La Haine is the 1995 Mathieu Kassovitz film that follows a day in the life of three inner city gangster kids in Paris. Heavily influenced by classic American gang movies such as Boyz N The Hood and Menace II Society, the film shows how the urban movement in the States has entered the French youth culture. The three main characters are Sayid, Hubert, and Vinz. They are tough street thugs who are enduring the day following a riot in the city. They represent the three ethnic minorities that exist in the Muguet projects, in that they are an arab, a black, and a jew, respectively. The film was released in the U.S. as Hate and The Hatred, and deals mainly with the hatred amongst the different social classes, the police, race, and the media.

The film was shot in black and white on 35mm stock, except for the color digital effect used in the introduction, which saw the world engulfed in flames. The picture opens with footage of the previous night's riot. Research did not uncover whether any of the footage in the intro was from an actual riot, but it seems shockingly real. During this scene, Kassovitz used Bob Marley's classic "Burning and Looting", which was an appropriate choice for the mayhem the sequence showed.

The scenes are broke up by title screens which inform the viewer of the time. The film spans 20 hours in its 1:37 length. Kassovitz did not use these titles in a traditional manner. Unlike other movies that would start a fresh idea after such a titling method, Kassovitz would, in many cases, cut from a scene, show the time title, and then return to the same location, sometimes from a different camera angle. One example was the shot of the gangbangers talking with the neighborhod youth with a graffitied wall in the background, cutting to 14:12, and then crossing the 180-degree imaginary line putting the charcters opposite of the original shot and placing the projects in the background. Many director's try not to cross this line when shooting scenes, but it is apparent from the filming that Kassovitz is a unique director who likes to break traditional film techniques.

The use of the triangular pattern is common to the craft of filmmaking. Sayid, Hubert and Vince make of the three sides, angles and points of the triangle. Throughout the movie there is a combination of discension and joy between the three characters. They travel in a triangular pattern, in that when they walk from location to location, one trails while the others walk side by side. Hence, they form a triangle.

When I began this movie, I feared the French subtitling would drive me from enjoying the film, but I was surprised to find myself engulfed in the plot and intrigued by the interesting camera angles. One of my favorite shots followed the scene where the scratcher entertained the project residents with his "F*** the Police" mix and the camera seems to fly out of the window. It seemed as if the point-of-view shot changed from that of a human character to the music itself, floating over the ghetto looking down on its inhabitants. The viewer seems to become the music as it fills the air. This was a great, and seemingly difficult, shot for Kassovitz. Again, he made a brilliant film.

On further research, I discovered some interesting things about the characters in the movie. The three main characters used their real names, aside from the poster that showed the boxer as Hubert Dia, who is played by actor Hubert Koundé. Another signifiacnt film note is that the director himself has a small appearance in the movie. Kassovitz played the skinhead who starts the fight and later has Vinz's stolen .45 shoved in his eye. He did a good job of appearing scared by his possible end.