La Haine by Mathieu Kassovitz

La Haine is a French black and white crime written by Mathieu Kassovitz. ‘La Haine’ is French for the word ‘hate’ and later in the film you depict how this theme is presented throughout the film. This was distributed by Canal+ and located the film in France. The budget of the film was $2.6 million and had a box office was $15.3 million.

This film gave an insight of the subcultures and poverty of France. During the film release their was issues with it being released as the government didn’t agree with what the film was portraying. However, Kassovitz did this to show the views of France that was hidden by the government and director ensured he wanted to show the subculture’s life in poverty, conflict, etc.  Furthermore, this film differs from other French films as films of this time often portrayed films of the middle class life, whereas the film ‘La Haine’ completely contrasts with all these films.

In the opening scene, a documentary was shown of the French riots. This presented the theme of conflict between the police and the civilians fighting back by rioting, stealing and looting.  One civilian said ‘you may have guns, but we have stones’, which shows even though stones are not more powerful over a gun, they still are willing to attack back and are remorseless; presents that they have nothing to lose.  Throughout this documentary, police officers was attacking people, which presents the theme of power the police had over people as they are seen as an elite organisation. The use of the documentary is useful to present the realism of the film, and what the audience need to be prepared for. Furthermore, the use of the reggae music was used when presenting the documentary which can make the audience predict and identify the type of characters are involved in this film. The end of the documentary showed a young coloured male stated in the documentary to have been put in hospital, this shows how he presents all the rioters that have been attacked.  Moreover, there are a lot of cutting/ flashing scenes throughout the film, which jumps from one event to another which is a good way to keep the audience engaged with the time zone it changes to.

Then, the first character is introduced through a close up shot of his eyes closed and opening, it then presents a pan shot of what is in front of him- the police looking emotionless. This already makes the audience want to sympathise with the character as he is considered a victim. He then does graffiti on a wall and writes his name ‘Said’ and below it ‘fuck the police’, which shows he doesn’t respect the police at all and use of language presents the working class background he comes from and we also discover his name. Around the close up shot of Said, he is in an estate, which further shows the theme of poverty.  The next character is presented who is asleep dreaming about himself dancing to Jewish music, which already shows that the character is from a Jewish background. The film does a close up shot of his ring showing his name ‘Vinz’. In the mirror Vinz says ‘are you talking to me?’ referring to the film taxi driver, which indicates he is trying to show his masculinity. Throughout the film, Vinz shows signs of lack of seriousness and maturity, which can refer back to the mirror scene that he, is trying to be something that he isn’t capable of being. Lastly, the scene shows Hubert, a young black male punching a boxing bag, presenting his strong masculinity. All three protagonists are friends; however it is noticeable that Vinz feels intimidated by Hubert as he has the masculinity Vinz wants. Also, the use of the gun is used highly by Vinz that he relies on the gun to feel powerful.