La Haine [Criterion Collection]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

While to most outsiders Paris seems the very picture of beauty and civility, France has had a long and unfortunate history of intolerance toward outsiders, and this powerful drama from filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz takes an unblinking look at a racially diverse group of young people trapped in the Parisian economic and social underclass. Vinz (Vincent Cassel), who is Jewish, Hubert (Hubert Kounde), who is Black, and Said (Said Taghmaoui), who is Arabic, are young men from the lower rungs of the French economic ladder; they have no jobs, few prospects, and no productive way to spend their time. They hang out and wander the streets as a way of filling their days and are sometimes caught up in frequent skirmishes between the police and other disaffected youth. One day, a street riot breaks out after police seriously injure an Arab student; the three friends are arrested and questioned, and it is learned that a policeman lost a gun in the chaos. However, what they don't know is that Vinz picked it up and has it in his possession, and when Vinz, Hubert, and Said get into a scuffle with a group of racist skinheads, the circumstances seem poised for tragedy. Actress Jodie Foster was so impressed with La Haine when she saw it at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival that she helped to arrange American distribution for the film through her production company, Egg Pictures. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Subtitle: Eng
• Features:
  • Disc One:
  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised by director Mathieu Kassovitz
  • New English-language audio commentary by Kassovitz
  • Video introduction by Jodie Foster
  • Optional Dolby Digital 5.1 track
  • Theatrical trailers
  • New and improved English subtitle translation
  • Disc Two:
  • Ten Years of "La Haire, " a new documentary that brings together key cast and crew a decade after the film's landmark release
  • New video featurette on the film's banlieue setting, including interviews with sociologists Sophie Body-Gendrot, Jeffrey Fagan, and William Kornblum
  • Behind-the-scenes footage
  • Deleted and extended scenes photos
  • Plus - a new essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau and an appreciation by acclaimed filmmaker Costa-Gavras

AWARDS

• Cannes Film Festival

•     Won Best Director - 1995 (Mathieu Kassovitz)

• European Film Academy

•     Won Best Young European Film - 1995 (Mathieu Kassovitz)

• French Academy of Cinema

•     Won Best Editing - 1995 (Mathieu Kassovitz, Scott Stevenson)
•     Won Best Picture - 1995

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       Vincent Cassel - Vinz
       Hubert Kounde
       Said Taghmaoui - Said
       Francois Levantal
       Edouard Montoute
       Karim Belkhadra
       Mathieu Kassovitz - Young Skinhead
       Joseph Momo - Ordinary Guy
       Andree Damant - Concierge
       Peter Kassovitz - Gallery Patron
       Marc Duret - Inspector "Notre Dame"
       Philippe Nahon - Police Chief
       Benoit Magimel - Benoit
       Karin Viard - Gallery Girl
       Christophe Rossignon - Taxi Driver
       Vincent Lindon
       Francois Toumarkine - Hospital Police
       Felicite Wouassi - Hubert's Mother

• Director:

  Mathieu Kassovitz

• Producer:

  Christophe Rossignon, Gilles Sacuto

• Screenwriter:

  Mathieu Kassovitz

• Cinematographer:

  Pierre Aïm

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Dominique Dalmasso

• Editor:

  Mathieu Kassovitz, Scott Stevenson

• Associate Producer:

  Adeline Lecallier, Alain Rocca

• Costume Designer:

  Virginie Montel

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Vincent Tulli

• Sound Editor:

  Vincent Tulli

REVIEW:

• Appropriately filmed in stark black-and-white, La haine takes us to a Paris that cannot be found on a postcard or in a glossy travel brochure. The Eiffel Tower makes only one appearance, as a distant reminder of a society that has no place for the film's alienated protagonists. When it premiered in 1995 at the Cannes Film Festival, this work of 28-year-old Mathieu Kassovitz, who had previously directed Cafe au lait, arrived with the subtlety and impact of a kick to the head. Inspired by such American urban classics as Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, and Do the Right Thing, La haine nevertheless emerged as a work of distinct originality, appropriating its influences to tell a story at once specific and universal. The story's racial and socio-economic tensions are exposed with an unapologetic, in-your-face brutality devoid of the romanticism that often plagues films about life in the "hood;" Kassovitz is more interested in uncovering his protagonists' frailties than idealizing them. Their anger is justified and treated with sympathy, but they are held responsible for their reactions to it. The tragedy that concludes the film does not allow anyone to escape unscathed, a jarring reminder that, as long as racism and other forms of social repression are permitted to exist, we are all both its perpetrators and its ultimate victims. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi