Review of Beyond Hatred

Introduction

This `gay interest` malarkey is a bit of a mystery. It seems to be tagged to feaures containing lots of perky young pretty-boys cavorting around indulging in illicit liaisons and explicit love trysts, minus the bits that make it porn. As such, it`s not a massive bound in logic to equate gay interest with rubbish, but this surely goes against the popular notion that gay = taste. Anyway, the assumed staples of the *ahem* genre are thankfully absent in French documentary `Beyond Hatred`, which accounts the aftermath of 29-year old François Chenu`s murder at the hands of a self-proclaimed `fag-bashing` skinhead mob. With this sort of content, the film has as much right to be labelled `gay interest` (as it has been, natch) as Peter Jackson`s `Lord of the Rings` trilogy has to be shelved under `midgets with big, hairy feet interest` simply because it`s got hobbits in it. In fact, the only thing that could possibly attract the homosexual viewer to this release over their straight kin is when they hear it fittingly described as "a load of old balls".

Video

Non-anamorphic, with an aspect ratio in the 1.66:1 ballpark (it`s standard 1.85:1 letterboxing, with an added sliver down the right hand side ), the quality is bordering on horrible. Grainy and soft, with a dank palette and very poor contrast where snow is grey-ish and blacks are... darker grey-ish. The transfer has a tendency to shudder a little if the screen remains static for any length of time (which it does... a lot). There`s also a few instances of digital artefacting, and the lack of definition is such that faces often look like fuzzy pink blurs and blobs.

Audio

A tinny Dolby Digital 2.0 in French, with some of the worst subtitling you`ll see this side of a fan-sub created by someone who needs a dictionary to decrypt the speaking clock; misspelling, missed spaces, poor translations and even omitting words completely so the on-screen text makes little sense.

Features

Not a jot. The review screener doesn`t even auto-boot in the player, let alone have menus or extras.

Conclusion

What an utterly miserable excuse for a piece of film-making, let alone a moving and thoughtful documentary on a horrific event. `Beyond Hatred` is full of apparently meaningful, contemplative staring into empty spaces and reactionary camera work, lots of lingering long shots of scenery while nameless, faceless entities gargle non-sequitur thoughts. Lots of jumping into conversations mid-breath, lots of hanging around while person A and person B discuss their feelings about an event that`s never explored to any satisfactory degree. Launching with no set-up and delivering only the barest-bones of the facts, the piece has a distinct lack of direction, sitting in the the laps of people discussing the murder without feeding us any decent backstory. As hard as it may be to comprehend for a French director, the natural viewership for his `film` aren`t going to be immediately familiar with French culture and notable crimes, at least if it`s going to be distributed outside his homeland. The film succeeds in making the viewer feel like they`re leaping in at the end of a story having only read the prologue. Aiming for arty, and hitting amateur right on the temple, the choice of framing and composition screams "film school flunky", the sort of pretension that only cuts it on the festival circuit. The blurb/synopsis at the head of the page claims that director Olivier Meyrou deliberately set out to have the story, "unfold at its own pace without unnecessary exposition or narration". God, this thing would kill for a little exposition. There`s clearly a story to be told here, it`s just a shame that this Meyrou, with his dull, tiresome direction was the man to do it. Gay, straight or bi, animal, mineral or vegetable - leave this one on the shelf.