La Haine: French Dissilusionment Gets Violent

In 1995, Mathieu Kassovitz was a 29 year-old director who's two previous films had examined the alienation and divide within the youth of France. In La Haine, he takes it one step further and blows up the screen with an ensemble of anger, prejudice and social clashes unlike anything seen before or since. When watching La Haine it's impossible not to think of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing, another film boiling over in racial and social tension.

La Haine takes place over a single day and its focus is three young men—a Jew, an Arab, and a black African—a representation of the diversity existing in France. They spend the day toiling around the French underworld, venturing through the city, imploding with reckless abandon. They’ve a vendetta against the world.

Kassovitz's view of France is bleak, but that is social realism at its most effective. It's a film made from the heart, and in light of comments made by Kassovitz over the last decade it's clear to see that none of his resentment towards the establishment has gone away.

The film is set in the immediate aftermath of a riot where a friend of the three young men has been beaten into a coma by the police. The three men Vinz (the Jew), Said (the Arab), and Hubert (the black African) were all seemingly involved in the rioting. Their relationship appears to be based on the fact they share a social class as all three men have intrinsically different personalities. Vinz is volatile and impulsive, Said is funny and carefree, and Hubert, the boxer, is the relaxed and mature one. It's Vincent Cassel's portrayal of Vinz that steals the show. Cassel spins through the desolate Parisian suburbs with venom in his eyes and a smirk on his face. This role ensuredthat Cassel shot to stardom, becoming one of France's best actors. He would later play Jacques Mesrine to universal acclaim.

The intensity of the film is unrelenting. Kassovitz traps the three boys in their surroundings. It's a tragic watch knowing that these three men—who are not bad people—can never escape their decadent surroundings. Kassovitz's anger towards the French government may even top Vinz's. During the course of the day they have numerous confrontations with the police: at a hospital, at a flat roof turned youth centre. Kassovitz isn't afraid to portray the police as self-righteous bullies. The main characters get singled out because they are young minorities, and they have to respond. The frames of La Haine reverberate in anger. It is an impassioned film that wants to make a stand against the police brutality and institutional racism that exists in France, much like Spike Lee ruthlessly tackled racial unease in the US in his early career.

The seemingly aimless events of the film underline the fact that these three men have no opportunities. They live in an economic wasteland, there are no jobs, no prospects, just nothing. Even Hubert's boxing gym, his pride and joy, was destroyed in the riots. A rage burns within these men and there are no outlets for them to let this rage go. Hubert is the only one who realises that he can never escape his social situation, but yet, he is the wise sage of the three.

The bleak ending was inevitable but still so effective, and it only makes you think more about the circumstances of the three men and their surroundings. The final scenes of the film only reminds you of the lines Hubert says earlier—"hatred breeds hatred."

La Haine is raw, aggressive filmmaking at its finest and it has thankfully been a big hit around the globe, in particular amongst young males. It's a knockout piece of social realism that refuses to let its portrayal of a burning inner world be. And it’s still as important today as it was when it was first released. Additionally, it's also the film that made us start doing Travis Bickle impressions in French: “C’est moi tu parle? C’est moi to parle!?”