Next Project

The Situationist Derive and Kassovitz's La Haine: Psychogeographic explorations in postward Paris

Part 2 Dissertation 2003
Matthew Dearlove
Royal College of Art | UK
The Situationist International, founded in Paris in 1957, examined the constraints of urban planning, its architecture and engineering upon modern city populations, the apparent disintegration of old communities, the alienation of new.

The Situationists as urban geographers, invented the dérive, the aimless stroll, to explore the effects of the city on the individual. Forty years later, film-maker Kassovitz’s La Haine, a powerful commentary on social segregation in France’s major cities, has its protagonists play out their drama through the peripheries and streets of Paris in a markedly resonant way. I felt the inherent link was worth exploring.

Matthew Dearlove

2003
• Page Hits: 4355         • Entry Date: 17 July 2003         • Last Update: 17 July 2003