Olivier Assayas
Encyclopedia
Olivier Assayas is a French film director
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...

 and screenwriter
Screenwriter
Screenwriters or scriptwriters or scenario writers are people who write/create the short or feature-length screenplays from which mass media such as films, television programs, Comics or video games are based.-Profession:...

.

He made his debut in 1986, after directing some short films and writing for the influential film magazine Cahiers du cinéma
Cahiers du cinéma
Cahiers du Cinéma is an influential French film magazine founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca. It developed from the earlier magazine Revue du Cinéma involving members of two Paris film clubs — Objectif 49 and...

.

Career

Assayas's father was French director/screenwriter Jacques Remy (1910–1981). Assayas started his career in the industry by helping him. He ghostwrote episodes for TV shows his father was working on when his health failed.

His film Cold Water
Cold Water (film)
Cold Water is a 1994 French film written and directed by Olivier Assayas. It is about two troubled teenagers in France during the early 1970s...

was screened in the Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection. It is run at the Salle Debussy, parallel to the competition for the Palme d'Or.This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob...

 section at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival
1994 Cannes Film Festival
The 1994 Cannes Film Festival started on 12 May and ran until 23 May. The Palme d'Or went to the American film Pulp Fiction directed by Quentin Tarantino.-Official Selection:*Clint Eastwood *Catherine Deneuve...

.

His biggest hit to date has been Irma Vep
Irma Vep
Irma Vep is a 1996 film directed by the French director Olivier Assayas, starring Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung in a story about the disasters that ensue as a middle-aged French film director attempts to remake Louis Feuillade's classic silent film serial Les vampires...

, starring Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

 star Maggie Cheung
Maggie Cheung
Maggie Cheung Man yuk is a Chinese actress from Hong Kong. Raised in England and Hong Kong, she has over 70 films to her credit since starting her career in 1983...

, which manages to be a tribute both to French director Louis Feuillade
Louis Feuillade
Louis Feuillade was a prolific and prominent French film director from the silent era. Between 1906 and 1924 he directed over 630 films...

 and to Hong Kong cinema.

While working at Cahiers du cinéma
Cahiers du cinéma
Cahiers du Cinéma is an influential French film magazine founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca. It developed from the earlier magazine Revue du Cinéma involving members of two Paris film clubs — Objectif 49 and...

, Assayas wrote lovingly about European film directors he admires but also about Asian directors. One of his latest films is a documentary about Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

ese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Hou Hsiao-Hsien is an award-winning film director and a leading figure of Taiwan's New Wave cinema movement.-Biography:...

.

He married Hong Kong movie actress Maggie Cheung
Maggie Cheung
Maggie Cheung Man yuk is a Chinese actress from Hong Kong. Raised in England and Hong Kong, she has over 70 films to her credit since starting her career in 1983...

 in 1998. They divorced in 2001, but their relationship remained amicable, and in 2004 Cheung made her award-winning movie Clean
Clean (film)
Clean is a 2004 film directed by French director Olivier Assayas, starring Nick Nolte and Maggie Cheung. It was jointly funded by Canada, France, and United Kingdom sources.-Plot:...

 with him.

He married actress-director Mia Hansen-Løve
Mia Hansen-Løve
Mia Hansen-Løve is a French film director and screenwriter. She has directed three films since 2004. Her film The Father of My Children, won the Special Jury Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival....

. They met when Hansen-Løve, then seventeen at the time, starred in Assayas' 1998 feature Late August, Early September
Late August, Early September
Late August, Early September is a 1998 French drama film directed by Olivier Assayas and starring Mathieu Amalric.-Cast:* Mathieu Amalric as Gabriel* Virginie Ledoyen as Anne* François Cluzet as Adrien* Jeanne Balibar as Jenny* Alex Descas as Jérémie...

, but "[they] didn't get together until [she] was 20".

In April 2011, it was announced that he would be a member of the jury for the main competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival
2011 Cannes Film Festival
The 64th annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 11 to May 22, 2011. American actor Robert De Niro served as the president of the jury for the main competition and French filmmaker Michel Gondry headed the jury for the short film competition...

.

Influences

Filmography as director

  • Carlos
    Carlos (TV miniseries)
    Carlos is a 3-part French television drama mini-series, first broadcast on Canal+ in 2010. Produced by Film En Stock's Daniel Leconte in coproduction with Jens Meuer in association with Canal +, Studio Canal, ARTE, the Sundance Channel, it was created by Daniel Leconte and written by Dan Franck and...

    (2010)
  • L'Heure d'été
    L'Heure d'été
    Summer Hours is a 2008 French drama film directed by Olivier Assayas. It is the second in a series of films produced by Musée d'Orsay, after The Flight of the Red Balloon...

    (2007)
  • Boarding Gate
    Boarding Gate
    Boarding Gate is a 2007 French thriller about the sophisticated power plays between a debt-ridden underworld entrepreneur, his provocative and ambitious ex-associate and a manipulative young couple who employ her. Written and directed by Olivier Assayas, the film features an international cast...

    (2007)
  • Paris, je t'aime
    Paris, je t'aime
    Paris, Je t'aime is a 2006 anthology film starring an ensemble cast of actors of various nationalities. The two-hour film consists of eighteen short films set in different arrondissements...

    (2006) (segment "Quartier des Enfants Rouges")
  • Clean
    Clean (film)
    Clean is a 2004 film directed by French director Olivier Assayas, starring Nick Nolte and Maggie Cheung. It was jointly funded by Canada, France, and United Kingdom sources.-Plot:...

    (2004)
  • Demonlover
    Demonlover
    Demonlover is a 2002 technological neo-noir thriller film by French writer/director Olivier Assayas. The film stars Connie Nielsen, Charles Berling, Chloë Sevigny, and Gina Gershon with a musical score by Sonic Youth...

    (2002)
  • Sentimental Destinies
    Sentimental Destinies
    Sentimental Destinies is a 2000 French drama film directed by Olivier Assayas. It was entered into the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Emmanuelle Béart - Pauline Pommerel* Charles Berling - Jean Barnery* Isabelle Huppert - Nathalie Barnery...

    (2000)
  • Late August, Early September
    Late August, Early September
    Late August, Early September is a 1998 French drama film directed by Olivier Assayas and starring Mathieu Amalric.-Cast:* Mathieu Amalric as Gabriel* Virginie Ledoyen as Anne* François Cluzet as Adrien* Jeanne Balibar as Jenny* Alex Descas as Jérémie...

    (1998)
  • HHH: A Portrait of Hou Hsiao-Hsien (1997)
  • Irma Vep
    Irma Vep
    Irma Vep is a 1996 film directed by the French director Olivier Assayas, starring Hong Kong actress Maggie Cheung in a story about the disasters that ensue as a middle-aged French film director attempts to remake Louis Feuillade's classic silent film serial Les vampires...

    (1996)
  • Cold Water
    Cold Water (film)
    Cold Water is a 1994 French film written and directed by Olivier Assayas. It is about two troubled teenagers in France during the early 1970s...

    (1994)
  • A New Life (1993)
  • Paris Awakens (1991)
  • Winter's Child (1989)
  • Disorder (1986)
  • Winston Tong en Studio (short documentary) (1984)

External links

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