Mathieu Kassovitz (; 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. 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 (Hate, 1995), a film dealing with themes around class, race, violence, and police brutality. France.html Presentation of the documentary A Film and Its Era: La Haine 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 (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..
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 (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.
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.
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 (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.
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). Their daughter Carmen, born in 2001, is also an actress.
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.Classement final officiel 2009, ACM.mc; accessed 6 August 2015. un-vehicule-electrique-parcourt-390-kilometres.html Nouveau record du monde: un véhicule électrique parcourt 390 kilomètres, World Sports Events; accessed 6 August 2015.
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"."Hungarians are crazy", Index.hu, 30 May 2012.
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 Year TitleDirectorWriterActor Notes 1990 Fierrot le pou 1991 Cauchemar Blanc 1992 Assassins... 1994 Elle voulait faire quelque chose Role: Mathieu Avant mais après Putain de porte 1995 Les Fleurs de Maria Papadopylou 1996 La Forêt Documentary short; segment: "Lumières sur un massacre" 1998 Article Premier
Producer La Chepor (2004)
Feature film
Year TitleDirectorWriterProducerEditor Notes 1993 Métisse 1995 La Haine 1997 Assassin(s) 2000 The Crimson Rivers 2003 Gothika 2005 Nèg Maron 2006 White Palms Avida 2007 Les Deux Mondes 2008 Enfants de Don Quichotte (Acte 1) Documentary Johnny Mad Dog Babylon A.D. Louise Hires a Contract Killer 2011 Rebellion
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 2021 The Accusation Adam 2023 Visions Guillaume 2026De Gaulle: RésistanceAdmiral Darlan
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 1995 La Haine Best Director Palme d'Or 1997 Assassin(s)
César Awards Year Title Award Result 1992 Métisse Most Promising Actor 1994 See How They Fall 1993 Métisse Best First Feature Film 1995 La Haine Best Film Best Director Best Original Screenplay or Adaptation Best Editing 2000 The Crimson Rivers Best Director 2002 Amen. Best Actor 2011 Rebellion Best Adaptation
European Film Awards Year Title Award Result 1995 La Haine Best Film European Discovery of the Year 2000 The Crimson Rivers Academy Lux Award
Lumière Awards Year Title Award Result 1995 La Haine Best Film Best Director 2014 Wild Life Best Actor
Other awards Year Award Category Title Result 1991 Chicago International Film Festival Best Short film Cauchemar Blanc 1993 Festival du Film de Paris Special Jury Prize Métisse 2000 San Sebastián International Film Festival Golden Shell The Crimson Rivers 2001 Cabourg Film Festival Best Actor Amélie 2015ACS AwardsBest Actor The Bureau 2019
Notes
References
External links
Official website