Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.
Imagine a film about a riot that caused a riot when it was first shown in theaters! Now imagine that this took place not in Los Angeles, New York, or Detroit – not in America at all – but in the underbelly of Paris! That’s right – in the most beautiful city in the world, sexy, sophisticated, gay Paris.
You’d be imagining La Haine or, in English translation, Hate. This 1995 film was the brainchild of Mathieu Kassovitz, a low-budget project for which he acted as director, editor, script writer, and, even, as a cameo actor. At twenty-five years of age, this was already Kassovitz’s second feature length film and won him the 1995 Cannes Best Director award as well as three Cesar awards. Kassovitz’s first film was “Café au Lait” (1994), which also had a multi-ethnicity theme. Kassovitz is often compared with Spike Lee and Quentin Tarantino but has his own distinctive voice. La Haine was filmed in cinema-vérité style. It is in black & white and has something of the feel of a documentary, but don’t let that put you off. This is a powerful film.
The Story: The action takes place over a 24-hr period, in a housing project on the outskirts of Paris. It is a world of volatile gangs facing off against thuggish, autocratic police. The physical environment is comprised of desolate concrete vistas, with burnt-out wrecks littered about, boarded-up buildings, and graffiti tinged fences. Here, the youth have no jobs, no money, no independence, no prospects, and nothing to do but chill. In many ways it is like the inner cities of America, but race is a less significant factor and class distinction a greater one in defining friendships and membership in the French gangs. The homeboys in this French ghetto are strangely Americanized, at least in a derivative way, presumably via TV and movies. It is a statement of defiance against the French culture from which they are effectively marginalized. An odd mix of despair and apathy permeates the air. Nearby, a large billboard seems to rub there condition in their faces: “Le Monde a Nous” (“The World is Ours”).
The story revolves around three close friends of diverse ethnicity. The first we meet is Said (Said Taghmaoui), an Arab from N. Africa. He is clownish and irreverent – somewhat of a tagalong follower type. Next is Vinz (Vincent Cassel), who is Jewish and packed tight with pent-up hostility – a kind of walking time bomb. Finally, there is Hubert (Hubert Kounde), a black man who aspires to be a professional boxer. He is a bit more mature and thoughtful, and the least violent of the three, despite his boxing interest. Although the conversations among these disaffected young men are sharp and aggressive, they are obviously tight with one another – almost a surrogate family.
The story begins as a riot in the projects is coming to an end. Instigators have been hauled off to jail and club-wielding police have gained control. During the melee, a 16-year-old Arab boy and friend of our protagonists had been shot by the police. He has gone to the hospital in critical condition. During the riot, one of the cops lost a police pistol, a Smith & Wesson 44. The streets have been temporarily cleared.
Following the riots, Said is among the first back on the streets. He sneaks up behind a police truck and recklessly spray paints the back of it with “F*** the pigs” just out of site of the officers. Said then hurries over to Vinz’s apartment and wakes him. Vinz lives in a small flat with his parents, siblings, and a grandmother. Said and Vinz have a coarse exchange mostly relating to Said’s carnal notions in relation to Vinz’s sister, which Vinz tolerates up to a point. They smoke some pot and start to head out. Vinz’s grandmother pointlessly lectures him not to becomes involved if further riots occur, arguing, “You start out like that, you’ll end up not going to temple.”
Said and Vinz roam the streets aimlessly for a bit, hang out a while, then saunter over to the gym where Hubert works out. The gym has been burned out by the riot except for one solitary punching bag that Hubert is pulverizing. They chat heatedly about the riots. Vinz aggressively swears that he’ll kill a cop if the Arab in the hospital dies. This underscores how little ethnicity plays a role in the French ghetto in governing their views, since Vinz, the Jew, is the one most bent on revenge should the Arab kid die.
The three friends smoke some more weed and chill with some brothers on a rooftop handout. Apparently, it is a regular spot for the young men; it is even fixed up with its own hotdog stand. Said is so broke that he steals a hotdog, forcing his older brother to cough up the money for the vender. Soon the police show up to roust them for no particular reason.
