La Haine (1995)

Director: Mathieu Kassovitz

Starring: Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui

24 hours in the lives of three young men in the French suburbs the day after a violent riot.

‘La Haine’ is yet another highly acclaimed film I found pointless and quite boring, actually. The synopsis tells us the film is about a day in the lives of three men after a riot. Unfortunately, I found it neither eventful nor interesting.

Police brutality in which a teen, Abdel, was severely beaten sparked riots by youths. During the riots, a policeman lost his gun, and was found by Vinz. The film then shows us a day in the lives of three friends Vinz, Saïd, and Hubert. These three along with some of their friends are a bunch of disrespectful trouble makers – kids I didn’t care about and therefore didn’t root for any of them. They are unpleasant, foul-mouthed, unsavoury characters. Every single character was just bad, and with no protagonists, how could I possibly enjoy this movie?

The film finds any excuse to make up time without anything of interest happening. At times it felt like there was no script; as if the cameras were simply left rolling while the actors went about their day. It was just pointless chatter. There’s no character development whatsoever. And why is the film in black and white?

Reading up on the film after watching it, it is said the film was shot while rioting still continued and filming took place in the ‘war zone’. It also states the following: ‘Some of the actors were not professionals and the film includes many situations that were based on real events.‘ Interestingly, the main actors used their real names in the film, as if it was a documentary.

‘La Haine’ is a film that will appeal to and resonate with the French. For someone like me who can’t attach any value to the events or characters and simply wanted to be entertained, I’m sorry to say I wasn’t and this was not a pleasant viewing experience. The events are no doubt relevant to the French and considering the circumstances under which the film was made, I can – to a certain extent – understand why some would refer to ‘La Haine’ as a masterpiece.

As for me, I hated it. The film’s title summarizes my feelings towards the movie. I hated every moment, and found it one of the most pointless films I’ve seen in a while.

‘La Haine’ received 23 award nominations, winning 8 including Best Foreign-Language Film, Best Director, Best Film, Best Editing and Best Producer.

In French.

Would I watch it again? Ugh, just no!