La Haine [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Mathieu Kassovitz

Overview

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.

Product Details

Release Date:	05/08/2012
UPC:	0715515093712
Original Release:	1995
Source:	Criterion
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:36:00
Sales rank:	8,150

Special Features

Audio Commentary by Kassovitz and Introduction by actor Jodie Foster; Ten Years of "La haine," a documentary that brings together cast and crew a decade after the film's landmark release; Featurette on the film's banlieue setting; Production footage; Deleted and extended scenes, each with an afterword by Kassovitz; Gallery of behind-the-scenes photos and Trailers; Plus: a booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Ginette Vincendeau and a 2006 appreciation by filmmaker Costa-Gavras

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Vincent Cassel	Vinz
Karim Belkhadra	Samir
Edouard Montoute	Darty
Solo Dicko	Santo
Marc Duret	Inspector `Notre Dame'
Rywka Wajsbrot	Vinz's Grandmother
Tadek Lokcinski	Monsieur Toilettes
Choukri Gabteni	Nordine
Nabil Ben Mhamed	Boy Blague
Felicite Wouassi	Hubert's Mother
Fatou Thioune	Hubert's Sister
Zinedine Soualem	Plainclothes Policeman
Bernie Bonvoisin	Plainclothes Policeman
Cyril Ancelin	Plainclothes Policeman
Patrick Medioni	CRS Cave
Karin Viard	Gallery Girl
Julie Mauduech	Gallery Girl
Medard Niang	Medard
Arash Mansour	Arash
Abdel-Moulah Boujdouni	Young Businessman
Mathilde Vitry	Journalist
Christian Moro	CRS TV Journalist
JiBi	Fat Youth
Thang Long	Grocer
Cut Killer	DJ,Composer
Sabrina Houicha	Said's Sister
Sandor Weltmann	Vinz Lookalike
Peter Kassovitz	Gallery Patron,Young Skinhead
Vincent Lindon	Really Drunk Man
Anthony Souter	Skin
Florent Lavandeira	Skin
Teddy Marques	Skin
Samir Khelif	Skin
Virginie Montel	SDF Metro
Abdel Ahmed Ghili	Abdel
Joseph Momo	Ordinary Guy
Olga Abrego	Vinz's Aunt
Laurent Labasse	Cook
Marcel Marondo	Bouncer
Eric Pujol	Assistant Policeman
Philippe Nahon	Police Chief
Sebastien Tavel	Hospital Policeman
Francois Toumarkine	Hospital Policeman
Jose-Philippe Dalmat	Hospital Policeman
Solo	Actor
Christophe Rossignon	Taxi Driver
Joseph Moore	Actor
Hubert Kound?	Hubert
Sa?d Taghmaoui	Said
Fran?ois Levantal	Ast?rix,Actor
H?lo?se Rauth	Sarah
Beno?t Magimel	Beno?t
Andr?e Damant	Concierge,Actor
Assassin	Composer

Technical Credits

Mathieu Kassovitz

Christophe Rossignon	Producer,Executive Producer
Mathieu Kassovitz	Screenwriter
Philippe Guegan	Stunts
Pierre Foury	Special Effects
Jean-Claude Flamand	Casting
Vincent Tulli	Sound/Sound Designer,Sound Effects,Sound Editor
Dominique Dalmasso	Sound/Sound Designer,Sound Effects
Rodolphe Chabrier	Special Effects
Nicolas Becker	Sound Effects
Fred Mays	Sound Effects
Antoine Simkine	Special Effects
Gilles Conseil	Stunts
Gilles Sacuto	Producer

Editorial Reviews

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.