La haine (1995)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Mathieu Kassovitz

Writer:

Mathieu Kassovitz (written by)

Release Date:

23 February 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

Three Young Friends... One Last Chance.

Plot:

Abdel, a local hoodlum, is hospitalized after a riot, where a policeman lost his gun. His friend Vinz finds it and claims he will kill a cop if Abdel dies.

Plot Keywords:

Riot | Gun | Hospital | French Suburb | Ghetto

Awards:

8 wins & 11 nominations

Cast

Vincent Cassel	...	Vinz
Hubert Koundé	...	Hubert
Saïd Taghmaoui	...	Saïd
Abdel Ahmed Ghili	...	Abdel
Solo	...	Santo
Joseph Momo	...	Ordinary Guy
Héloïse Rauth	...	Sarah
Rywka Wajsbrot	...	Vinz's Grandmother
Olga Abrego	...	Vinz's Aunt
Laurent Labasse	...	Cook
Choukri Gabteni	...	Saïd's Brother
Nabil Ben Mhamed	...	Boy Blague
Benoît Magimel	...	Benoît
Medard Niang	...	Médard
Arash Mansour	...	Arash

Also Known As:

La haine (UK) (USA)
Droits du cité (France) (working title)
The Hate (International: English title)

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color | Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Iceland:14 | Iceland:16 (video rating) | Norway:15 | Australia:MA | New Zealand:R16 | New Zealand:R18 | Argentina:16 | Finland:K-16 | Germany:12 (bw) | Portugal:M/18 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | Netherlands:16

Filming Locations:

Chanteloup-les-Vignes, Yvelines, France

Company:

Canal+

Trivia:

In some English-language versions, such as the 2007 Criterion Collection DVD, the name Astérix was changed to Snoopy in the subtitles, as the film traveled further than the Asterix books did.

Goofs:

Continuity: The policeman who kills Vinz fires a single shot, and the slide of his handgun is locked back. The very next scene shows his gun with the slide forward, and the hammer down.

Quotes:

Hubert: Heard about the guy who fell off a skyscraper? On his way down past each floor, he kept saying to reassure himself: So far so good... so far so good... so far so good. How you fall doesn't matter. It's how you land!

Movie Connections:

References Taxi Driver (1976)

Soundtrack:

Funk Funk

The Hood by a Frenchman

Rather like Haneke's Code Inconnu, we follow a principle trio of destitute urban teenagers through 24 hours in episodes, punctuated with screen splits showing the time - and, invariably, their boredom. There is no romanticism or squalor in squalid drug dens (unlike in the contemporary Trainspotting) or any carousel of murder. The boys want to do their own thing, perhaps collect the pettiest of debts and get along. Instead their every encounter breaks down into goading and aggression, however constructively instigated by the boys.

Kassowitz paints bleak sequences, but without a sense of hopelessness. Instead we are left with frustration that there is no intervention to manipulate the intelligence and good intentions of the boys at each chapter of their day. The episode in the private gallery is the perfect example of this; the imaginary cul-de-sac of self-worth that eventually leads them to behave with defensive antagonism is a painful scene.

Vincent Cassel is the money name leading the melodrama. Said Tagmaouhi is a good foil for Cassel's occasionally self-regarding virtuosity, but I was most impressed with Hubert Koundeas, the introspective, middle class manqué third of the three. The film stays true throughout, incorporating Paris as a metropolitan backdrop, rather than a beautiful juxtaposition for pity's sake. A troubling, even angry but positive film. A real benchmark. 7.5/10