Mathieu Kassovitz | |
|---|---|
 Kassovitz at the2017 Cannes Film Festival | |
| Born | Paris, Île-de-France, France |
| Occupations |
|
| Years active | 1978–present |
| Spouse | Julie Mauduech |
| Father | Peter Kassovitz |
| Website | mathieukassovitz.com (Archived) |
Mathieu Kassovitz (French pronunciation:[matjøkasɔvits]) is a French actor, film director, film producer and screenwriter. He has won threeCésar Awards:Most Promising Actor forSee How They Fall (1994), andBest Film andBest Editing forLa Haine (1995). He also receivedBest Director andBest Writing nominations.
Mathieu Kassovitz is the son ofPeter Kassovitz, a film producer, director, and writer, and Chantal Rémy, afilm editor.[1] His mother is a French Catholic, while his father is a Hungarian Jew who fled during theHungarian Revolution of 1956.[2] Mathieu has described himself as "not Jewish but I was brought up in a world of Jewish humor".[2]
As a filmmaker, Kassovitz has made several artistic and commercial successes. He wrote and directedLa Haine (Hate, 1995), a film dealing with themes around class, race, violence, andpolice brutality.[3] The film won theCésar Award for Best Film and netted Kassovitz theBest Director prize at the1995 Cannes Film Festival.[4]
He later directedThe Crimson Rivers (2000), a police detective thriller starringJean Reno andVincent Cassel, another massive commercial success in France, andGothika (2003), a fantasy thriller (considered by some to be a commercial failure, although it grossed over three times its roughly $40 million budget), withHalle Berry,Robert Downey Jr., andPenélope Cruz. He used the money he made fromGothika to develop a far more personal projectBabylon Babies, the adaptation of one ofMaurice G. Dantec's books, which eventually would becomeBabylon A.D..[1] Kassovitz established the film production firm MNP Entreprise in 2000 "to develop and produce feature films by Kassovitz and to represent him as a director and actor."[5] MNP Entreprise is responsible for the co-productions of a number of films includingAvida (2006) in which Kassovitz acted andBabylon A.D. which he directed. Kassovitz purchased the film rights for the novelJohnny chien méchant by Congolese writerEmmanuel Dongala. The film adaptation titledJohnny Mad Dog, written and directed byJean-Stéphane Sauvaire, premiered at the2008 Cannes Film Festival where it was screened within theUn Certain Regard section.[6]
In 2011, he starred in and directedRebellion, a war film based on a true story of French commandos who clashed with tribes inNew Caledonia, theMelanesianterritory of France. His future projectscience fiction filmMNP is named afterMir Space Station, whose writing in Cyrillic letters (Мир) look like the letters MNP, and also the production company.[7]
Kassovitz is most famous outside France for his acting role as Nino Quincampoix inJean-Pierre Jeunet's filmAmélie. He also had small roles inLa Haine (which he also directed),Birthday Girl, andThe Fifth Element. He played leading roles inA Self-Made Hero (1996) byJacques Audiard and inAmen. (2003) byCosta-Gavras. Kassovitz is also recognizable for playing a conflicted Belgian explosives expert inSteven Spielberg's 2005 filmMunich, alongsideEric Bana,Daniel Craig, andGeoffrey Rush. Kassovitz was a jury member for the2001 Cannes Film Festival.[citation needed]
Since 2015, Kassovitz has been starring in the acclaimed espionage thriller seriesThe Bureau, broadcast in France onCanal+ and made available around the world onAmazon Prime Video. So far five seasons have been screened.
Kassovitz was married to French actress Julie Mauduech, whom he directed and acted alongside in his 1993 filmMétisse (Café au lait, English title) and also made a brief appearance inLa Haine (during the scene in the Parisian art gallery).[8][9]
In 2009, Kassovitz won with aTesla Roadster theRallye Monte Carlo des Véhicules à Énergie Alternative (starting event of theFIA Alternative Energies Cup) in the category reserved toelectric vehicles.[10][11]
Kassovitz is also known for his outspokenness, frequently making controversial comments on socio-political issues.[citation needed] Kassovitz was an ardent critic of former presidentNicolas Sarkozy, whom he described in his blog as having "ideas that not only reveal his inexperience of politics and human relations, but which also illuminate the purely demagogical and egocentric aspects of a puny, would-be Napoleon."[12] In a 2012 interview, he labeled the outgoing Sarkozy administration as "horrible".[13]
On 3 September 2023, while engaged in a training course at theAutodrome de Linas-Montlhéry, Kassovitz was involved in a "serious" motorcycle accident that caused head trauma and a fractured pelvis.[14][15]
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Actor | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | Fierrot le pou | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 1991 | Cauchemar Blanc | Yes | Yes | ||
