It’s 2024 and “So far, nothing has changed.” Or so little. So, on the job, Mathieu Kassovitz submitted his work. Not in Hate 2in the cinema, no, but in a total spectacle, which mixes music, dance, image and acting. If it is not perfectly adequate, the term “musical comedy” is undoubtedly what best describes this revisited, modernized and somewhat softened version of his punchy film.
Intergenerational
In the aisles of La Seine Musicale, on the evening of the premiere, we meet everyone: parents with their children, young people, old people, black people, white people, Arab people. Rappers too, including Youssoupha, who wrote two songs for the booklet, A brother’s hatred et Hatred of a cop. Even Valérie Trierweiller made the trip. Mathieu Kassovitz, looking happy but tired, wanders around, “huge” to the right and to the left. He is focused, he knows he is playing big. The production of the show is enormous (lots of people on stage, lots of special effects, augmented reality images) and the 1995 film (best direction at Cannes and César for best film in 1996) is remembered in everyone’s memory .
When darkness falls in the room, the director’s voice rings out to, as is now customary, ask the audience to turn off their cell phones. And Kassovitz adds “And above all, don’t forget, fuck the mayor with his mother.” cult phrase from 1995. The fans laugh, the tone is set. The time is displayed on the screen. It’s 10:38. The countdown is on.
“Cinema theaters are absolutely not essential” according to Mathieu Kassovitz
Over the course of the fifteen scenes which follow one another during an hour and a half of show (plus 20 minutes of intermission), Mathieu Kassovitz and Serge Denoncourt (who, notably, worked for the Cirque du Soleil) multiply the staging discoveries , play with the settings and play with gravity. The superposition of images – those projected on the screen, the living ones of the actors and dancers and those which are outlined on a transparent veil -, an invitation to let yourself be caught up in the story and the music, works to perfection and the suspended moments follow one another.
Mathieu Kassovitz does not forget, however, to bring a little lightness into the darkness of his subject. As in the film, the verbal skirmishes between the three protagonists are often tasty and have been brought up to date. “Me, if Bardella passes, I’ll get out of there”said Said. And later, “Do you think you’re a mix of Tupac and Mélenchon?”. He also does not forget to give a greater role to the girls, who are rather self-effacing in the film, particularly in a confrontation scene between Vinz and his lover. The dilemma (signed Doria and Sofiane Pamart) is undoubtedly one of the most beautiful titles of the show and one of the most poetic moments in terms of staging.
Kassovitz: “I fuck French cinema”
From Piaf to Youssoupha
Under the musical direction of Proof, “Kasso” brought together artists as different as -M-, Oxmo Puccino, Akhenaton, Chico and the Gipsies, Angélique Kidjo and Youssoupha. He again summons Edith Piaf and her No, I don’t regret anything et The song of the partisansin an electro version and almost without words, another big highlight of Hatred.
In a final scene of great purity, around the main trio, the entire cast comes together little by little. Alivor/Hubert raps 4MOURa title from Medina, which grows in power at the same time as the words grow bigger on the screen behind them. “We experience horror films when we watch them in close-up, when zooming out, love films…” “We need to break the narrative, everyone needs to come to their senses, that when the press dehumanizes, it is the species that it dehumanizes. And that the police chief is surely a head of the family. And that the little one in the street certainly didn’t choose to live there. That forgetting a crime is a crime, from Beltrame to Oussekine. We’re all going to end up killing each other, so I only have one thing to say: Love.”
Of Hate has 4MOURMathieu Kassovitz won his bet. Hands down.
- Hate. So far nothing has changedat Forest National on May 23 and 24, 2025.
