#381: KASSOVITZ, Mathieu: La Haine (1995)

KASSOVITZ, Mathieu (France)
La Haine [1995]
Spine #381
DVD


When he was just twenty-nine years old, Mathieu Kassovitz took the international film world by storm with La Haine (Hate), a gritty, unsettling, and visually explosive look at the racial and cultural volatility in modern-day France, specifically in the low-income banlieue districts on Paris's outskirts. Aimlessly whiling away their days in the concrete environs of their dead-end suburbia, Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Hubert (Hubert Koundé), and Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui) — a Jew, an African, and an Arab — give human faces to France's immigrant populations, their bristling resentment at their social marginalization slowly simmering until it reaches a climactic boiling point. A work of tough beauty, La Haine is a landmark of contemporary French cinema and a gripping reflection of its country's ongoing identity crisis.

97 minutes
Black & White
Stereo
in French
1:85:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2007
Director/Writer


Mathieu Kassovitz was 28 when he wrote and directed La Haine.

The Film

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twenty-six page booklet featuring essays by Ginette Vincendeau and filmmaker Costa-Gavras.

Commentary

By Kassovitz.

Video introduction

By Jodie Foster

Ten Years of La Haine

A documentary that brings together key cast and crew a decade after the film’s landmark release.

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

With video afterwords by Kassovitz.

Stills gallery

Of behind-the-scenes photos

Theatrical trailers

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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