| 1992 | Assassins... | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 1994 | Elle voulait faire quelque chose | Yes | Role: Mathieu | ||
| Avant mais après | Yes | ||||
| Putain de porte | Yes | ||||
| 1995 | Les Fleurs de Maria Papadopylou | Yes | |||
| 1996 | La Forêt | Yes | Documentary short; segment: "Lumières sur un massacre" | ||
| 1998 | Article Premier | Yes |
Producer
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Producer | Editor | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1993 | Métisse | Yes | Yes | |||
| 1995 | La Haine | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| 1997 | Assassin(s) | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| 2000 | The Crimson Rivers | Yes | Yes | |||
| 2003 | Gothika | Yes | ||||
| 2005 | Nèg Maron | Yes | ||||
| 2006 | White Palms | Yes | ||||
| Avida | Yes | |||||
| 2007 | Les Deux Mondes | Yes | ||||
| 2008 | Enfants de Don Quichotte (Acte 1) | Yes | Documentary | |||
| Johnny Mad Dog | Yes | |||||
| Babylon A.D. | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||
| Louise Hires a Contract Killer | Yes | |||||
| 2011 | Rebellion | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Acting roles
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979 | Au bout du bout du banc | Mathias Oppenheim | |
| 1981 | Next Year If All Goes Well | A boy | |
| 1992 | Un été sans histoires | A hitchhiker | |
| 1993 | Métisse | Felix | |
| 1994 | See How They Fall | Johnny | |
| 1995 | The City of Lost Children | Man on the street | Uncredited |
| La Haine | Young Skinhead | ||
| 1996 | My Man | 1st Client: Clément | Uncredited |
| A Self-Made Hero | Albert Dehousse | ||
| News from the Good Lord | A nurse | ||
| 1997 | The Fifth Element | Mugger | |
| Assassin(s) | Max | ||
| 1998 | Pleasure (And Its Little Inconveniences) | Roland | |
| 1999 | Jakob the Liar | Herschel | |
| 2001 | Amélie | Nino Quincampoix | |
| Birthday Girl | Yuri | ||
| 2002 | Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra | Physionomiste banquet | |
| Amen. | Riccardo Fontana | ||
| 2005 | Munich | Robert | |
| 2006 | Avida | The producer | |
| 2008 | Louise Hires a Contract Killer | The farm owner | |
| 2011 | Rebellion | Philippe Legorjus | |
| Haywire | Studer | ||
| 2012 | Another Woman's Life | Paul Speranski | |
| The Lookout | Vincent Kaminski | ||
| 2013 | Angélique | Nicolas / Calembredaine | |
| 2014 | Nobody from Nowhere | Sébastien Nicolas / Henri de Montalte | |
| Wild Life | Paco (Philippe Fournier) | ||
| 2016 | Le Gang des Antillais | Bar owner | |
| Apocalypse Verdun | Voice-over | Documentary | |
| 2017 | Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets | Camelot on Big Market | |
| Happy End | Thomas Laurent | ||
| Sparring | Steve Landry | ||
| De plus belle | |||
| 2019 | The Wolf's Call | ALFOST[a] | |
| 2021 | The Accusation | Adam | |
| 2023 | Visions | Guillaume |
Acting roles
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1978 | Médecins de nuit | ||
| 1983 | La Vie de Berlioz | Young Berlioz | Miniseries |
| 1992 | Touch and Die | Piaz | TV movie |
| 1994 | 3000 scénarios contre un virus | ||
| 2015–2020 | The Bureau | Malotru | |
| 2016 | War & Peace | Napoléon Bonaparte | |
| 2024 | Furies | Driss | |
| Star Wars: Skeleton Crew | General Strix |
Cannes Film Festival
| Year | Title | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Cauchemar Blanc | Perspectives du Cinéma Award | Won |
| 1995 | La Haine | Best Director | Won |
| Palme d'Or | Nominated | ||
| 1997 | Assassin(s) | Nominated |
César Awards
| Year | Title | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1992 | Métisse | Most Promising Actor | Nominated |
| 1994 | See How They Fall | Won | |
| 1993 | Métisse | Best First Feature Film | Nominated |
| 1995 | La Haine | Best Film | Won |
| Best Director | Nominated | ||
| Best Writing | Nominated | ||
| Best Editing | Won | ||
| 2000 | The Crimson Rivers | Best Director | Nominated |
| 2002 | Amen. | Best Actor | Nominated |
| 2011 | Rebellion | Best Adaptation | Nominated |
European Film Awards
| Year | Title | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | La Haine | Best Film | Nominated |
| European Discovery of the Year | Won | ||
| 2000 | The Crimson Rivers | Academy Lux Award | Nominated |
Lumières Award
| Year | Title | Award | Result |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | La Haine | Best Film | Won |
| Best Director | Nominated | ||
| 2014 | Wild Life | Best Actor | Nominated |
Other awards
| Year | Award | Category | Title | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1991 | Chicago International Film Festival | Best Short film | Cauchemar Blanc | Won |
| 1993 | Festival du Film de Paris | Special Jury Prize | Métisse | Won |
| 2000 | San Sebastián International Film Festival | Golden Shell | The Crimson Rivers | Nominated |
| 2001 | Cabourg Film Festival | Best Actor | Amélie | Won |
| 2015 | ACS Awards | Best Actor | The Bureau | Won |
| 2019 | Nominated |
