‘La haine‘ – ‘Hate‘ is one of the most appropriate titles of movies I’ve seen lately. Many times, faced with violent social events, demonstrations and protests, we ask ourselves: ‘why do they hate us?’. The question is not new. Written and directed in 1995 by Mathieu Kassovitz, the film can be considered a warning about the desperate situation in the Parisian suburbs and especially about the hopelessness of an entire generation born and raised there. If we are to go by the events that happened in France in the 27 years since the film was made, the situation only seems to have gotten worse and more complicated. The film’s heroes, three young people from a lost generation (or one of the lost generations) seem to be animated by a declared hatred of the system, unadaptable and hostile to the world in which they live. What are the roots of this feeling that dominates them? Is there any hope or option for them other than the personal and social disaster that seems to be their destiny? Without giving definitive answers, ‘La haine‘ suggests them. It does it with the artistic mastery of the fine filmmaker who would become Mathieu Kassovitz and with the sincerity and involvement of a young man who was only 28 years old when he made this film.
Two strong cinematic influences are evident in ‘La haine‘: the French New Wave of the 60s and the American culture (including but not limited to cinema). In many ways the film reminded me of Godard’s and Truffaut’s early New Wave films. The scene where one of the heroes looks in the mirror, taken from ‘Taxi Driver’ (‘You talkin’ to me?’) is one of the examples of dialogue between American and French cinema. The story takes place in less than 24 hours, mostly on the streets of Paris or the suburbs. Filming in black and white is an aesthetic decision and emphasizes the quasi-documentary nature of the film. The main characters have proper names similar to those of the actors. It is about three young people, second or third generation in immigrant families, who live on the outskirts from multiple points of view: geographically, socially, ethnically (one is Jewish, one Arab, one African). Life and the social environment did not offer them much hope. They have no work, they spend their time in the streets, most of the time violently clashing with those around them. They are not criminals, but the way they look and behave makes the police consider them suspicious. Their manners, language, disrespect and contempt for social norms seem more like a reaction to the way they are viewed and treated and to the apparent lack of hope or options to break out of the impasse into which society has pushed them. The one day and one night that we spend with them are a collection of random events and non-events, as is their life. A gun also appears at the beginning of the film, and the rules of dramaturgy from Chekhov onwards dictate that it will be used until the end. Will this happen?
The heroes live under the influence of American pop culture and hip-hop, and this is also reflected in the film’s soundtrack – American music plus a scene where a DJ improvises a disco number for the whole neighborhood. The social contrasts are excellently captured in the trip that the heroes make to Paris, with scenes that have the atmosphere of a road trip in a completely different world. The actors (Vincent Cassel, Saïd Taghmaoui, Hubert Koundé) are excellently chosen and always give the impression that they are living their characters rather than acting them. ‘Le haine‘ is well written and finely filmed and that is why it had and continues to have an impact on those who see it for the first time or rewatch it after many years. If it was made today, this movie wouldn’t look much different.