La haine

pp. 170-180

in: Jill Forbes, Sarah Street, European cinema, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2000

Abstract

Since its initial screening at the Cannes Film festival in 1995 where it was awarded the director's prize, La haine has become a cult movie inside and outside France, attracting large audiences and generating websites and electronic discussion groups — a success which is based on its ability to appeal to widely different audiences. Its subject-matter is parochial, but it addresses all those who live in large, cosmopolitan conurbations; it appeals to generational solidarity beyond distinctions of race, gender or nationality; it refers to the traditions of French cinema and culture and depicts a social context which is French, but its citation of American filmic and musical material gives it an international dimension. It is a highly wrought and meticulously planned work of art, but it looks like a television current affairs or documentary programme. Like Godard's A bout de souffle or Blier's Les valseuses, La haine is a zeitgeist film which sums up the mood and preoccupations of a particular time and place, but in a way that is internationally appealing.