Released in the mid 1990s to great acclaim, Matthieu Kassovitz’s controversial “La Haine” (“Hate”), featuring Vincent Cassell as a hotheaded marginalised French youth, remains a good film (the politics remain unsettlingly relevant), with crisp black and white imagery. It is unfortunate that a film that is all about emotional turmoil, resistance against exploitation and the claws of anomy loses steam halfway through, unlike a similarly themed film that it is often favourably compared to: Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing”.
In my mind, Lee’s film is superior, but Kassovitz’s film does manage to give visual voice to those unwelcome to France: the Algerians, Afro-Caribbeans, and so on. If nothing else, it is difference that unites these characters who do cannot participate in the benefits of Parisian life due to their low income status.
No comments:
Post a Comment