Said, Vinz, and Hubert head over to a local fence who owes Said some money, but the fence’s only concern, today, is that his car was burned during the riots. He tells Said that he’ll have to go to the next guy up the chain, a up-town buyer known as “Snoopy”, if he want his money. They overhear on the TV that a gun was lost during the riots. Later, Vinz admits to his comrades that he is the one who found it and shows them where he has stashed it. Being in possession of the cop’s gun makes Vinz feel invigorated and potent , but is something of a worry for his companions. At home, Vinz practices in the mirror his best imitation of the Travis Bickle (the assassin) line from Taxi Driver: “Who you talkin’ to?”
The boys hitch up again and head out of the projects to a wealthy up-town neighborhood to collect Said’s money from Snoopy. Getting hungry on the way, they spot the grand opening of a haute-culture art-gallery and invite themselves in. They partake heartily of the free food, then turn to a humorously ineffective effort to pick up a pair of classy chicks. Soon bouncing from that gig, they meet a cop and are actually startled when the soft-spoken guy politely offers them directions. Not like the police they encounter in the projects! They reach Snoopy’s building but are uncertain of his real name and end up buzzing the whole set of apartments, thus alarming some of the residents. They finally locate Snoopy’s apartment and discover that he is a very scary-weird guy, hyped up on some kind of dope, perhaps. When Vinz flashes his gun to show off, Snoopy immediately challenges him to a game of Russian roulette, totally freaking them out. He kicks them out without even giving Said his money. Meanwhile, the up-town cops have been alerted to the presence of this “undesirable element” in their classy neighborhood and are waiting as the boys exit. Vinz escapes but the two others are hauled off to the police station interrogation room where they are tortured by choke holds and subjected to racial taunts and sexual epithets, for no better reason than to provide a training session for a rookie cop in techniques of humiliation and intimidation. They are released too late for the last train back to the projects and end up wandering around waiting for the early train. They run into a small gang of neo-Nazis and are about to be in for another beating, until Vinz pulls out his gun, turning the tables on the skin-heads. All but one of the skin-heads is able to flee and the last is beaten up by the project boys. As they head back to the projects, they learn that the Arab boy shot in the riot has died. Hubert and Said fret that Vinz will carry out his vow. The ending is dramatic but surprising and will not be further revealed here.
Characteristics of the Film:La Haine provides us with some truly distinctive images. The editing makes skillful use of dissolves from one scene to the next. The soundtrack effectively reinforces the action. The documentary style of the photography fits the thrust of the film’s message, making us feel that what we are seeing has been uncovered by an investigative news team. Although La Haine has the feel of an art film, it is thoroughly edgy and entertaining. The acting is quite realistic and it seems only fitting that the names of the characters were matched with the first names of the performers.
This is a bleak and disturbing film – as well it should be given the subject matter and message. There is no romanticizing of the characters or the life of the ghetto. The three main characters are likable and involving, but are also presented as largely lacking in insight and sound judgment. We get a sense that the mix of these characters and this environment most lead inevitably to tragedy. A story recited by one of the characters during the film prepares us for the films ultimate message: “Society is like a man falling off a building. As he passes each floor, he thinks to himself, ‘So far so good!’” The obvious inference from films like La Haine is that if we don’t collectively face up to problems of racism, classism, and brutality, we’re bound to land on the sidewalk no matter how well we seem to be falling in the meantime. What counts is not how you fall but how you land. The particulars of this film may be entirely French, but the universality of its message is obvious. La Haine has a running time of 95 minutes and is in French with English subtitles.
*************************************************************************************************
You might want to check out these other excellent films from France:
An ethnically diverse trio of angry young men living in a Paris housing project struggle with how to react after a friend of theirs is beaten by polic...More at Family Video
When he was just twenty-nine years old, Mathieu Kassovitz took the international film world by storm with La Haine (Hate), a gritty, unsettling, and v...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.