In a battle zone that is closer to the South Central Los Angeles depicted These monuments to French civilization are unattainable. Vinz, Hubert, and Sayid may live in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and theĬhamps Élysées, yet the affluence and romance symbolized by At one juncture, Vinz asks his younger sisterīurned down," is the blunt reply. TheyĪre not separated by race or religion, but rather are united by age andĮconomic background, by drugs and wretched educations, and by the allure Sociological, let alone stereotypical, mirrors of their ethnicity. TheĬharacters are who they are as individuals, rather than being political or Israel, a conflict that is far removed from their daily lives.
Jew and Arab do not clash over, for example, the politics of the state of Their common experience, and are equally alienated and anti-social. Here, a Jew, an Arab, and a black are united by Kassovitz also cannily demonstrates how poverty and hopelessness extendīeyond racial barriers. Which proclaims that "Elvis Shot JFK." One puts down anotherīy exclaiming, "Your mother drinks Bud." Another, who is a Secondary character wears a Notre Dame jacket. To the animated characters Sylvester and Tweetie and Mickey Mouse. Hood." Their speech is laced with American pop cultural references, "homeboys" and their neighborhood as "the Lives are predetermined and, if they protest, there are plenty of policeĪnother key to the film is the all-encompassing impact of American cultureĪnd consumerism on Sayid, Hubert, and Vinz, who refer to themselves as The teens are haunted by aĪdvertisement that is ever-present on billboards. Is like watching a firecracker waiting to explode. Pig." It seems inevitable that Abdel will die-so watching He promises that, if Abdel dies, he will get revenge by "whacking a Violent or bad, yet their economic status, age, and demeanor allow theĪuthorities to single them out as troublemakers.įorebodingly, Vinz comes into possession of a Smith & Wesson. All they do is hang out and smoke marijuana, and they areĬonstantly harassed by the police. The concept of a "career" and economic independence is not They have neither jobs nor job prospects. Yet Hubert, Sayid, and Vinz remain inexorably linkedīy their nonexistent futures. He is the only one whoĬan articulate the fact that he will be unable to flourish if he cannotĮscape the projects. Hubert, meanwhile, is the most self-aware. The genial Sayid is content to play tag-along, following in Vinz's Rather, he contorts hisįace, becoming a hideous and horrifying symbol of contemporary alienated He idolizes one of the mostĬelebrated of all celluloid psychos: Travis Bickle, the character playedĪs he glares into a mirror and imitates Travis, Vinz does not exude a Of the trio, Vinz is the most sociopathic. The main characters are Abdel's three friends: theĪrab Sayid, the Jewish Vinz, and the black Hubert. Police have just violently clashed, with the conflict sparked by theīrutal beating by the cops of a young man named Abdel, who lies near death Public housing project just outside Paris. , written and directed by 29-year-old Mathieu Kassovitz, is set in a In their depictions of young lives wasting away in an environment ofĭirectly parallel the sensibility that permeates In the 1990s, where guns, drive-by shootings, and "gangsta"Īttitude are as much a part of everyday life as flipping on a television The latter are gutsy, non-romanticized portraits of urban African-America (whose characters are misunderstood upper-class Southern Californians), Is an instant classic of its genre, ranking alongside adolescent angstĭramas from Nicholas Ray's 1950s breakthrough, As such, the film is an explosive, cutting-edge portrait of May be a French-language film, set in a specific place and time, but itsĭepiction of alienated, dead-end teens who clash with authority is Hammerschmidt, T., "Filme des Monats," in , and Some Thoughts on Scorsese's Children," in Trofimenkov, M., "Predchuvstvie prazhdanskoi voiny," in Trofimenkov, M., "O nenavistio nenavisti," in Leahy, J., "The Children of Godard and 90s TV," in īest Director, Cannes Film Festival, 1995 Best Young Film, European FilmĪwards, 1995 Best French Film, Best Producer, and Best Editor, Cesar Productions, and Gramercy Pictures black and white, 35 mm running time:ĩ5 minutes length: 2,731 meters. Les Productions Lazennec, with Studio Canal+, La Sept Cinema, Kasso Inc.