Think Co-op City filled entirely with the children of first and second generation immigrants from the third world, people with no chance of ever getting a good job, or assimilating into the mainstream. La Haine is set in one of the notorious immigrant housing projects, or banlieues, that surround Paris.
It needs extensive notes providing the right historical context. For many Americans, the film needs more than subtitles. It might also have something to do with how the United States has a “path to citizenship” for even the most discriminated against immigrant groups. Blonde cut off the cop’s ear? But, even though it’s one of the best films of the 1990s, La Haine has never really entered the popular consciousness here in the United States the way the smug, tedious Trainspotting, or the quotable, but ultimately hollow Fight Club have. Oh my God, did anybody see the part where Mr.
La Haine is such a well-known film in Mathieu Kassovitz’s native Paris that if I were to write this review in French, it would be a bit like writing a review of Reservoir Dogs in English.
0 kommentar(er)
