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3. La Haine
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4. Main Themes to look at…
• B&W Cinematography
• Underbelly of Paris (Banlieue’s)
• Youth Issues
• 3 Characters

5. B&W Cinematography
- Documentary Style - Link to Opening of Film
- Bleached & Stark
- Plain - Nothingness
- No ‘Light’
- Represents the lives of the Youth
- Represents how France want the Banlieue’s to be

6. To look at these…
• Underbelly of Paris (Banlieue’s)
• Youth Issues
We need to look at the context…

7. Social, historical and political Contexts
The projects or, les banlieues:
- Banlieues are satellite ‘new towns’ (for which read housing estates for the poor) up
to twenty miles out of Paris that almost seem designed to keep the poor out of the
middle-class centre of the city
- The ‘new town’ in which La Haine was filmed had at the time an official population
of 10,000 made up of sixty different nationalities or ethnicities
- These are stereotyped in the media as places of urban deprivation crime and drug
use.

8. The French Empire and Imperialism...
− France was a major colonial power in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries with colonies in
Africa, the Caribbean and South-East Asia.
-Thε struggle for independence was particularly bitter in some countries such as Algeria SAID!
(which gained independence in 1962) and Vietnam (where the French were defeated at Dien Bien
Phu in 1954).
-Some Colonies, like Martinique, remain and are able to send representatives to the French
Assembly. Other former colonies, like Senegal, remain closely linked to France and French culture.
-French Policy towards non – white ethnic groups has always been on of ‘assimilation’ with people
being expected to take on French cultural norms and values. Many Algerians, Moroccans Tunisians,
in particular, who went to France to work during the 1960s, have to a greater or lesser extent
resisted this policy.
-Maintaining the purity of the French language both at home and abroad was given a much higher
priority than the British gave to upholding the English usage in their colonies
- Verlan, or backslang’, began around Paris in the 1980s, among second generation ethnic
minority young people who saw themselves as positioned between their parents’ culture and
French culture.

9. Racism
− Ι µmigration was limited by the French government during the economic crisis of
the early 1970s.
- Facsist far-right groups (as in many other European countries during the period)
have consistently blamed unemployment on immigrants.
- In tηε 1980s the National Front began to win some local elections and even
parliamentary seats, especially in South and Southwest France.
- Those Who administered Vichy France during the Second World War collaborated in
sending French Jews to the concentration camps
- Kassovitz father (who himself fled Hungary in 1956) was the son of a concentration
camp survivor.
CAN LINK TO UK

10. The Police and Racism
− There are two main police groups in the film: the neighborhood plain clothes
police (apparent good guys!) and the riot police
- Racism (as in the UK) has been seen to be a particular problem in the police
force.
- Therε were over 300 deaths in police custody or from police action from 1980
to 1995 when the film was made.

11. Extra Bits…

12. The Characters…
The three men all share the same
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same events but bring different
perspectives to bear on their common
s
situation.
Each of the film’s characters comes from one of the three groups
most visible as outsiders in today’s France.

13. Hubert QuickTimeª and a
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Hubert, a young African, is a small-time hashish dealer whose boxing
gym was destroyed in the vandalism of the riots. He seems to be the
most rational of the three friends, but now that his life’s work has been
taken away from him, he will do anything to escape his neighborhood.
Hubert is more of an observer, calming the other two when passions
rise. He seems older and more sensitive to people and events and
acts as the peacemaker.

14. Said
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Saïd, an Arab, seems unwilling to acknowledge the problems of his
surroundings except by expressing amazement or incomprehension of
them.
Said is again, like Vinz, quick to respond, but appears to be less
motivated by hate and more by what he sees as self-respect. His
aggression is less damaging and at times, more humorous.

15. Vinz
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that was lost by a police officer during
the riots. He is the angriest of the three
and does not hesitate to offer violence
as a means of releasing his bitterness.
Vinz is the character who is central to most of the action and
comes across as the stereotypical ‘angry young man’. He rarely
stops to think about what he is doing or saying, and ploughs
straight in, often inflaming and infuriating the situation, with
disastrous consequences.