Review of La Haine (1995) by Matt M — 30 Mar 2013

A day in the life of three young men from different ethnical background coming from the same poor and crime infested housing estate. La Haine is a cool piece of art house international cinema, the kind that a young audience around the world can esily identify with and be attracted to.

It is also quite a compelling vision and study of French urban life by Mathieu Kassovitz, who is able to use serious and delicate issues. To achieve this cool and compelling appeal, he employs cool black and white photography, uses a modern hip hop soundtrack and deals with characters that can be easily identified with.

While it is stylised, there is always a feeling that this is a film that came right out of the street, and for such a reason it can also be considered a sort of revival of the celebrated French nouvelle vague movement.