La Haine Review

“La Haine”, a 93 minute film regarding about three adolescents(Vincent Cassel, Hubert Kounde, and Said Taghmaoui) who struggle to cope in a poverty-stricken environment in which hatred and violence are part of everyday life. Even the title “La Haine” which is a French word, translated to 'The Hatred' suggests what the film is about. Based on a true event, “La Haine” is inspired by a real event where a young man was murdered while being questioned at a Parisian Police station. In exploring racism in the Paris suburbs, this film has a direct contrast with more typical French films, such as Amelie(2001) which presents a far more romantic and idyllic vision of French life. The beginning of La 'Haine' shows the beating of a
“La Haine”, as a story, is more symbolic than realistic. Motifs are repeated throughout the film, such as in the beginning the phrase “What is important is not how you fall but how you land”.. In “La Haine” there are American influences such as near the beginning of the film, it shows footage of the beating of a Parisian person and the Parisian riots and how it affected people which was in juxtaposition to The Beating of Rodney King which lead to the riots in LA. Kassovitz does this to reinforce the message of social inequality and its effects. Also how lower class people are disadvantaged more than upper class people due to economic issues. Phrases are shown throughout the film poster integrated into several shots such as 'The world is yours' which shows the hypocrisy of the phrase with in relation to scenes such as as in contrast to the footage of the beating of a Parisian. Also another link would be the 'Taxi Driver' impersonation where Vinz talks to himself in front of his bathroom mirror. The film also is in monochromatic black and white which implies how good and bad correspond together. Violence is depicted in the film mainly near the end when an off-duty police ambushes Vinz and accidentally shoots him dead and then Hubert points a gun at the policeman, intent on killing the policeman. This is important as this shows the reality of life, how valuable life is and how easy