Essentials: La Haine

Year: 1995 (France)
Genre: Drama/Crime Drama
Directed: Mathieu Kassovitz
Stars: Vincent Cassel, Hubert Kounde, Said Taghmaoui, Abdel Ahmed Ghili, Solo, Joseph Momo, Heloise Rauth, Benoit Magimel
Production: Canal+


When I was in high school, I read the book Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe in my English class. The novel follows the life of a Igbo tribesman and his kin as they adjust to the arrival of Christian missionaries and struggle with the impact of British colonial rule. It's a great book that illustrates Western cultures' largely grim history towards "less civilized" societies. Better still, Things Fall Apart is not liberal white guilt shrouded in anthropological verses; it's a book that attempts to accurately portray things as they were and as they eventually became. The main character Okonkwo isn't a mindless barbarian nor a noble tribesman but somewhere in-between. Hubert, Vinz and Said, the main characters of La Haine (1995) (roughly translates from French to Hate), are much like Okonkwo. They are not quite saints or sinners, just a gang of French kids with little to do but sit around and watch the world throw insult and injury at their banlieue.

Banlieue means suburb.

But let us start at the beginning; 10:38am. Said (Said Taghmaoui) a young man of Middle Eastern descent is standing outside of Vinz's (Vincent Cassel) house waiting for him to wake up. He calls out his name creating a ruckus Vinz's neighbors don't take too kindly to. As Vinz goes about his business getting ready there is a menorah behind him. They meet up with Hubert (Hubert Kounde) a young black man just trying to keep his nose clean especially since the last riot in the banlieue left many public buildings ransacked and his friends may have been involved. To top it all off, one of their friends Abdel was put into a coma while in police custody and Vinz vows to get revenge anyway he can.

Sweet, sweet revenge

The precipitating macguffin is a lost police firearm that the trio get ahold of. Vinz would like to use it

Macguffin means plot device through a desired object

to kill a cop if Abdel dies and holsters it like a gangster wannabe. Through the gun, the audience travels with the young multi-ethnic men through nineteen hours in the life. The voiceover forebodingly divulges a tale; "Heard about the guy who fell off a skyscraper? On his way down past each floor, he kept saying to reassure himself: So far so good... so far so good... so far so good. How you fall doesn't matter. It's how you land!" Throughout the day the three have constant run-ins with police; some trying to keep the boys out of trouble, some just doing their jobs, and some abusing their power. It's easy to see how things will land.

But to summarize La Haine as a story about men making bad decisions and getting punished for it would be selling the filmmakers short. The movie expands to explore the nature of violence and how it can inhabit minds. Furthermore it explores how poverty, and racism can coax violence from people. The characters are all minorities living in a country that is passively and symbolically racist towards them. They feed off of the violence depicted in popular entertainment and are incensed by the police brutality around them. Yet they have nowhere to release their frustrations. "Hate breeds hate," the sensible Hubert explains as Vinz pumps himself up for possible homicide.

It's important to note that much like the Projects of Chicago or New York, the banlieues of Paris are apportioned largely by differences in income distribution and extreme racial segregation. While Said and Vinz would under other circumstances be religiously in conflict, because of their minority status, they interact with the world at large in tandem.



Improper use of the word milieu

Like Things Fall Apart, La Haine follows the same tragic hero milieu that certainly doesn't end with rays of sunshine. Still the raw acting talent exhibited by the cast, the stylish bare-bones directing by Matthieu Kassovitz and, above all biting social commentary, makes this film a must watch. I'll leave you with the first part of William Yeat's poem for which the title of Things Fall Apart is based off of which seems apropos:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

Final Grade: A