34 | Sight&Sound | May 2020
MATHIEU KASSOVITZ LA HAINE AT 25KA: You also used the sound design – ticking and
gunshots, changing levels – to create emotions.
MK: I told the sound designer [Vincent Tulli] to go and see
one movie: American Graffiti [1973]. What Walter Murch,
one of the best sound designers in the world, did with
the sound in that film is fucking genius. When people
come out of the film, because of the sounds coming
from outside the frame, they think they have seen things
they haven’t. I used that in La Haine, to the point where
people thought they saw who killed who at the end of
the movie. I had journalists ask me: “Why did you have
Hubert killing the cop?”
KA: You shoot the banlieue scenes with the characters look-
ing small, with a lot of wide shots, but in Paris, everything
gets close. What was your thinking behind that shift?
MK: In Paris, we only had half of the crew with us because
my producer told me we couldn’t afford to shoot the
whole movie the way we shot it in the banlieue, where
I had a crane and a Steadicam. We filmed everything in
Paris with a long lens. If you look at the movie, it turns
mono. It was stereo before because we shot very wide in
the projects, but when you go to Paris, it’s more centred
on the actors. I took the cost constraints that we had and
said, “OK, how can we use that?” If I cannot have every-
thing, I’m going to put all the crew at the beginning,
where I need all the toys. And then in the second part, I
need six people, one camera, long lens, no authorisation,
and we will shoot guerrilla-style.
KA: I’ve always found the film very funny. How important
was the comedy to you?
MK: La Haine was a success because it’s a comedy. When
I hang out with these guys in the projects, or in Paris,
whether you’re hungry or not, it’s all about making
jokes. I wanted people from Paris to see that these guys
are fucking educated. Yeah, they talk like that, but they
make jokes.
KA: And you make it seem there’s going be a happy ending
right until the last second.
MK: That’s what happened in real life. I could have
ended the movie with Vinz giving the gun to Hubert and
Hubert could have thrown the gun in the lake, and then
everybody learned the lesson, and nobody’s hurt. The
movie could have been good like that too. But the reason
why I made that movie is because kids die.
KA: How did you feel about the reaction to the film?
MK: I was very alarmed by the star-ification of the
people who made the movie. I was very worried, and
I denounced it. I made a lot of journalists cry because I
told them, “This isn’t about us, it’s about the subjects of
the movie. You should go and interview the kids, and
you should go and interview the police and talk to the
minister, talk to the people that are responsible for this.
You should analyse it and you should give your point of
view.” Like, you can say whatever you want about a Ken
Loach movie, but he doesn’t care. What he wants is to
expose something. And he wants journalists not to talk
about the quality of the movie, but about the subject. Is it
relevant, and what can we do? I wanted the same thing.
That was my objective, but now I’m more comfortable to
talk about the film 25 years later because I realise that the
movie survived by itself.
KA: You grew disillusioned with directing after making
2011’s Rebellion, and you have argued that there is no more
magic in movie making, and that directing a film takes so
many fights that it’s better just to act these days. Do you
still think you won’t direct?
MK: I’m getting older and things change a lot. When I
started, I thought I would have an amazing career as I
thought that political movies would still be needed be-
cause back in the day, we didn’t have the internet, and
the only way you could get information was through
official media. Of course, you had the alternative press,
but it was difficult to access, so movies were very impor-
tant as sometimes it was the only way you could discover
something. Nowadays, I can persuade you to change
your life and be inspired by something just with a one-
minute video on Instagram. So, the impact of political
movies is not the same as before. Look at Costa-Gavras’s
last movie [Adults in the Room, 2019], which is about the
crisis in Greece, which is an alarm about what might go
on. Twenty-five years ago that movie would have been
a success. And if he had made Z [his 1969 thriller about
the murder of a Greek political activist] today, the movie
which earned him an Oscar nomination, nobody would
care because we would already know – just like with the
Panama Papers and all these whistleblowers on Twitter.
As a director, my passion is not only directing, but also
trying to save the world. Now I understand that I cannot
save the world, so I have to twist my mind to say, “Okay,
let’s have fun.” But I’m not there yet. You need to find
something that drives you as a director. I’m like a chef and
if I cannot get the right ingredients at my age, if I cannot
do exactly the menu I want, then I’m not going to bother.
KA: But it must be very pleasing that La Haine still carries
so much power.
MK: When it’s memorable not just because it’s a comedy
or a horror or an action film, but because it has a social
message that talks about the problems between the
police and the youth, if you get that as well, then it’s for-
tunate. So yeah, I’m enjoying this
La Haine will be rereleased in UK cinemas in a new 4K
restoration later this year, followed by a Blu-ray and BFI
Player release‘ You need to find something that drives you as a
director. I’m like a chef, and at my age if I cannot
do the menu I want, then I’m not going to bother’
STAR WARS
Vincent Cassel (above) and
Mathieu Kassovitz were
catapulted to stardom by La
Haine, but the director was
unhappy with attempts to
refocus the story away from
the kids in the banlieues and
the issues raised by the film