Haine (la)

English title: Hate

Genre: social drama (in black and white)

With: Vincent Cassel (Vinz), Hubert Koundé (Hubert), Saïd Taghmaoui (Saïd), Karim Belkhadra (Samir), Marc Duret (‟Notre Dame”), François Levantal (Astérix), Édouard Montoute (Darty), Mathieu Kassovitz (the Skinhead), Vincent Lindon (the drunk man), Benoît Magimel (Benoît), Rywka Wajsbrot (Vinz's Grandmother), Olga Abrego (Vinz's Aunt), Laurent Labasse (Cook), Choukri Gabteni (Saïd's Brother)

Director: Mathieu Kassovitz

Screenplay: Mathieu Kassovitz

Release: 1995

Studio: Egg Pictures, Kasso Inc. Productions et al.

Rating: 13+

MBiS score: 8.6/10 

 

‟You know what's right and wrong?” 

 

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Story-line: Paris. The opening scene takes place in a banlieue (in this special context, a suburban area plagued by social problems). Scornful and defiant, a rioter blames the police for the injuries suffered by his homeboy Abdel, yelling ‟It’s easy for you to shoot. We don’t have guns, only rocks.” LA HAINE follows three locals, Vinz, Saïd and Hubert, as they pick up the pieces on the day after the riot.

Pluses: very credible acting by Vincent Cassel (a restless, vindictive Vinz), Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui and a strong cast, breathless direction, a realistic and striking screenplay whose dramatic twists still leave room for a few offbeat moments (Vinz’s rendition of the famous TAXI DRIVER monologue and the old man’s story about Siberia), fine cinematography, production values that provide stimulating samples of youth culture, a varied musical score (reggae, soul, hip hop) and a thought-provoking ending.

Minuses: cops use brutality and racist slurs in their frequent confrontations with local youths. The movie contains scenes of delirious mayhem.

Comments: due to its lifelike depiction of a world where young men from minority groups are left out and constantly belittled by the police, LA HAINE is not a film you can easily dismiss. Violence begets violence in such a way that nothing makes sense anymore; what matters is the faceoff, the affirmation of one’s identity and power. Some youths see a way out of this desperate world – like Hubert who has chosen boxing as an escape route – while others remain stranded and hopeless. Mathieu Kassovitz has crafted a film that withstands the test of time… a turbulent, dangerous and mesmerizing movie whose potency I cannot fully describe. Here’s how Roger Ebert explained it appropriately in 1996 : ‟Hate” is, I suppose, a Generation X film, whatever that means, but more mature and insightful than the American Gen X movies. In America, we cling to the notion that we have choice, and so if our Gen X heroes are alienated from society, it is their choice--it's their "lifestyle." In France, Kassovitz says, it is society that has made the choice. 

 

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