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Métisse
1993 Comedy / Drama / Romance
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Credits
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Director: Mathieu Kassovitz
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Script: Mathieu Kassovitz
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Photo: Pierre Aïm
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Music: Jean-Louis Daulne, Marie Daulne
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Cast: Julie Mauduech (Lola),
Hubert Koundé (Jamal Saddam Abossolo M'bo),
Mathieu Kassovitz (Felix),
Vincent Cassel (Max),
Tadek Lokcinski (Felix's grandfather),
Jany Holt (Felix's grandmother),
Rywka Wajsbrot (Felix's aunt),
Héloïse Rauth (Sarah),
Marc Berman (Maurice)
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Country: France / Belgium
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Language: French
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Runtime: 94 min
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Aka: Café au lait
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Summary
Lola, an attractive young half-caste, has two lovers. One is Jamal, rich, educated,
the son of a diplomat, and black. The other is Félix, a white Jew from a
deprived background, who scrapes a living as a bicycle courier. The two men meet
when they are summoned to Lola’s apartment. They learn that Lola is pregnant,
but she will not disclose which of them is the father. Unable to give up the woman
they love, the two men must not only accept the situation. They must also accept
each other…
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.
© James Travers 2005
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