Playing Vinz, Cassel radiates with a blistering intensity throughout, while Koundé offsets him with a cool self-assurance.
Despite a meditative pace, there are shades of Scorsese in his kinetic camera moves, and in a scene lifted straight from Taxi Driver where Vinz poses in the mirror with a gun, snarling, "You talkin' to me?" Evidently Kassovitz sees things in black and white, which might explain his choice of a striking monochrome print.īut it's the conviction and bold invention with which Kassovitz tells the tale that makes it utterly compelling. This is a fatalistic account of society's decline and it's plainly one-sided - the only cop who shows sympathy for the "troubled youth" is ineffective among an army of bigots and bullies. "A FATALISTIC ACCOUNT OF SOCIETY'S DECLINE"Ĭounting down 24 hours, Kassovitz never gives the illusion of a happy ending. It's left to Vinz's cohorts, the jocular Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui) - also Arab - and subdued African boxer Hubert (Hubert Koundé) to talk him out of his bloody plan as they embark on a loafing odyssey from the immigrant neighbourhoods to the big city.
Delving into the generational, racial, and class divides of his native France, Kassovitz offers a fearless - if unreservedly pessimistic - attack on the frontlines of power.ĭuring a riot in the outskirts of Paris, police beat an Arab teenager (Abdel Ahmed Ghili) into a coma, fuelling a fire of hatred inside Vinz (Vincent Cassel) - a Jew who swears to "whack" a cop if the boy dies.
The result is an explosion of scathing social commentary and dynamic storytelling. Writer-director Mathieu Kassovitz butts European urbanity up against American street style as kids clash with cops in suburban Paris. It's been labelled French cinema's answer to Boyz N The Hood, but La Haine (Hate) has a flavour all of its own.
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