One of France's brightest new hopes, Kassovitz has at twenty-five already made his
mark as both director and actor, having won the Most Promising Young Actor Cesar
(French film awards) for his role of a mentally retarded youth trained as a hired gun in
Jaques Audiard's Regarde les Hommes Tomber. Kassovitz' main vocation however is
directing, and he drew critical acclaim at home and at the New York Film Festival for
his first feature Cafe au lait, which he wrote, directed and starred in. His
self-parodying role of a Jewish bicycle messenger caught in a multi-racial love triangle
led many to compare him to both Spike Lee and Woody Allen. His new film HATE
(La Haine), is a social drama set in the industrial suburbs of Paris, and deals with
police - and community - brutality.

FILMOGRAPHY

Cinema (as director)

1990 Fierrot le pou (Short), Peuples du monde (Video clip)
1991 Cauchemar blanc (Short), Prix perspective Cannes 91
1992 Assassins (Short)
1993 Merisse (Cafe au lait)
1994 La Haine (Hate)
1995/96 Assassins (feature length film)

Cinema (as actor)

1978 Au bout du bout du banc (P. Kassovitz)
1990 Fierrot le pou (M. Kassovitz)
1991 Assassins...(M. Kassovitz)
1993 Merisse (M. Kassovitz)
1994 Regarde les hommes tomber (J. Audiard)
1995 Un heros tres discret (Jacques Audiard)

TALKING WITH Mathieu Kassovitz

HOW DID THE IDEA OF HATE (La Haine) COME TO YOU ?

When Makome died, a victim of "copper" brutality in a Parisian police station, I asked
myself how you get into this vicious circle of hatred, where the young insult the cops
who insult the young who insult the cops... And you can be sure that there's a bad
ending each time. But seeing that it's the cops who are armed, they're the ones who are
liable to push things too far.

WHERE DID YOU FILM "HATE" (La Haine) ?

About twenty miles from Paris, in the suburbs, in a "Cite", i.e. a typical kind of
French suburban housing ghetto where it's not all that unpleasant to live; they even
have parks there, and soccer fields... It isn't all that unpleasant, but it's a "cite",
meaning that 80% of the population and 100% of the young have nothing to do. They
don't go to school anymore, they've got nothing, they're bored stiff. It's the "hanging
around" syndrome. From morning to night, they hang around some building, and
they just stand there, outside, waiting around and smoking joints... They've got
nothing. No work, nothing, except some little deals... They don't even have drugs
where we were filming. Good thing too, because as soon as you've got the real drug
dealers, you've got shootings too.

YOU MADE THE PICTURE IN BLACK AND WHITE. WHY ?

I wanted to make a provocative picture, a really provocative picture.
"HATE" (La Haine) is against the cops, and I wanted people to see it that way. Even
if I show some good guys among the cops and some dirty bastards among the young.
Now, in order not to fall into the "elementary anti-coppers" kind of trap, you've got to
include certain factors that give life to the characters, so... they laugh about their own
experiences. There has to be some light stuff, you don't just talk about the gat the
characters have laid their hands on or about killing a cop...

You've got to bring in the kind of things I personally like, some cooler stuff, like I did
in "METISSE" (HALF-BREED), which gives you a little breathing room, a little air.
Just because the cats are nervous doesn't mean that they have to bug themselves. To
my mind, the only way to remind the spectators that they're not seeing a comic picture
or some sweet thing was to make the picture in black and white. The black and white
option means: "Look, there's something more or something less involved here, but it's
something special.

AREN'T YOU AFRAID THAT AFTER "HATE" (La Haine) PEOPLE WILL
LABEL YOU AS THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE FRENCH SUBURBAN
GHETTO YOUTH ?

You're the spokesman if you decide so. You can refuse if you want to. I've got things
to say about police brutality and slip-ups, about some stories I find really strange.
Now, if there are people who think that "HATE" (La Haine) is the only way to see
things, that's their problem. Along with the picture itself, we've worked out a musical
project. Seeing that there's no music in "HATE" (La Haine) we;re going to bring out a
record made by some French rappers: MC Solaar, IAM, the "Sages Poetes de la rue"
(Wise Street Poets), Sens Unik (One Way).

We took the topics dealt with in the picture, and we asked them to develop them
according to their own idea, their own vision, which is not necessarily that of "HATE"
(La Haine.) It's to try and broaden the discussion a little. The vision in "HATE" (La
Haine) is my vision, but it isn't the only one, and not necessarily the good one.

"I hate to be forced to take myself seriously, failing which people won't take me
seriously. I hate people who stop in mechanical stairways and let themselves be carried.
I hate people who only mind their own business.
I hate student demonstrators who complain about the "rioters" (who try to break up
their demonstrations.)
I hate the demagogical attitude connected with suburban ghettos.
I hate chicory and mixed vegetables.
I hate the morons who will think that LA HAINE is a picture about rap.
I hate those who, on the pretense of dealing with a serious subject, automatically make
it sad and moralistic.
I hate the assholes who tap you on the shoulder, saying "great picture," and who don't
think a word of it (or haven't even seen it).
I hate the "politically correct" logos.
I hate saying "I" at the beginning of every phrase.
I hate the journalists who are only going to quote the "mixed vegetables" part because
it's funny.
I hate writing notes of intention.
And yet...
I'm white, I work and live in Paris.
I don't really have any reason to feel hatred.
Now, just try and imagine what goes through the head of a youngster from one of
these suburban ghettos when one of his friends is actually shot through he head by a
policeman."

Mathieu Kassovitz