La Haine: 3 Disc Ultimate Edition DVD (15)

Dir: Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995, France, 93 mins, B/W, French with English Subtitles
Cast: Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui, Abdel Ahmed Ghili

They’re always rioting in Paris and so La Haine (1995), a classic incendiary piece of cinema, celebrates its tenth anniversary as the arbiter of the original youth uprising in the city of romance. It’s depiction of three dissolute youths mindlessly perambulating a run down estate in a Parisian banlieue caused a major stir on release especially as the narrative’s blunt truth originated from real life events.

Paris was bubbling with a sense of unrest in the early nineties heightened by frequent stories of police brutality and simmering racism. When, in a real life event, a youngster was shot dead in police custody for mouthing off, while chained to a radiator, the touch paper for the tension to spill over onto the streets was resolutely lit. The country’s state of dissent gave roots to an idea gradually cultivated by director Mathieu Kassovitz and a script was subsequently developed based loosely on these events.

La Haine begins with the news that Abdel (Ahmed Ghili) has been critically injured in a police interrogation which sets off a chain of riots in his suburbs where upon one of the policemen loses his gun. One of Abdel’s friends, the wired Vinz (Cassel), finds the lost weapon and with friends Saïd (Taghmaoui) and Hubert (Koundé) kills time throughout a day considering what to do with his lethal accessory. With Abdel on the brink of death he declares that if he dies… then he’ll kill policemen. As the film wrestles with Vinz’s controversial rationale the narrative leads up to a culmination that marks one of the most powerful climaxes in recent film history.

This tenth anniversary disc is a somewhat disappointment in an era of DVDs scrolling through every possible viewpoint to see a film. The single featurette does however imbibe some fascinating background information from the big players involved notably star Vincent Cassell, the laid back director Mathieu Kassovitz and producer Christophe Rossignon.

Each man has his own version of how the screenplay evolved, spring boarding off the riots at the time although Kassovitz (perhaps most famous for his chocolately lead role in Amélie (2001)) comes across as the most effusive delivering his verdicts from a position of flawless cool. The history of the film’s leitmotif, the gun, and the many metaphorical associations it enjoyed gets dissected as does the lengthy complications with releasing a black & white film into a colour saturated marketplace. Cassell explains how the three actors lived together in a dilapidated flat on the estate and how of the twenty estates approached to form the film’s habitué only one consented to be used. Cassel in particular seems almost incredulous that they made the film at that time especially as the subject matter was such a political hot potato while Kassovitz is practically sanguine in describing the blockades he incurred in getting the movie to the screen.

All fascinating stuff although a little one note. Overall it’s still worth it simply to be in the presence in a genuine groundbreaking film and a small aperture into French history. Also a chance to see Cassel in the first of his many captivating performances.

Extras:
DISC TWO
10 years of La Haine: Feature Length Documentary
DISC THREE
Original soundtracks to La Haine and Mathieu Kassovitz’s debut feature Métisse
BOOKLET
‘After the Riot’ an essay on La Haine by Keith Reader
Excerpts from Mathieu Kassovitz’s blog on 'The 2005 Paris Riots' featuring a response from French Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy
PACKAGING
Limited edition (10,000) steel books, each featuring an individually numbered sticker.

Rob McCrae