Mathieu Kassovitz


Mathieu Kassovitz is a French actor, film director, film producer and screenwriter. He has won three César Awards: Most Promising Actor for See How They Fall, and Best Film and Best Editing for La Haine. He also received Best Director and Best Original Screenplay or Adaptation nominations.
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Early life

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

Career

Filmmaker

As a filmmaker, Kassovitz has made several artistic and commercial successes. He wrote and directed La Haine, a film dealing with themes around class, race, violence, and police brutality. The film won the César Award for Best Film and netted Kassovitz the Best Director prize at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival.
He later directed The Crimson Rivers, a police detective thriller starring Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel, another massive commercial success in France. His Gothika, 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..
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." MNP Entreprise is responsible for the co-productions of a number of films including Avida, 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.
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 look like the letters MNP, and also his production company.

Actor

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, Birthday Girl, and The Fifth Element.
He played leading roles in A Self-Made Hero by Jacques Audiard and in Amen. 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.
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, in which he also acted. She had a small role in his film La Haine.
In 2009, Kassovitz won the Rallye Monte Carlo des Véhicules à Énergie Alternative in the category reserved to electric vehicles, driving a Tesla Roadster.
Kassovitz is known for his outspokenness, and frequently has made controversial comments on socio-political issues. 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." In a 2012 interview, he described the outgoing Sarkozy administration as "horrible".
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.

Filmography

Short film

Producer
  • ''La Chepor''

Feature film

[file:L Ordre et la Morale Mathieu Kassovitz 2.jpg|thumb|Kassovitz at the preview of Rebellion, 2011]
YearTitleDirectorWriterProducerEditorNotes
1993Métisse
1995La Haine
1997Assassin(s)
2000The Crimson Rivers
2003Gothika
2005Nèg Maron
2006White Palms
2006Avida
2007Les Deux Mondes
2008Enfants de Don Quichotte Documentary
2008Johnny Mad Dog
2008Babylon A.D.
2008Louise Hires a Contract Killer
2011Rebellion

Acting roles
YearTitleRoleNotes
1979Au bout du bout du bancMathias Oppenheim
1981Next Year If All Goes WellA boy
1992Un été sans histoiresA hitchhiker
1993MétisseFelix
1994See How They FallJohnny
1995The City of Lost ChildrenMan on the streetUncredited
1995La HaineYoung Skinhead
1996My Man1st Client: ClémentUncredited
1996A Self-Made HeroAlbert Dehousse
1996News from the Good LordA nurse
1997The Fifth ElementMugger
1997Assassin(s)Max
1998Pleasure Roland
1999Jakob the LiarHerschel
2001AmélieNino Quincampoix
2001Birthday GirlYuri
2002Asterix & Obelix: Mission CleopatraPhysionomiste banquet
2002Amen.Riccardo Fontana
2005MunichRobert
2006AvidaThe producer
2008Louise Hires a Contract KillerThe farm owner
2011RebellionPhilippe Legorjus
2011HaywireStuder
2012Another Woman's LifePaul Speranski
2012The LookoutVincent Kaminski
2013AngéliqueNicolas / Calembredaine
2014Nobody from NowhereSébastien Nicolas / Henri de Montalte
2014Wild LifePaco
2016Le Gang des AntillaisBar owner
2016Apocalypse VerdunVoice-overDocumentary
2017Valerian and the City of a Thousand PlanetsCamelot on Big Market
2017Happy EndThomas Laurent
2017SparringSteve Landry
2017De plus belle
2019The Wolf's CallALFOST
2021The AccusationAdam
2023VisionsGuillaume

Television

Acting roles
YearTitleRoleNotes
1978Médecins de nuit
1983La Vie de BerliozYoung BerliozMiniseries
1992Touch and DiePiazTV movie
19943000 scénarios contre un virus
2015–2020The BureauMalotru
2016War & PeaceNapoléon Bonaparte
2024FuriesDriss-
2024Star Wars: Skeleton CrewGeneral Strix

Awards and nominations

Cannes Film Festival
YearTitleAwardResult
1991Cauchemar BlancPerspectives du Cinéma AwardWon
1995La HaineBest DirectorWon
1995La HainePalme d'OrNomitated
1997AssassinPalme d'OrNomitated

César Awards
YearTitleAwardResult
1992MétisseMost Promising ActorNomitated
1994See How They FallMost Promising ActorWon
1993MétisseBest First Feature FilmNomitated
1995La HaineBest FilmWon
1995La HaineBest DirectorNomitated
1995La HaineBest Original Screenplay or AdaptationNomitated
1995La HaineBest EditingWon
2000The Crimson RiversBest DirectorNomitated
2002Amen.Best ActorNomitated
2011RebellionBest AdaptationNomitated

European Film Awards
YearTitleAwardResult
1995La HaineBest FilmNomitated
1995La HaineEuropean Discovery of the YearWon
2000The Crimson RiversAcademy Lux AwardNomitated

Lumière Awards
YearTitleAwardResult
1995La HaineBest FilmWon
1995La HaineBest DirectorNomitated
2014Wild LifeBest ActorNomitated

Other awards
YearAwardCategoryTitleResult
1991Chicago International Film FestivalBest Short filmCauchemar BlancWon
1993Festival du Film de ParisSpecial Jury PrizeMétisseWon
2000San Sebastián International Film FestivalGolden ShellThe Crimson RiversNomitated
2001Cabourg Film FestivalBest ActorAmélieWon
2015ACS AwardsBest ActorThe BureauWon
2019ACS AwardsBest ActorThe BureauNomitated