La Haine; The film that predicted the French riots.

Slate ^ | 11 November 2005 | Matt Feeney

[Lorianne]

Mathieu Kassovitz's acclaimed 1995 film La Haine (Hate), which examines the lives of three young men from a housing project outside Paris, begins with its narrator telling the old joke about a guy who, falling from a tall building, repeats to himself, "So far so good … so far so good." The joke refers to the explosive conditions that were building in France's suburban housing projects at the time. It's a little didactic, but it's only a joke. And it's not a bad metaphor for France's willful blindness to the problems of its suburban ghettos, where immigrants from North and sub-Saharan Africa (and now their children and grandchildren) are garrisoned outside France's beautiful old cities, literally marginalized. The French government insists that the inhabitants of these ghettoes are "citizens," as French as anyone, but it lacks either the will or the means to integrate them into the everyday civic and economic life of the nation. "Funny," the young rioters seem to be saying, "but I don't feel French."

[jordan8]

a guy who, falling from a tall building, repeats to himself, "So far so good … so far so good."

Must have been a conservative.

[jocon307]

A good and fair review, it seems. Thanks for this interesting post.