Although the term “world cinema” is almost exclusively used in the United States with regard to general film theory — leading to frankly accurate assumptions of Americentrism thereby — it’s nonetheless important to shine light on projects made outside of Hollywood.
Of course, films from Japan were popularized in America thanks to Akira Kurosawa several decades ago, with others like Hayo Miyazaki only continuing the prominence thereof. South Korean cinema has gained a lot of traction as of late, along with Chinese movies thanks to guys like Wong Kar-wai. And of course, India has Bollywood — a different discussion entirely, with Satyajit Ray going down as one of the best filmmakers to ever live.
European countries have specific directors commonly associated with them, such as Fritz Lang and Werner Herzog from Germany. There’s also Federico Fellini from Italy, Ingmar Bergman from Sweden, and Alfred Hitchcock from England. Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg made note of Danish cinema, while Krzysztof Kieślowskidid so for Poland. Then, there’s France.
The films of French cinema have influenced directors around the world since the dawn of the medium itself thanks toA Trip to the Moon(1902) by George Méliès. Other filmmakers established further resonance down the line, such as Jean Renoir withThe Rules of the Game(1939). After that,projects of the French New Waveestablished a whole new meaning to the word influential.
Since their height in the sixties, though, the prominence of French cinema in modern America has boiled down to a few specific titles:Amélie(2001) andCaché(2005), for example. But the most notable French film from a contemporary perspective would undoubtedly have to be one with the honest emotion and modern relevance of the one at hand:La Haine(1995).
The Release of La Haine
Written and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz, its title translates to “Hatred” in English, while the project itself was released asHatewithin the United States. And upon that release, the project at hand garnered widespread acclaim from critics in tandem with impressive numbers regarding receipts in theaters. But what’s perhaps most prominently worth noting when it comes to the general reception ofLa Hainewould be its involvement in a particularly famous annual event of the industry.
Mathieu Kassovitz won Best Director at the 48th Cannes Film Festival, where the film alsoreceived a standing ovationfrom those in attendance. And despite coming up short for the Palme d’Or toUnderground(1995) by Emir Kusturica, there’s no denying thatLa Hainestood the much more notable test of time.
Filmed in black and white, its plot follows a day in the life of three friends from a poverty-stricken immigrant neighborhood in the Paris suburbs. Everything kicks off when one of their friends — named Abdel Ichaha, whom the audience never actually meets on screen — is placed in intensive care due to serious injuries at the hands of police officers.
These events were triggered by riots, and in turn incited the aforementioned chronicling of the film’s main characters: a Jewish man named Vinz, an African boxer named Hubert, and a North African Muslim named Saïd. Their disparate races of course play into the symbolizing of class division in 1990s Paris. But the characters themselves provide a tangible tone to the film just from their dynamic. Their dialogue, their mannerisms — any given interaction between the three of them (or just a pair) stood out as the most dynamic and entertaining that foreign film characters had to offer throughout the 1990s.
Related:Film History: The French New Wave, Explained
Other Great Foreign Films From the 1990s
Several notable horror films from Japan had a massive influence on Western cinema, starting most prominently withCure(1997), written and directed by Kyoshi Kurosawa. After that wasRing(1998) by Hideo Nakata, followed byAudition(1999) by Takashi Miike. And of course, from that same region were two prominent animated projects fromfamous fantasy filmmaker Hayo Miyazaki:Porco Rosso(1992) andPrincess Mononoke(1997).
Just to the west thereof was working a Chinese filmmaker named Wonk Kar-wai, who released notable projects likeAshes of Time(1994),Fallen Angels(1995), andHappy Together(1997). But his most important title from the 1990s wasChungking Express(1994), bar none. Along with a couple others, it rivals the greatness ofLa Haine.
But moving further west, the 1990s also hadChildren of Heaven(1997), a family drama written and directed by Majid Majidi, an Iranian filmmaker. Italian writer-director Roberto Benigni hadLife is Beautiful(1997), German filmmaker Tom Tykwer hadRun Lola Run(1998), and Lars von Trier of Danish descent releasedEuropa(1991).
A prominent filmmaker from Poland named Krzysztof Kieślowski was hard at work herein, starting the decade in brilliant fashion withThe Double Life of Veronique(1991). But of course, he also wrote and directed the famousThree Colorstrilogy. FeaturingThree Colors: Blue(1993),Three Colors: Red(1994), andThree Colors: White(1994), they all influenced fellow filmmakers like few features of their time.
And in a joint production of sorts,Man Bites Dog(1992) was directed by three men: Rémy Belvaux and Benoît Poelvoorde from Poland, and André Bonzel from France. It showcases an engrossing premise off the bat with masterful execution in the end, and overall, the product isnow deemed a cult classic.
But aside fromMan Bites Dogand the project at hand, France produced other critical darlings such asBeau Travail(1999). It was directed and co-written by Claire Denis — along with screenwriter Jean-Pol Fargeau — and based loosely onBilly Budd, an 1888 novella by Herman Melville. There were also two projects by both Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro:Delicatessen(1991) andThe City of Lost Children(1995). And all three of those were among the highest-quality projects their region had ever seen. But at the end of the day, one particular French movie stands out as the greatest foreign film of the 1990s.
Why La Haine Stands Out
With witty, whiplash inducing dialogue from beginning to end and a theme with tangible resonance — almost ahead of its time in a lot of respects —La Haineremains relevant now perhaps more than ever. And it’s that timelessness — achieved through commanding camerawork, dazzling dynamics, and effective emotion — that renders this Kassovitz masterpiece the standout foreign film of the 1990s.
For as relevant asClerks(1994) by American filmmaker Kevin Smith remains for being filmed in black and white, the film at hand arguably does it better thanks toits neo-noir inspirations. And the omission of color almost facilitated even more resonant camerawork, as the cinematography itself was just another testament to the simplistic happenings and straightfoward values within the lives of these characters.
The camera almost acts like a character in many respects, completely absorbing the audience’s attention as if it had lines of dialogue for itself, a personality of its own. And as for the legitimate characters: they’re each placed purposefully in a given shot to highlight their every move and to show where they stand in accordance with one another — the blocking, if you will. And its these expert tactics of cinematography that made memorizing these characters and their idiosyncrasies so seamless.
The friends smoke weed, invest in handguns, and generally appear as thugs despite staying true to core values and always striving for the betterment of their loved ones. Really, the only people they’re thuggish towards are the police. And for having such a paucity of plot, that truly encompasses the characters ofLa Haine, and their motivations from start to finish.
Unless they’re feuding with officers of the law, these characters truly just have conversations. That encompassesthe film’s runtime, and their dialogue is worth the experience in itself. Each of the main characters are distinct in their speech, their mannerisms, their general demeanor, and thus bounce off one another as seamlessly as any well-written, dynamic character would. And their development ultimately translates into the overall theme of the film, in quite the poetic fashion.
In the end,La Hainedoesn’t just shine light on the economic and social turmoil of Paris in the 1990s — those divisions of class are under a spotlight, taking center stage as the primary characters gather around and dance. Everything else is seen naturally into fruition through sundry tactics of masterful filmmaking.
