Métisse (1993)
Directed by Mathieu Kassovitz

Film Review

Two years before he created a sensation at the 1995 Cannes film festival with La Haine, a controversial film about racial tension in the housing estates of Paris, Mathieu Kassovitz made this comparatively slight film which tackled the race issue from a totally different angle.   Métisse , Kassovitz's first full length film, uses comedy to draw our attention to the injustices and prejudices that mar our so-called civilised society.  The director's approach is strikingly fresh and original, and most notably quite unlike anything in French cinema at the time.

The film's low budget and “rough and ready” feel give it a raw realism and zany style which the more sophisticated La Haine lacks, although it is quite apparent that Kassovitz has yet to come to grips with the art of filmmaking.  Although the script is well-written, with some great comic dialogue in places, the familiar racial and social stereotypes keep cropping up, and the film's narrative is painfully uneven.  What the film lacks in maturity and coherence it more than makes up for with its sense of fun, its biting irony and its humanity.  The acting is also impeccable, and Kassovitz shows that he is just as promising as an actor as he is as a director.  Vincent Cassel appears in the film, in one of his first screen appearances, before starring in Kassovitz's La Haine and becoming one of the most sought-after actors in French cinema.  Kassovitz's father, Pierre, is also in the film, in a brief cameo role, playing a university professor.

Métisse was noted at the Césars in 1994, with two nominations (one for the film, in the best first film category, and the other for Kassovitz, in the most promising young actor category).  Kassovitz had previously been recognised for his short films ( Fierrot le pou, Cauchemar blanc and Assassins).  He would go on to win acclaim for his performance in Jacques Audiard's Regarde les homes tomber (1994) and, more significantly, his direction of La Haine (1995), his greatest achievement to date.

Film Synopsis

Jamal and Félix are two young men who could not be more different but they have one thing in common - both are devotedly attached to the same woman, Lola, an 18-year-old half-caste.  The son of an African diplomat, Jamal is struggling to complete his law studies in Paris.  Félix is a bike courier who divides his spare time between clubbing and drugs dealing.  Lola cannot decide which of the two chalk-and-cheese lovers she likes most, so she is happy to go on seeing them both.

Unfortunately, this is not an arrangement that suits Jamal or Félix.  They each want Lola for himself and are willing to resort to violence to bring this about.  Things become a tad more complicated when Lola discovers that she is pregnant and admits she cannot be sure which of her two lovers is the father.  As a result, Jamal and Félix are forced to bury their differences and content themselves with an awkward three-way relationship.  This proves to be something of challenge as the two men are naturally predisposed to hate one another, given their personal backgrounds.  Lola is wise enough to know that she will get her way in the end, and when her baby is born it might well turn out that two fathers are better than one...