l’haine

i was talking about this film again yesterday and got a little thrill again. it is so very expressive of desperation and youthful wistfulness and finally, inescapability. the three lead actors are vincent cassel, hubert kounde, and said taghmaoui. they are three young men in a housing project just outside of paris who are reacting to the beating of their friend by the police. they are, essentially, trying to make something different happen. i cannot say enough that this film is so worth watching.

i came to this film entirely because i have admired vincent cassel since “read my lips.” (and a quick aside to say that the director, jaques audiard, also made “the beat that my heart skipped”, which is also worth seeing.) he’s excellent at playing characters who are both cruel and falliable, human. now i will be looking for more of his films.

hubert kounde was the doctor in “the constant gardener” and coined the word “parkour“. a performance of which can now be seen in car commercials on television. urban restlessness and invention.

back to the film–another adjunct where i teach uses “crash” to illustrate aspects of post-colonialism in her composition class (ethnic diversity, racism, class and so on.) a far inferior film. we discussed the relative merits of exposing college freshmen to difficult foreign films that may be more artistically beautiful versus domestic films which may more effectively raise the issues we wish to discuss. i suggested that she see l’haine, and i would always try for the more difficult film first. (i did screen “the gleaners and i” by agnes varda in a freshman composition course. i forget the themes i was considering. see varda’s “cleo from 5 to 7″ if you’ve never.)

this is too many digressions, even for me.