La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995) is based on three
young friends and their struggle to live in the ‘ banlieues’ of Paris.
‘Banlieues’ were suburbs in a large city of France, with La Haine based in
Paris.
The three
protagonists of the film came from three different backgrounds; Vinz is a
white, Jewish male, Hubert, a black male and Saïd, who was classed as a “beur”;
which was slang for someone of 2nd generation North African descent.
At the core of La Haine is ‘an appeal to authenticity
and to youth culture’. (Vincendeau, 2000, p.311) which does give a suggestion
of liberty for youth culture however there seems to be no real injunction of
equality and fraternity. This is strongly backed up by Vincendeau’s with her
remark of ‘a testosterone-filled world’. (p.314). This is a very valuable
statement as for a majority of the film the families of the protagonists are
kept off screen and so is the culture. Mathieu Kassovitz (Director) justifies
the absence of women in the film by saying it was a ‘desire to keep the idea of
the film as pure as possible’ (p.315).
In conclusion, La Haine does focus on the liberation
of youth culture in the suburbs of Paris, however it has no strong,
recognizable notions of fraternity and equality due to lack of female
characters and the strong idea of sexism by the director.
Bibliography:
Vincendeau, Ginette. ‘Designs on the banlieue in
Mathieu Kossovitz’s La Haine in Haywayrd, Susan. French Film:
Texts and Contexts. (London: Routledge, 2000) pp. 310-327.
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