IMDb Top 250: #223 – La Haine (1995)

250 films, 250 reviews. This is a pretty crazy idea, but who doesn’t love a challenge? Here at Cultured Vultures we’ll be counting down the IMDb Top 250 with a review for each from one of our dedicated film writers. Everything from Goodfellas to Casablanca will be covered over the next year or so for you film lovers to enjoy. You can’t say we don’t spoil you, you lovely lot. – Ashley, Project Lead

French culture is, in some ways, defined by defiance. It played host to one of the most, if not THE most famous revolution in history, and since then a culture of questioning has becoming imbedded in their DNA. Supposedly, when wheel clamps were introduced there, they had to be hastily recalled because any which were used were often found with glue squirted into them shortly thereafter. The same rule applies with film-making, the minds behind the magazine Cahirs du Cinema, and later went on to spark French New Wave were great lovers of Hollywood, but not of the French cinema scene of the time, and did everything they could to oppose and counteract it. La Haine carried that spirit forwards into the tumultuous 90s, and draped it in a layer of bristling, heated controversy.

In 1995 there were several bombings around Paris and other parts of the country, many died, more were injured and the nation was plunged into a deep state of public unrest. At the same time, the capital was being choked by a wave of extremely unpopular austerity measures, people were protesting in the streets and getting anywhere was an ordeal. La Haine takes place right in the middle of this disturbing time, in one of the city’s poorest outer housing estates. It follows the exploits of 3 boys – the Jewish, Eastern European Vinz (a young Vincent Cassel), the African Hubert (Hubert Kounde) and Said (Said Taghmaoui), a North African. It might seem a bit reductive to point out their racial denominations but trust me, it’s important. Hubert, a boxer, is the most mature of the 3, Said the most rambunctious and Vinz the most rash, and quick to anger. Through the course of the film we trace their path on a dull day as they venture into the main part of the city in search of something to do.

It’s an amusing film and all 3 are likeable in their own ways, but their love of mischief is undercut by a dark, consuming rage (La Haine literally translates as ‘Hate’). Rage against the overzealous, distinctly racist police offers that chase them around the estate, against the upper annals of society that would rather pretend they didn’t exist and against the entire system they try each day to scrape a living from. The notion of falling to your death is played upon throughout, and it ends up becoming a metaphor for the decline of a society that is devouring itself. At the beginning of the film Vinz stands over a skinhead with a gun trained on him, but elects not to act, and from then on every time a firearm appears in frame you find yourself wondering if his anger will resurface and claim someone else’s life. I’ve never seen the ‘Chekov’s Gun’ trope used more masterfully than it is in La Haine, and anyone else who has seen it will understand why the ending is perhaps the best example of this.

The other thing that La Haine beautifully demonstrates is the remarkable energy and cultural vibrance demonstrated by the poorer, more racially diverse estates that line Paris. They aren’t pretty, but the inhabitants wile away their time break-dancing, cooking, tagging walls and generally making the best of an awful situation. Central Paris, meanwhile, is represented as stilted and elitist, not least when the 3 of them crash a party at an art gallery and are treated like vermin, or the several occasions when police officers are openly racist towards them. The impact the film had the time testifies to how important of a lesson it had to teach, and with everything that’s happened recently, it might be time for some revision. This was also the breakout film for Vincent Cassel, who has since risen to become one of the most lauded contemporary French actors there is. It’s as much a marvel of technique as of narrative, as the grayscale cinematography ambles through tight streets, or flies over rooftops as needed, connected by sparse, but razor-sharp editing. What little music there is manages to compliment the action, but the diegetic music ends up rising to the top, particularly during a masterful sequel featuring Zapp’s ‘Bounce to the Ounce’.

Some films felt like they had the potential to become historical artefacts even when they were new, La Haine was one of these. After it screened at Cannes, director Mathieu Kassovitz (a mere 26 at that time) was met with fierce opposition from The National Front and some facets of the French police, who regarded it as anti-police propaganda. Outside of that though, the film was regarded as a vital classic, even by the then French president Alain Juppé. The connection between three boys from vastly different backgrounds, devoid of work but brought together by common struggle struck a chord with many people, but disenfranchisement is still a huge problem in France. The kind of extremism, masquerading as Islamic upheaval that fuelled both the Charlie Hebdo attack and the more recent Paris shootings was not anywhere near as prominent in 1995 as it is now, nor was the creeping outbreak of Islamophobia that has come along with it, but with the outlook so bleak and tensions so high, many might do well to look back at La Haine and be reminded of how one little film realigned so many perceptions.

Note: the IMDb Top 250 Cultured Vultures are using is based on the standings from the 16th of November. Inconsistencies may apply.