La Haine

La Haine is a cult classic with cinema audiences, recently re-released and available on dvd.

Ginette Vincendeau is top authority internationally on French cinema, who writes (eg "e;Sight and Sound"e;) and broadcasts (eg "e;Front Row Radio 4"e;) on it regularly.

It is hugely enjoyable, exciting book written with great panache and accessibility.

Released in 1995, "e;La Haine"e; is the black and white chronicle of 24 hours in the life of a mixed-race young male trio from a run-down Parisian suburb.

The work of a - then - unknown young team, it became hugely and unexpectedly successful, launching director Mathieu Kassovitz and lead player Vincent Cassel to stardom.

Vincendeau provides a thorough understanding of the context of the film`s making, both in terms of the film industry and of French society, of the film`s narrative tension, stylistic sophistication and ideological ambiguity and of its extraordinary success nationally and internationally.

She thus explains why, out of so many films about disaffected youth, "e;La Haine"e; is the one that has caught the international imagination.