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La Haine (1995)

post #1 of 10
5/23/10 at 11:53am
Thread Starter 
It's hard to believe the director of this went on to make Gothika and Babylon AD. It's a pretty remarkable movie and the best thing about it is it feels timeless. When someone recommended it to me, I was worried it would feel dated fifteen years after it was made. That's hardly the case. It feels as fresh now as it probably did back then.

Beautiful photography and exceptional camera work. The one tracking shot over the roofs of the city is breathtaking. Some of the film making could be considered a little too composed for some tastes, but the spontaneity of the dialogue and acting more then makes up for it.

Is this guy's other pre-Hollywood stuff worth checking out, or was he a one trick pony?
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post #2 of 10
5/23/10 at 12:51pm
I really need to watch this sometime soon. The criterion DVD has been sitting on my shelf since it was first released.

Quote:
Is this guy's other pre-Hollywood stuff worth checking out, or was he a one trick pony?
I've heard "The Crimson Rivers" is good. It's another DVD I've owned for a while that I have yet to sit down and watch though.
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post #3 of 10
5/24/10 at 7:27am
His debut feature 'Métisse' is worth a look, if you can find it. It's almost a feel-good version of La Haine, dealing with similar racial tensions but in a socio-comedy plot. Long time since I've seen it, but I remember having a few good laughs. The influence from early Spike Lee (part. She's Gotta Have It) is obvious though.

And yeah, Crimson Rivers is worth checking out. The plot borders on batshit crazy, but moves along nicely enough to not notice the wonky details, and overall visual style is superb. Really a shame that Kassovitz couldn't keep up the good work when moving to Hollywood.
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post #4 of 10
5/24/10 at 9:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cheftournel View Post
His debut feature 'Métisse' is worth a look, if you can find it. It's almost a feel-good version of La Haine, dealing with similar racial tensions but in a socio-comedy plot. Long time since I've seen it, but I remember having a few good laughs. The influence from early Spike Lee (part. She's Gotta Have It) is obvious though.

And yeah, Crimson Rivers is worth checking out. The plot borders on batshit crazy, but moves along nicely enough to not notice the wonky details, and overall visual style is superb. Really a shame that Kassovitz couldn't keep up the good work when moving to Hollywood.
Crimson River's good. The sequel is shit though. Métisse is good.

La Haine is a masterpiece.
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post #5 of 10
5/24/10 at 9:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Parker View Post
It's a pretty remarkable movie and the best thing about it is it feels timeless. When someone recommended it to me, I was worried it would feel dated fifteen years after it was made. That's hardly the case. It feels as fresh now as it probably did back then.
I have trouble understanding this thought process. A great movie will always be timeless, even if certain elements are of its era or 'dated'. Why worry about it? Not being snarky, just honestly a strange reaction to me.
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post #6 of 10
5/25/10 at 2:36am
I have this one on HD-DVD and I thought that it was an excellent movie with some great performances. Didn't even mind that it was B&W.
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post #7 of 10
5/25/10 at 12:34pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fat Elvis View Post
I have trouble understanding this thought process. A great movie will always be timeless, even if certain elements are of its era or 'dated'. Why worry about it? Not being snarky, just honestly a strange reaction to me.
Timeless was probably the wrong word, honestly. I should have used "fresh" or something similar.

My reaction had to do with the fact that this movie feels very specific to it's characters, which feels very specific to the culture and very specific to the place in France where they live. It would have been easy to look at their lives as represented on film and think "that's not exactly very authentic anymore." But that's not the case. It's as much a condemnation of the continuation of French racism and/or nationalism as it is a testament of the movies power.

I watched Kicking and Screaming not too long ago and it seemed such a product of it's decade (and it's reaction to the decade) that I couldn't move on from there as a viewer.

I think the black and white helps. Do The Right Thing is timeless in it's power as a film, for sure. But it's very much a product of a very specific time. (Please note, I'm not trying to say that it's outdated because inner city racism doesn't exist anymore, that's hardly the case...but it was made in response to specific instances of hate crimes and it very much wants to represent it's time period).

La Haine feels like it could have been made in the 50's. Or yesterday. I guess that's what I was trying to say.

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Originally Posted by LeRolls View Post
Didn't even mind that it was B&W.
You mean...you usually do mind? Do you not watch old movies?
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post #8 of 10
9/3/11 at 8:21pm

Very powerful film. Can't believe I'm just now seeing it. It's especially haunting given everything that is going on in London right now. I'm going to be thinking about this film for some time.

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post #9 of 10
9/4/11 at 12:28pm

I'm watching the commentary. Apparently the story the guy in the bathroom tells the kids is true, and happened to him. Crazy!

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post #10 of 10
11/27/11 at 9:31am

 

Quote:

Is this guy's other pre-Hollywood stuff worth checking out, or was he a one trick pony?

 

Crimson Rivers is most definitely worth the watch, ignoring a dodgy part during a neo nazi fight sequence. Not up there with how amazing La Haine is, but it's a good thriller from France. Crimson Rivers 2: Angels of the Apocalypse is far inferior and loses something with no Vincent Cassel and direction from Kassovitz, but it's still worth a look especially for the Parkour monks and Christopher Lee speaking French. biggrin.gif

 

 

 

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