Mathieu Kassovitz

Mathieu Kassovitz (Template:IPA; born 3 August 1967) is a French actor, film director, film producer and screenwriter. He has won three César Awards: Most Promising Actor for See How They Fall (1994), and Best Film and Best Editing for La Haine (1995). He also received Best Director and Best Original Screenplay or Adaptation nominations.

Early life

Mathieu Kassovitz is the son of Peter Kassovitz, a film producer, director, and writer, and Chantal Rémy, a film editor.<ref name="Mathieu Kassovitz"/> His mother is a French Catholic, while his father is a Hungarian Jew who fled during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.<ref name="nytimes">Template:Cite news</ref> Mathieu has described himself as "not Jewish but I was brought up in a world of Jewish humor".<ref name="nytimes"/>

Career

Filmmaker

As a filmmaker, Kassovitz has made several artistic and commercial successes. He wrote and directed La Haine (Hate, 1995), a film dealing with themes around class, race, violence, and police brutality.<ref name="eurochannel.com">France.html Presentation of the documentary A Film and Its Era: La HaineTemplate:Dead link</ref> The film won the César Award for Best Film and netted Kassovitz the Best Director prize at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.<ref name="festival-cannes.com">Template:Cite web</ref>

He later directed The Crimson Rivers (2000), a police detective thriller starring Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel, another massive commercial success in France. His Gothika (2003), a fantasy thriller, was considered by some to be a commercial failure, although it grossed over three times its roughly $40 million budget. It starred Halle Berry, Robert Downey Jr., and Penélope Cruz.

Kassovitz used the money he made from Gothika to develop a far more personal project: Babylon Babies, an adaptation of one of Maurice G. Dantec's books. It eventually was released as Babylon A.D..<ref name="Mathieu Kassovitz">Template:Cite web</ref>

Kassovitz had 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."<ref name="MNP Entreprise">Template:Cite web</ref> MNP Entreprise is responsible for the co-productions of a number of films including Avida (2006), in which Kassovitz acted, and Babylon A.D. which he directed.

Kassovitz purchased the film rights for the novel Johnny chien méchant by Congolese writer Emmanuel Dongala. The film adaptation, titled Johnny Mad Dog and written and directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival. It was screened within the Un Certain Regard section.<ref name="Festival-cannes.fr">Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2011, he starred in and directed Rebellion, a war film based on a true story of French commandos who clashed with tribes in New Caledonia, the Melanesian territory of France.

His future project, science fiction film MNP, is named after Mir Space Station, whose writing in Cyrillic letters (Мир) look like the letters MNP, and also his production company.<ref name="thr">Template:Cite journal</ref>

Actor

File:Mathieu Kassovitz.jpg

Kassovitz at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival

Kassovitz is most famous outside France for his acting role as Nino Quincampoix in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film Amélie. He also had small roles in La Haine (which he directed), Birthday Girl, and The Fifth Element.

He played leading roles in A Self-Made Hero (1996) by Jacques Audiard and in Amen. (2003) by Costa-Gavras. Kassovitz is recognized for playing a conflicted Belgian explosives expert in Steven Spielberg's 2005 film Munich, alongside Eric Bana, Daniel Craig, and Geoffrey Rush. Kassovitz was a jury member for the 2001 Cannes Film Festival.Template:Citation needed

Since 2015, Kassovitz has been starring in the acclaimed espionage thriller series The Bureau, broadcast in France on Canal+ and made available around the world on Amazon Prime Video. So far five seasons have been screened.

Personal life

Kassovitz was married to French actress Julie Mauduech. He directed her in his 1993 film Métisse (Café au lait, English title), in which he also acted. She had a small role in his film La Haine (during the scene in the Parisian art gallery).<ref name=LeJournalDesFemmes>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="voici.fr">Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2009, Kassovitz won the Rallye Monte Carlo des Véhicules à Énergie Alternative (starting event of the FIA Alternative Energies Cup) in the category reserved to electric vehicles, driving a Tesla Roadster.<ref name="Classement final officiel 2009">Classement final officiel 2009Template:Dead link, ACM.mc; accessed 6 August 2015.</ref><ref name="worldsports-events.com">Template:In lang un-vehicule-electrique-parcourt-390-kilometres.html Nouveau record du monde: un véhicule électrique parcourt 390 kilomètresTemplate:Dead link, World Sports Events; accessed 6 August 2015.</ref>

