Hotel Rwanda

The scene I’m analysing is the when Paul goes to get food and drinks for the Tutsi’s who are staying in the Hotel. I’m going to be explaining about the camera angles, sounds (sound effects and music) and also camera movement. But before all of this first let me explain what happens in the scene.

In the scene I’m analysing; it all starts with Paul walking towards his van. The van is full of food that Paul has paid for to feed the Tutsies. While Paul was preparing to drive off, George came to the window on the side of the driver and offered Paul a deal. The deal includes that Paul hands over all the Tutsies who are hiding in his hotel to the Hutus and if he does that they would allow him to keep some Tutsies of his own which George obviously meant his wife and kids. Paul replied saying it’s late and that he should be going home. George advised him to take the back route claiming it was clear. Paul drives off using Georges advice; taking the back route. George’s use of “clear” was deeply ironic. Also I believe when George said “clear” he meant clear of Tutsies. When Paul was driving through the back route, the van was bouncing up and down; and Paul asked to stop the van as he was scared the van was going to be driven into the river. When the van stops Paul attempted to step out but falls on top dead Tutsies. When Paul looks to see what he fell on he looks to his side and sees a kid dead with his hands covering his ears. After seeing that one kid he looks around and see multiple of dead Tutsies everywhere. He starts panting with shock and stands up. There is a lot of fog; Paul is looking below him seeing numerous of dead people. As he gets his head up the fog starts to disappear and he can see a long road ahead full of dead people of all ages. He is traumatise by what he can see. He has a little vomit into his cloth which shows respect. The reason why this shows respect is because he could have easily vomited on the dead Tutsies. Gregoire (Paul’s driver who is also a Hutu) saw through the van window this disastrous tragedy. At the end of the scene, Paul enters the van like he is hopeless and powerless; like he has no way of winning. This scene is in the middle of the film just when the story was getting tensed. That is the scene summary.

The directors choices in the scene are very interesting. A choice from the director was to have a close up on Paul’s face when he realised the actual genocide going on his country. Paul saw a road full of dead people. The reason why the director chose to close up on Paul face is to show the epiphany and the audience can feel the real horror of this civil war. The director of the film chose to do a close up numerous times which helps us understand the events in the film.

In Hotel Rwanda the director used loads of different camera angles and kept changing the camera shots. In one conversion the camera shots has to change several times for whoever is speaking. If this didn’t happen the audience would never understand who is speaking. In this scene and example of camera change was when they did a long shot of the van.  That long shot helped us understand the area Paul was in and what his surroundings were. Another example is when they did a close up shot on a kid with his hands around his ears. That shot gave a very strong message to all viewers. Even though we knew what was going on in Rwanda and how upsetting the genocide; to see a kid spend his last seconds alive being scared with his hands around his ears just makes you need to breath in and out. It makes you want to help and do something.

This is how the director of Hotel Rwanda use cinematographic techniques to develop tension in Paul’s epiphany scene