'HATE' PUTS FRENCH TWIST ON MODERN TEEN-AGE TRAGEDY.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

The French are quite proud of their very own urban youth tragedy, "La Haine" ("Hate"). A big thing at the Cannes Film Festival and recent winner of the Gallic Oscar-equivalent Cesar award, this movie has been made dozens of times in America.

But rarely have we seen this stuff in self-consciously jarring, hand-held black-and-white, or with people screaming their dialogue in French - neither of which makes the experience any more pleasant than, say, sitting through "Clockers."

But even if Mathieu Kassovitz's aggressive new movie has few new insights into the cycle of poverty, rebellion and repression that decimates young men's lives, it can't help but jar you. Toss in some very natural humor and unusually convincing, multiracial camaraderie, and you have a movie that ingratiates itself even as it irritates.

A riot in a drab housing project outside Paris leaves one participant on his deathbed, a victim of police brutality. It also leaves three of his pals with a cop's lost gun. Vinz (Vincent Cassel), who is Jewish, has vowed to use it if his friend dies. Hubert (Hubert Kunde), an African, and Said (Said Taghmaoui), an Arab, are slightly less vengeful, but you wouldn't want to corner any of these guys (as some unlucky, neo-Nazi skinheads eventually find out).

Anyway, the three friends strut around their complex baiting police, doing Robert De Niro impressions and generally causing trouble. Then they take a train into central Paris (past a taunting billboard that tells them "The World Is Yours"), where they crash a gallery reception, play Russian roulette with a rich drug dealer, try to steal cars and generally cause more trouble. Trouble, of course, inevitably comes back to them.

Through it all, Vinz keeps seeing a cow wandering around and some guy who's falling off a building informs us that it's something of a "so far, so good" experience until you land. These are obviously metaphors for a crumbling society and the delinquents' heedless rush to doom.

Deep, huh? Well, it plays better in French - albeit loud, insistent French.

THE FACTS

The film: "Hate (La Haine)" (NR; violence, language, drug use).

The stars: Vincent Cassel, Hubert Kounde, Said Taghmaoui.

Behind the scenes: Written and directed by Mathieu Kassovitz. Produced by Christophe Rossignon. Released by Gramercy Pictures.

Running time: One hour, 35 minutes.

Playing: Laemmle's Sunset 5, West Hollywood.

Our rating: Three Stars.