Kassovitz is known for his outspokenness, and frequently has made controversial comments on socio-political issues.Template:Citation needed Kassovitz was a strong critic of former French president Nicolas 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."<ref name="Criterion.com">Template:Cite web</ref> In a 2012 interview, he described the outgoing Sarkozy administration as "horrible".<ref name="index.hu">"Hungarians are crazy", Index.hu, 30 May 2012.</ref>

On 3 September 2023, while engaged in a training course at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry, Kassovitz was involved in a "serious" motorcycle accident that caused head trauma and a fractured pelvis.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Filmography

Short film

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Actor	Notes
1990	Fierrot le pou	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
1991	Cauchemar Blanc	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
1992	Assassins...	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
1994	Elle voulait faire quelque chose			Template:Yes	Role: Mathieu
	Avant mais après			Template:Yes
	Putain de porte			Template:Yes
1995	Les Fleurs de Maria Papadopylou			Template:Yes
1996	La Forêt	Template:Yes			Documentary short; segment: "Lumières sur un massacre"
1998	Article Premier	Template:Yes

Producer

• La Chepor (2004)

Feature film

File:L Ordre et la Morale Mathieu Kassovitz 2.jpg

Kassovitz at the preview of Rebellion, 2011

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer	Editor	Notes
1993	Métisse	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
1995	La Haine	Template:Yes	Template:Yes		Template:Yes
1997	Assassin(s)	Template:Yes	Template:Yes		Template:Yes
2000	The Crimson Rivers	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
2003	Gothika	Template:Yes
2005	Nèg Maron			Template:Yes
2006	White Palms			Template:Yes
	Avida			Template:Yes
2007	Les Deux Mondes			Template:Yes
2008	Enfants de Don Quichotte (Acte 1)			Template:Yes		Documentary
	Johnny Mad Dog			Template:Yes
	Babylon A.D.	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes
	Louise Hires a Contract Killer			Template:Yes
2011	Rebellion	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template:Yes	Template: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	ALFOSTTemplate:Efn
2021	The Accusation	Adam
2023	Visions	Guillaume

Television

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

Awards and nominations

Cannes Film Festival

Year	Title	Award	Result
1991	Cauchemar Blanc	Perspectives du Cinéma Award	Template:Won
1995	La Haine	Best Director	Template:Won
		Palme d'Or	Template:Nom
1997	Assassin(s)		Template:Nom

César Awards

Year	Title	Award	Result
1992	Métisse	Most Promising Actor	Template:Nom
1994	See How They Fall		Template:Won
1993	Métisse	Best First Feature Film	Template:Nom
1995	La Haine	Best Film	Template:Won
		Best Director	Template:Nom
		Best Original Screenplay or Adaptation	Template:Nom
		Best Editing	Template:Won
2000	The Crimson Rivers	Best Director	Template:Nom
2002	Amen.	Best Actor	Template:Nom
2011	Rebellion	Best Adaptation	Template:Nom

European Film Awards

Year	Title	Award	Result
1995	La Haine	Best Film	Template:Nom
		European Discovery of the Year	Template:Won
2000	The Crimson Rivers	Academy Lux Award	Template:Nom

Lumière Awards

Year	Title	Award	Result
1995	La Haine	Best Film	Template:Won
		Best Director	Template:Nom
2014	Wild Life	Best Actor	Template:Nom

Other awards

Year	Award	Category	Title	Result
1991	Chicago International Film Festival	Best Short film	Cauchemar Blanc	Template:Won
1993	Festival du Film de Paris	Special Jury Prize	Métisse	Template:Won
2000	San Sebastián International Film Festival	Golden Shell	The Crimson Rivers	Template:Nom
2001	Cabourg Film Festival	Best Actor	Amélie	Template:Won
2015	ACS Awards	Best Actor	The Bureau	Template:Won
2019				Template:Nom

External links

• Official website
• Template:IMDb name