La Haine (DVD)

.../> ~Plot~

La Haine follows a day in the life of three banlieusards*, Vinz (Jew), Saïd (Beur**) & Hubert (African). They are your typical banlieusards, drop outs, small time dealers & the rest of the trappings that come with this sort of lifestyle. There have been riots on their estate and one of their friends is in a coma in hospital, after being beaten, whilst in police custody. Vinz finds une flingue (police revolver) & swears that ...
...title of the film - La Haine, French for Hate (a pretty strong word don't you think?), oh and the title of my review "Baise La Police", this phrase was being scribbled on the back of a police van in one of the early scenes of the film and translates to er….hmmm……<INSERT PROFANITY HERE> the police (you get the general idea).

*Banlieusards - those living in Les Banlieues, which translates in English to suburbs, the only ... more

Bit of a change to my last review, this time, we are embarking on a much grittier topic…

As some of you may have gathered from my title & the name of this film, this is a French film and is subtitled, but I will touch a bit more on this later, normally I do not focus on the fact that a film is subtitled and this does not make me choose to not watch a film, but I think this really is a point worth mentioning, so keep your eyes peeled further down.

This film holds a really important place in French film-making history, it is of a very different style to the other films that were being produced at the time, tackles an extremely controversial subject - police brutality & life in les banlieues, and has even gone so far as to impact other countries, so much so that it was added to the A-Level Syllabus for Film Studies, back here in Blighty.

The film was released in 1995, and was a huge success in France, so much so that the (then) Prime Minster, Alain Juppé requested a private screening, he then instructed, actually it was more of an order than an instruction, his entire cabinet to watch it. The director went on to win Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival Awards in 1996, but apparently the police guards present turned their backs on those involved with the film, as a protest to the way that they had portrayed police brutality in France.

Note, there are a couple of words in the plot that may need clarification or defining, as this is quite a colloquial (is that the right word? Please correct me if not) film, so certain words will be translated and explained in full after the Plot.

~Plot~

La Haine follows a day in the life of three banlieusards*, Vinz (Jew), Saïd (Beur**) & Hubert (African). They are your typical banlieusards, drop outs, small time dealers & the rest of the trappings that come with this sort of lifestyle. There have been riots on their estate and one of their friends is in a coma in hospital, after being beaten, whilst in police custody. Vinz finds une flingue (police revolver) & swears that if their friend dies, he will kill a policeman. The film then concentrates on the boys dealing with the aftermath of the riot & the fact that their friend is dying in hospital.

I know this is really short for a plot summary, but I really do not want to give anything away, and the whole film pivots around the fact that their friend is lying in hospital in a coma, and obviously, what action will Vinz take if his friend dies, will he really kill a policeman to avenge his friends death?

Please do not be put of by this short summary, because a lot does go on in 96mins, and the film does address a lot of issues that were (and still are) quite prominent in France.

~Casting, my thoughts & other stuff~

Vinz - played brilliantly by Vincent Cassel (Shrek & Guest House Paradiso), Vinz's character is so filled with rage, which more than likely comes from being trapped in les banlieues, he is desperately wanting to gain respect, even if it means killing a policeman, but I suppose in his situation, respect is the only thing that he can aspire to.

Hubert - played by Hubert Koundé (The Constant Gardner), Hubert is a boxer, a quiet, contemplative character, trying to make sense of what is going on around him.

Saïd - played by Saïd Taghmaoui (appeared in 3 episodes of Sleeper Cell & a couple of episodes of The West Wing), I guess Saïd's character is the one who holds the group together, he is always expressing an opinion, I guess the neutral one, as on one hand you have a young, angry, testosterone filled male, in the form of Vinz & a quiet, thoughtful character, in the form of Hubert, not really an ideal match is it? Saïd is trying to work out some happy medium between the two wildly differing opinions of his friends.

The film has been directed brilliantly, it is shot in black & white, and what feels like, one camera, and some sort of really cheap film. The reason that this film has been a talking point for so long, and did so well in France is because it gives the public a film about something that they can relate to, something to grab hold of & run with - Les Banlieues were a place to pin all of France's social problems on - unemployment, crime, drugs, racial tension etc etc. Les Banlieues took up pages in French magazines & papers, they were the subject of many political debates, and yet the vast majority of French cinema, of the time, were avoiding these issues, this is not to say that this is the only reason that the film has been so successful.

