Refugee Day film: La Haine (Hate)
Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995, France, Black & White, in French with English subtitles, 98 mins, Certificate: 15
La Haine – Hate. “Jusqu’ici tout va bien” – “So far, so good”. “La haine attire la haine!” – “hatred breeds hatred”.
All is there. In the title, the original tagline, and the line of dialogue spoken by Hubert. He is one of the 3 young men, an African, an Arab, and a Jew, 24 hours in the life of who this film follows. In a Paris banlieue – suburban immigrant neighbourhood, or more accurately, ghetto, after a violent riot caused by police brutality.
So far so good, then. But for how long?
Mathieu Kassovitz’s modern, groundbreaking classic, on the cusp of its 30th anniversary now, premiered at and took the Cannes Film Festival by storm, won the Best Director prize, caused the French police’s ire and reinvigorated French cinema. It is ever fresh, ever urgent, raw, fun, and at times funny, tragic, black & white, yet unmistakably, humanly colourful, as it interrogates notions of racism, xenophobia, alienation and prejudice. In short, the generational vicious circle immigrants or refugees find themselves trapped in, even long after reaching their promised welcoming destination.
In one of its most iconic scenes, Vincent Cassel as Vinz echoes Robert De Niro’s (and Martin Scorsese’s) Travis Brickle – aka Taxi Driver, asking his mirror “Are you talking to me?” in his own language. Or is it actually his own? After all, his Paris is no longer the luminous, fabled city, but a grey, nightmarish, concrete jungle. It may not be even French. But what metropolis is of one nation, or one culture? How can it possible be?
This is why La Haine is our Refuge Day film. And it is unmissable.
Reviews:
“Revisiting the film after all these years is a much gentler and all together more contemplative experience… There are shades of Jim Jarmousch’s Stranger Than Paradise in the deadpan interaction between the central trio adding an element of affectionate humor that makes the underlying tragedy even more affecting… The title might mean hate, but what shines through after [more than] a quarter of a century is love.” Mark Kermode, BFI Player
“La Haine remains an incendiary, insightful, and vital piece of cinema decades after its original release and remains more relevant than ever. Its lead actors, including Vincent Cassel, also deliver some of French Cinema’s most memorable turns.” Lewis Knight, Mirror
“… as a portrait of an inner city, multiracial community drawn together by boredom, anger, prejudice and pounding rap music, La Haine has lost none of its punch… Stark, exquisite black-and-white photography drains what little cheer there is out of the concrete jungle, creating an alien cityscape devoid of sunshine. But Mathieu Kassovitz’s triumph is in finding humanity in every single one of his characters… ” Alan Morisson, Empire
“The movie is bookended with the famous non-joke about the guy who falls off a skyscraper… optimistically murmuring: “So far, so good … ” A brutal landing is imminent, the movie implies, a horrible violent reckoning of racial injustice. For [almost 30] years since La Haine came, it seems as if the fall has been continuing and the definitive landing has still not happened… La Haine is an unmissable response to an unending emergency.” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian