Hi all, and welcome back to rumblewrites. Today’s post is another film review, with a bit of a political spin.
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Warning: *spoilers ahead* / translations of French terms are noted at the end
Synopsis
A couple of weeks ago, I returned to the Prince Charles Cinema to watch La Haine, a French-language film originally released in 1995. To mark its 25th anniversary, it was edited and re-released by the BFI in 2020.
La Haine follows the lives of Vinz (Vincent Cassel), Hubert (Hubert Koundé), and Saïd (Saïd Taghmaoui) in the 24 hours after a riot against police brutality, which placed their friend Abdel in a coma. The three are immigrants, living in a downtrodden Parisian banlieue and leading a directionless life. We follow as they aimlessly wander the streets, interacting with other kids, drinking, smoking, telling jokes, doing nothing. We learn Hubert’s gym was destroyed during the riot, a school was blown up, and that Vinz found a policeman’s lost gun.
Vinz is the most volatile of the group, continually brandishing his newly acquired weapon and threatening to kill a policeman if Abdel dies, in an act he views as justice. Hubert dreams of a escaping the suburbs and building a better life for himself, but his aspirations are sandwiched between scenes of him dealing drugs and socialising with criminals. Saïd is the link between them, mediating debates and dissolving tension.
They clash with the police a lot, and on one occasion, Saïd and Hubert are arrested and beaten, then locked up until after the last train had departed… for no reason. Once released, they rejoin Vinz, and the incident is forgotten: this is normal life for French immigrants.
Towards the end of the film, the trio end up in a shopping centre where they hear from a news broadcast that Abdel has died. They are attacked by a group of skinheads on their way out, and Vinz pulls out his gun - but he can’t bring himself to pull the trigger. In that moment, we see him for what he is: young and afraid. The façade falls.
Vinz hands the gun over to Hubert and they return home, with Vinz and Saïd walking off in a different direction. But before they can even make it to the end of the street, the pair are stopped by a policeman that Saïd had insulted earlier that day. The officer pulls out a gun and points it at Vinz’s head, accidentally pulling the trigger. We see Vinz’s bloodied body slouched against the side of the car: another bavure. Hubert hears the shot and turns around, quickly making his way towards them and pulling Vinz’s stolen gun on the officer. There is a tense standoff, and as both we and Saïd close our eyes, a single gunshot is heard.
Review
La Haine is an explosive, gut-wrenching look at contemporary French society. It has a close relationship with some of the most traumatic social and political events in recent French history, but it has also had a big impact on cinema itself.
The film is beautifully shot, with wide-pan camera work and a monochromatic palette reminiscent of earlier noir films. The narrative itself is quirky and directionless: there are jokes without punchlines, stories with no conclusions, and Vinz’s repeated hallucinations of a cow. The scenes are punctuated by a ticking clock and framed by Hubert’s story of a man in free-fall. This is Mathieu Kassovitz’s (the director’s) metaphor for the banlieue as social time bomb: with no agency and nothing to do, the boys just sit and wait for the next explosion of hate.
Both director Kassovitz and his cast are young stars with raw energy. This, combined with the cinematography, humour, cultural references, violence, and general cool “vibe”, combine to make a masterpiece.
Social commentary
Kassovitz was inspired to create La Haine after another such bavure in real life: the accidental shooting of 17-year-old Zairian immigrant Makomé M’Bowole in 1993. Despite his film taking French cinema by storm, and forcing the country to confront its ongoing identity crisis, little has changed in the years since. It seems as though the fall will not end, or else each landing refuses to be the last. And so, French immigrants are stowed away in the balieues, while bavures are normalised and hidden.
In 2008, the release of Laurent Cantet’s film Entres Les Murs sparked a second moment of socio-cinematic confrontation. Based on François Bégaudeau’s book of the same title (2006), the film is a semi-autobiographical account of Bégaudeau’s experiences teaching the “problem children” of the poor, ghettoised 20th arrondissement of Paris. It, like La Haine, was received to critical acclaim. But what good did it do?
In July 2023, riots broke out in the banlieues after police killed 17-year-old Nahel, who they claimed refused to comply with an order to stop his car. He was one of 13 identical cases. Despite the French government spending billions of euros in attempt to tackle this problem, it is the pervasive bigotry and impervious social hierarchy which prevents immigrants from getting a foothold in society. As of last year, the poorest French neighbourhoods are home to more than 5 million people, many of whom are 3rd or 4th generation immigrants. Over half are living in poverty. [source for data in this paragraph].
