship that values are not humanely compatible. The actions of Nazis are unjust and the world recognizes the harm and devastation they inflicted on the Jewish community and the world. The members of the Resistance are seen as the good guys for even having the courage to stay alive.
A membership is formed in La haine, but a more casual one and that is less led like a business. Vinz, Hubert, and Said are all great friends, that is where their mutual alliance began and was founded. In La haine, we see them as our heroes and are asked to release our shadow onto the image of the characters as a source of identification, but the lines of right and wrong are more skewed than they are with Ar