Product Details

• Actors: Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé, Saïd Taghmaoui, Abdel Ahmed Ghili, Solo
• Directors: Mathieu Kassovitz
• Producers: La Haine ( Hate ), La Haine, Hate
• Format: Import, PAL, Widescreen
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Optimum
• Run Time: 93 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000AAWR60
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #369,562 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: French ( Dolby Digital 5.1 ), English ( Subtitles ), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Commentary, Interactive Menu, Scene Access, Special Edition, SYNOPSIS: While to most outsiders Paris seems the very picture of beauty and civility, France has had a long and unfortunate history of intolerance toward outsiders, and this powerful drama from filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz takes an unblinking look at a racially diverse group of young people trapped in the Parisian economic and social underclass. Vinz (Vincent Cassel), who is Jewish, Hubert (Hubert Kounde), who is Black, and Said (Said Taghmaoui), who is Arabic, are young men from the lower rungs of the French economic ladder; they have no jobs, few prospects, and no productive way to spend their time. They hang out and wander the streets as a way of filling their days and are sometimes caught up in frequent skirmishes between the police and other disaffected youth. One day, a street riot breaks out after police seriously injure an Arab student; the three friends are arrested and questioned, and it is learned that a policeman lost a gun in the chaos. However, what they don't know is that Vinz picked it up and has it in his possession, and when Vinz, Hubert, and Said get into a scuffle with a group of racist skinheads, the circumstances seem poised for tragedy. Actress Jodie Foster was so impressed with La Haine when she saw it at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival that she helped to arrange American distribution for the film through her production company, Egg Pictures.
SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Camerimage Awards, Cannes Film Festival, Ceasar Awards, European Film Awards, Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards, Thessaloniki Film Festival, ...La Haine ( Hate )

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars VHS Review; A Truly Exceptional Film, September 17, 2005

By 

Marc A. Coignard (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: La Haine ( Hate ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - United Kingdom ] (DVD)

I have yet to see the DVD of La Haine. This review is of the VHS version:

Hate (La Haine) is a remarkable film. It follows three friends of different ethnicity through 24 hours in and around Paris. The film begins the day after a riot has struck the slums just outside of Paris. The three characters are Jewish, Arabic, and Black, and are all good friends despite the differences that divide them. This is an excellant character study. The film focuses less on the violence of the slum, but instead focuses on the mentallity of the three young men. After their good friend was brtually beaten by the police, the Jewish one vows that he will kill a police officer if the man dies. This vow haunts the entire film, and although it is almost a plot device, it is soon realised that it is so much more; its a character trait that can be respected once we understand these three men more. Why is one of them so much more prone to a promise of violence than the other two? Does their race/ethnicity matter in the ghetto when they're all as poor as each other? Why do the police harrass them all the time? These are some of the questions that are brought up throughout the film. To know and understand these three chracters is to know the answers. The plot is almost unnecessary in a film like La Haine. This is a chracter study. True, what happened the night before is very important to the story, but only if it properlly involves these three men, which it does quite well. Assuming the subtitles are done properly, the the dialogue is great, and the whole film is shot with a documentary feel. The whole film feels real, and we can relate to the characters because of how real they are. When I first saw this film, it blew me away. I've yet to see its DVD release, but once I find it I will get it. This is top-notch film making, and very good screenwriting.

In some ways, I can see this is a French version of Spike Lee's masterpiece "Do The Right Thing" in 1989. Its about a lower-class neighborhood, and its residence, and how they live their lives. A very important, and daring film. It shows, to Americans at least, that poverty is poverty, and racism is racims, no matter what part of the world its in. This is a great film, and very important.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A somber portrait of the unseen Paris in postcards!, September 14, 2005

By 

Hiram Gomez Pardo (Valencia, Venezuela) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: La Haine ( Hate ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - United Kingdom ] (DVD)

Kassovitz won the Cannes Film Festival in 1995 with this bitter black & white drama about a disillusioned urban youth where the racial problems, the unemployment and the overpopulation combine to give a remarkable and brutal portrait of a painful reality set in a Paris suburb.

A true cinema verité, so in vogue in Europe, first through the Italian Neo Realism, then reinserted in The French New wave and later redefined in the Nineties thanks to Lars von Triers (Zentropa), Patrice Laconte (Monsieur Hire) and Alvaro de la Iglesia (La comunidad) among the most representative.

3 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Reality 10 Years Later, November 6, 2005

By 

thedude_888 "Johnny Vegas" (Jersey, US of A) - See all my reviews

This review is from: La Haine ( Hate ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - United Kingdom ] (DVD)

La Haine is a subtitled, fantastic, well shot, Black & White French film about how France gives lip service to diversity. The day I write this it is the 11th day of rioting in Paris suburbs, November, 2005. La Haine has come to life 10 years later. In comparison to American cinema, this is the disaster movie that never happened; i.e. "Over the Edge", "Red Dawn", "Escape From New York". The difference between the US & France was the US realized the direction things were going and did something about it. France didn't and now it burns.

La Haine will illustrate reality- the hate, the racism, the poverty in harsh terms.

DO NOT SHOW THIS MOVIE TO YOUNG CHILDREN!!! Issues are too complex.