By law, France does not collect data on the ethnicity of its citizens. This is due to its foundational principles of liberté, égalité, fraternité, which mean a greater emphasis is placed on the social and cultural integration of immigrants. However, this assumed equality means that immigrants and their struggles are lost within France’s collective identity. Professor Jérémie Gilbert explains that, by pretending we are all equal, “politicians can ignore the fact that minorities exist”. In their refusal to collect data on what makes us different (race, ethnicity, religion, language), France depraves its minority groups of any affirmative action.
A 2019 poll found that 63% of respondents thought there were too many immigrants in France, down from 70% in 2013 [p45]. Despite this downwards trend, French attitudes are still among the worst in Europe. Not only this, but the same study found that 66% thought immigrants did not make an effort to integrate into French society, up from 55% in 2013 [p45]. The absence of data and the concealment of immigrant experiences has led to a lack of understanding about their socio-economic plight.
For certain groups, this exclusion and bigotry has only worsened in the years following the La Haine. 9/11 and the Charlie Hebdo attack in 2015 has solidified Islam as a dangerous religion in the eyes of half the French population [p58], while only 40% view it as compatible with French values [p50]. Moreover, despite being home to the largest community of Jewish people in Europe, France has a massive anti-semitism problem, and levels of hate have recently reached record heights [eg, eg].
This has only led to greater social exclusion, greater ghettoisation, and greater bigotry.
What happens next?
We keep falling.
It’s an open secret that French immigrants have been falling, hitting the ground, falling, hitting the ground, over and over again for years. Even now, it seems horrifically likely that Jordan Bardella (and Marine Le Pen) of Le Rassemblement National will win the 2024 French elections, and it’s worrying how relevant films like La Haine still are:
C'est les même qui votent Le Pen mais qui sont pas racistes. C'est les même qui font les grèves pour protester dès qu'les escalators y tombent en panne. La pire des races!
Politicians like Le Pen, and now his daughter, continue to vilify immigrants, push them to the fringes of society, shift the blame for their situation onto others (even Macron is guilty of this), and altogether deny that this is happening.
Language has played a massive part in French history, and it’s important that we don’t allow the narrative to be twisted. Just compare these two statements, one by police mayor and representative of police union Jean-Christophe Couvy, the other by Kassovitz:
[France is] not the US. We don't have ghettos. [] Our forces represent France's multicultural society with officers from all backgrounds. You'll find maybe 1% of racists - like in the rest of society - but no more.
Either people are going to say: ‘We can’t go back to living like that.’ Or they’re going to go back to that. And fuck them, if they want to go to the slaughterhouse without doing anything.
Don’t let people like Couvy fool you. Do your own research, read between the lines, and vote for the right people, because for over 10% of the French population, jusqu’ici tout ne va pas bien.
Glossary
La Haine - the hate
banlieue - a suburb of a large city like Paris. It has come to specifically refer to the low-income housing projects occupied primarily by immigrants
bavure - a mistake
Entres Les Murs - Between the Walls. This film received the Palme d'Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival
arrondissement - administrative districts in Paris, of which there are 20 (not to be confused with the general arrondissements of France, which are subdivisions of départements)
liberté, égalité, fraternité - liberty, equality, fraternity. The phrase originated in the French Revolution, and was popularised due to a 1790 speech by Maximilien Robespierre, a radical politician. It was institutionalized during the Third Republic at the end of the 19th century, and is now recognised as the national motto of France
Le Rassemblement National - The National Rally, a far-right political party founded in 1972 by Jean-Marie Le Pen. It is currently leading the polls for the 2024 election at 33%, followed by the newly-formed Nouveau Front populaire.
jusqu’ici tout ne va pas bien - so far, not so good. The inverse of the positive phrase used throughout the film
This is fascinating. It’s years since I saw La Haine, but it certainly stayed with me. Vincent Cassel’s raw performance reminded me of seeing Tim Roth on screen for the first time in Made in Britain (1982). I recently rewatched and it has similar themes. Time to rewatch La Haine I think!
This is a great review of the movie, Lucy. Thank you very much for writing it!
It's been a while since I saw it but I'll hopefully go back and watch it again soon!