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Mathieu Kassovitz
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Mathieu Kassovitz (born 3 April 1967) is a French director, screenwriter, producer and actor, known for his searing Cannes-winning drama La Haine.
ovitz was born in Paris, the son of Chantal Rémy, a film editor, and Peter Kassovitz, a director and writer. Kassovitz's mother is French and Catholic and his father is a Hungarian Jew who left Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Kassovitz was married to French ex-actress Julie Mauduech, whom he directed and acted alongside with in his 1993 film Métisse (Café au lait, English title) and who made a short appearance in La Haine (during the scene in the Parisian art gallery).
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Encyclopedia
Mathieu Kassovitz (born 3 April 1967) is a French director, screenwriter, producer and actor, known for his searing Cannes-winning drama La Haine.
Biography
Personal life
Kassovitz was born in Paris, the son of Chantal Rémy, a film editor, and Peter Kassovitz, a director and writer. Kassovitz's mother is French and Catholic and his father is a Hungarian Jew who left Hungary during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. Kassovitz was married to French ex-actress Julie Mauduech, whom he directed and acted alongside with in his 1993 film Métisse (Café au lait, English title) and who made a short appearance in La Haine (during the scene in the Parisian art gallery). They have a daughter, Carmen. Mauduech is now a costume designer for movies.
Filmmaker
As a filmmaker, Kassovitz has made several artistic and commercial successes. He wrote and directed La Haine (Hate, 1995), a hugely controversial film in France dealing with race relations which won the César Award for Best Film and netted Kassovitz the Best Director prize at the Cannes Film Festival. When he was compared to Spike Lee because the film was being compared to Lee's Do the Right Thing, he noted the irony:"I don't know if it's really important, or intelligent even, when people say to me I'm a white Spike Lee, because they said to Spike Lee you're a black Woody Allen". He later directed Les Rivières Pourpres (2000), a police detective thriller starring Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel, another massive commercial success in France, and Gothika (2003), a fantasy thriller (considered by some to be a commercial failure, although it grossed over twice its roughly $40 million budget), with Halle Berry and Penélope Cruz that he did to earn the money he needed to develop a far more personal project Babylon Babies, the adaptation of one of Maurice Dantec's books. 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." MNP Entreprise is responsible for the co-productions of a number of films including Avida (2006) in which Kassovits acts and Babylon A.D. which he directed. Kassovitz purchased the film rights for the novel Johnny Mad Dog by Congolese writer Emmanuel Dongala. The film was also co-produced by MNP Entreprise, and directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire. The premiere of the film was made at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival where it was screened within the Un Certain Regard section. MNP Entreprise's upcoming titles are Rebellion and MNP. Kassovitz will both star in and direct Rebellion, a war film based on a true story of French commandos who clashed with tribes in New Caledonia, the Melanesian territory of France. The film will start shooting at the end of 2008. The science fiction film MNP is named after Mir Space Station, whose writing in Cyrillic letters look like the letters MNP, and also the production company. The film is set to start shooting in 2011.
Actor
Kassovitz is most famous outside France for his role as Nino Quincampoix in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Amélie. Among many other credits, he also had small roles in La Haine (which he also directed), Birthday Girl, Café Au Lait and The Fifth Element. He also played one of the main roles in Amen. (2003) by Costa-Gavras. Kassovitz is also recognizable for playing a conflicted Belgian explosives expert in Steven Spielberg's controversial 2005 film Munich, alongside Eric Bana and Geoffrey Rush. He explained several times he accepted acting parts only for the experience of knowing what it is to act, to be able to be a better director of actors afterward, to meet directors he admires and learn from them by working with them, and to take part in great projects. Kassovitz was a jury member for the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.
Filmography as Director
Feature films
Short films
- 1998 - Article premier (Amnesty International)
- 1997 - La forêt (Handicap International)
- 1992 - Assassins
- 1991 - Cauchemar blanc
- 1990 - Fierrot le pou
Filmography as an Actor
- Au bout du bout du banc (1979) - Mathias Oppenheim
- Next Year If All Goes Well (1981) - Le petit garçon
- Fierrot le pou (1990)
- Touch and Die (1991) - Piaz
- Assassins... (1992)
- French Summer (1992) - Un auto-stoppeur
- Café au lait (1993) - Felix
- Putain de porte (1994)
- Elle voulait faire quelque chose (1994)
- See How They Fall (1994) - Johnny
- Les Fleurs de Maria Papadopylou (1995)
- The City of Lost Children (1995) (uncredited) - Man on the street
- La Haine (Hate) (1995) - Young Skinhead
- My Man (1996) (uncredited) - 1st Client: Clement
- A Self Made Hero (1996) - Albert Dehousse
- News from the Good Lord (1996)
- Assassin(s) (1997) - Max
- The Fifth Element (1997) - Mugger
- Pleasure (And Its Little Inconveniences) (1998) - Roland
- Jakob the Liar (1999) - Herschel
- Amélie (2001) - Nino Quincampoix
- Birthday Girl (2001) - Yuri
- Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra (2002) - Physionomiste banquet
- Amen. (2002) - Riccardo Fontana
- Munich (2005) - Robert
- Avida (2006) - Le producteur chanceux
External links
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