Paris, mid-1990s. After riots provoked by police brutality against the Arab teenager Abdel, in poor neighborhoods, far from tourist routes, three friends find a revolver. A Jewish youth, a black boxer, and a young Arab want to take brutal revenge. Hate breeds hatred.
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From the first seconds (‘Dedicated to those who died during the filming of this film’), it is obvious that the theme of the film is extremely relevant, and not only for French reality. A tangle of social, racial and personal contradictions now and then leads to an explosion, whether it be the riots in France in the first half of the 90s or the very recent pogroms in Paris. The racists within the police use their permissiveness during arrests, the gopniks within the Arab and black diaspora do not lose the opportunity to sow riots. There was a problem at the time of making the film (95th year), and it has not gone away now. Hatred overwhelms human minds, and in response it evokes only other hatred.
Young director Mathieu Kassowitz (who will probably never get rid of the ‘Amelie’s buddy’ because of his role) blew up French cinema in the mid-90s with his black and white protest. Prize for directing in Cannes, a scattering of nominations and the final Cesar for the best film, the strongest interest in the film from the top officials of France. The scandalousness, in my opinion, is absolutely justified. Nevertheless, although Kassowitz’s sympathies are quite obvious, he did not push everything to the brink. There are enough good people on both sides of the law.
Kassowitz decided to tell his story in the form of one day of three friends. The periodically appearing time alarmingly brings us to the end of their story, the story of three simple guys, to whom we got used to in an hour and a half. All three played just great, I suspect that in life they were at least good friends. And yet Vincent Cassel breaks ahead among them, whom the role of Vinz launched into big cinema. His hero is arrogant, impulsive, ‘bullish’, but still has great flavor and attractiveness. Probably, it was here that he played his best role so far.
The picture was taken in a curious way. The film is black and white, which adds to the timeless feel of it. Acid scales and clip editing come and go, but the good old b / w remains. Although I can’t say that the operator was able to squeeze something really strong out of a black and white picture (of the Schindler List level), everything looks great, especially all these tricks with changing the depth of field, camera spans or a ‘fake’ mirror.
Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audio
French: DTS-HD 5.1
French: Dolby Digital
French: DTS-HD 2.0
French: LPCM 2.0
Subtitles
English, French.