The writing, direction & of course acting, has a great deal to do with the success of this film, the atmosphere, tension & anger has been captured & portrayed really well, this has probably got something to do with the actors all being unknown, so in a way, they had nothing to be scared of when making this film, they just made it, they did not have to worry about loosing careers because they made/appeared in a controversial film.

I would not say that I enjoyed this film, it made me feel uncomfortable, and it was quite hard to follow, as I mentioned earlier this film is subtitled, but it is quite difficult to read white subtitles when the film is shot in black and white, there were a few points that I missed, I speak pretty good French, but as a lot of the dialogue is colloquial & quite often slang it was really hard to keep up with. Do not let this put you off watching this film, as it is based on truth and people need to be aware of what was happening. I would highly encourage any A-Level students studying French to watch this film, as it gives a good insight into culture that will not get taught at school. I actually watched this at school, but we had pretty liberal teachers who wanted us to really understand what we were learning.

This film has a 15 rating, and to be honest, I don't think that many 15 year olds would choose to watch this film, firstly because it is not really something that I don't think, would appeal to the younger generation, as the film is dealing with quite political matters & secondly, the subtitling makes it very difficult to watch - ordinarily, I would not make a big deal about subtitling, but I think in this case it is worth pointing out.

In summary, do watch this film, it is about one of those issues that we should be aware of, but for some reason, there is always some "bigger" issue to deal with and things like this just don't get talked about. Also, there are other films out there that do manage to connect with the public at any given point in time, they manage to identify with the thoughts, mentality or fears, if I had to compare this film to another film, I would liken it to A Clockwork Orange, only because at the time of Clockwork's release, the public were fearful of gangs, therefore, tapping into grabbing their attention by giving them a film about what they were most scared of.

For any of you who don't/can't be arsed to read on, you may stop here - thanks for reading x

~A small lesson in the French spoken language & cultural learings of glorious nation France~

So let's start with the title of the film - La Haine, French for Hate (a pretty strong word don't you think?), oh and the title of my review "Baise La Police", this phrase was being scribbled on the back of a police van in one of the early scenes of the film and translates to er….hmmm……<INSERT PROFANITY HERE> the police (you get the general idea).

*Banlieusards - those living in Les Banlieues, which translates in English to suburbs, the only problem is that suburbs tend to conjure up images of middle-class families, two cars in the drive, leafy, tree lined streets, not really a good translation. The only way I can describe Les Banlieues would be to compare them to such monstrosities as Kidbrooke (near Greenwich, & soon to be demolished), they are massive areas of tower blocks, outside the cities, purposely built to house the poor, our equivalent of a council estate that is the size of a small town (or medium town depending on your view of a small town!).

**Beur - the phrase first appeared in the 80's, a way of expressing those who feel that they are equally Arab (mainly of Algerian, Tunisian & Moroccan) & equally French, their parents being of Arabian origin, but they themselves having been born in France. The phrase can also be turned in a negative fashion too - neither Arab nor French. The term Beur also refers to class (all things ultimately do unfortunately), normally used to describe banlieusards of this parentage, however a new term has been derived from Beur - Beurgeoisie, to describe those of Arabian parentage, but doing better for themselves (of course you would not refer to a "successful" drug dealer or pimp!).

The film, as I said, grabbed the attention of a nation, that had been debating the two main topics of the film, firstly Les Banlieues, the apparent depravity of les banlieusards, the violent riots, between les banlieusards & the police in the 90's & secondly, and I think most importantly, it was tackling the issue of brutality and racism that seemed to be rife in the French police force. The story itself is "based" around the death, in 1993 of 16 year old Makomé Bowole whilst in police custody. He was shot at point-blank in his temple (supported by forensic evidence), whilst handcuffed to a radiator. At the court hearing the officer was sentenced to 8 years & charged with battery, leading to Makomé's unintentional death. The prosecutor's officer had earlier ordered his release, as he was a minor, but according to police officers, his guardians could not be found. Sadly the story received very little media coverage.

Right I think that's enough for now, I have a cramp in my little finger from typing, hope that this was of use, or that you might have learnt something new today :)  

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