Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #903 in DVD
• Released on: 2004-09-27
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Black & White, PAL, Special Edition
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 98 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
La Haine is an angry, anti-authoritarian French film that concerns three young guys (a Jew, an Arab, a black) who decide to take on the police after a friend is brutally beaten. There isn't much going on in this black and white drama beyond its violence (which can be pretty hard to watch, such as an interrogation scene that incorporates torture) and gritty observations of wayward youths hanging out on the fringes of Paris. Certainly, there isn't much in the way of insight, and director Mathieu Kassovitz seems to have absorbed more of the excesses of America's independent film scene, especially Spike Lee at his most indulgent, than its blessings. But if it's edge and rawness you want, this has it--with subtitles. --Tom Keogh

Special Features
Digitally Remastered
New Subtitles
Audio Commentary from Director Mathieu Kassovitz
Original colour versions of selected scenes
Behind the Scenes Footage
Interactive Menus
Scene Access
Special 10th Anniversary Edition

Synopsis
Shot in black and white cinema verite style, this film follows a day in the life of three aimless, violence-prone, ethnically-diverse young men who hail from the same decaying housing project in Paris. Vinz, who is Jewish, is the angriest and the least intelligent of the three. North African Said is calmer, but is the most despairing about his future. Hubert is Black, and the most mature, channeling his rage through boxing. Although the trio seethes with fury over the arrest and senseless beating of an Arab friend, each manages to keep the other in check. But that changes after Vinz finds a loaded gun--and the trio becomes entangled with the police, and later a group of skinheads. Mathieu Kassovitz won the Best Director prize for LA HAINE at the Cannes Film Festival.

Customer Reviews

Don't buy or rent this film.....
Its rubbish. I persevered with up to half way, but could not take any more. Nothing happened and you simply do not care about the cliche characters. Do yourself a big favour and give this total bore a miss.

Materpiece
i came across this movie through hip hop circles as the soundtrack and the movie iteself features some excellent music and dj's. I dont understand a word of french and watched this a couple of times in order the really get the most out of it. Its a typical view of inner city life as viewed from the point of three friends. and essentially could be translocated to most inner cities, however the french language being as beautiful sounding as it is really adds to this film. The interactions and exploits of the main charecters is as lively as you would expect from teenages friends and at time is extremely funny and fast paced. The 'so far so good' opening sequence really installs an inevitability factor to the movie which is realised in the very last scene of the movie itself and as such this isn't about what happens but more about the journey the three friends take getting there. Definately and enjoyable film to watch.

Emperor's Clothes
I thought this film was incredibly over rated - there was no structure to it and the main characters were stereotyped to the point where it almost became predictable. There is a trend now that if you have filmed something poor then it will be released as b/w to give it an 'arty' look. Like the Blair Witch Project, this is another film where people like to say they enjoyed it to be thought of as intellectual. Really though it is quite dull