La Haine

La Haine is a 1995 French black and white film written, directed and co-edited by Mathieu kassovitz. La Haine comes under the genres of Crime Drama and social realism but defiantly features many conventions of a thriller. The film has many different themes poverty which is shown throughout in the setting, racism and crime which again is shown throughout the film from start to finish, pride which is mainly featured within the character Vinz and revenge. Its French title is La Haine but when translated in to English it means hatred. The film follows three young men Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Said (Said Taghmaoui) and Hubert (Hubert Koundé) and their struggle to live in the banlieues (suburbs) of Paris, France faced with social turmoil and soon end up with a confrontation with the police.

The film shows the problems with racism with all three boys being from different races; an Arab, an African and a Jew, they have been singled out based on age, ethnicity and appearances. They have several run-ins with the cops during the course of less than 24 hours, and it seems that are being deliberately picked on due to race. They aren’t particularly bad teenagers and certainly not criminals. This film represents race and age in the same way. It shows that people can be treated differently based on race, if they don’t look like everyone else they are automatically presumed to be threatening and un worthy. Also they are young and again are picked on by the police this also suggests that young people/ teenagers are nuisances and get in the way of the law. Like Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing, there is a sense throughout that all the hostility that has been building up with boil over and come to its climax at any point.

Kassovitz sets the full film in black and white which create more meanings and messages than he is trying to create an archaic sense. Instead by having it in black and white Kassovitz has been able to help the viewer imagine that perhaps their life isn’t as good as it’s usually made out to be. If the film was in colour he could show the picturesque scene of Paris and how beautiful and bright it looks but he wasn’t looking to show that he was looking to show the dullness and harshness of reality especially since it’s set in the suburbs.  Black and white are contrasting colours so he was able to show the contrast between imagination and reality with these two colours; not everything is what it seems.  This helped Kassovitz build on the narrative and get across some important themes.

There are many scenes within the film that convey different messages, one scene features a TV crew attempting to interview the three boys however they are looking down on the boys whilst they are sitting in a playground which connotes the boys are animals sitting in an animal enclosure. Also because they are sitting in a children's playground it has created a sense of boredom. Escape is shown as a theme when the DJ shown in a flat is blaring music out of the window. It plays an anti-police message to convey and experience of freedom for everyone in the community. 

One scene which could be considered quite an important scene is when Vinz, Hubert and Said are all standing around in the bathroom talking when an old man exits the cubicle. The man goes on to tell a story about one of his friends Grunwalski. The Grunwalski story mimics our characters. In their situation they "miss the train" when (SPOILER) - Vinz gets shot, Grunwalski continuously reaches for the train but cannot reach because he tries to maintain his pride and keep his trousers up. The hand represents Vinz's quest for racial equality and an end to police brutality but he cannot reach them because he won't let go of his pride and co-operate with the police.  

Overall I thought this film was good, it was very realistic because their lives weren't action packed with car chases etc. Instead it all came down to the troubled day-to-day lives of these boys. The performances are solid you could really understand their emotions. I really liked the idea of filming in black and white because it adds to the grimy street feel of the film.