Mathieu Kassovitz () is a French actor, film director, film producer and screenwriter. He has won three

César Awards The César Award is the national film award of France. It is delivered in the ' ceremony and was first awarded in 1976. The nominations are selected by the members of twelve categories of filmmaking professionals and supported by the French Min ...

: 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 Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film stock, film which increasingly involves the use Digital cinema, of digital ...

. His mother is a French Catholic, while his father is a Hungarian Jew who fled during the

Hungarian Revolution of 1956 The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 (23 October – 4 November 1956; ), also known as the Hungarian Uprising, was an attempted countrywide revolution against the government of the Hungarian People's Republic (1949–1989) and the policies caused by ...

. 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 Police brutality is the excessive and unwarranted use of force by law enforcement against an individual or Public order policing, a group. It is an extreme form of police misconduct and is a civil rights violation. Police brutality includes, b ...

. France.html Presentation of the documentary A Film and Its Era: La Haine
/ref> The film won the César Award for Best Film and netted Kassovitz the Best Director prize at the

1995 Cannes Film Festival The 48th Cannes Film Festival took place from 17 to 28 May 1995. French actress Jeanne Moreau served as jury president for the main competition. French actress Carole Bouquet hosted the opening and closing ceremonies. Serbian filmmaker Emir Kust ...

. He later directed '' The Crimson Rivers'' (2000), a police detective thriller starring

Jean Reno Juan Moreno y Herrera-Jiménez (born 30 July 1948), commonly known as Jean Reno (), is a French-Spanish actor. He established himself as a Leading actor, leading man of French cinema through his collaborations with director Luc Besson, and has w ...

and

Vincent Cassel Vincent Cassel (; ; born 23 November 1966) is a French actor. He has earned a César Awards, César Award and a Canadian Screen Awards, Canadian Screen Award as well as nominations for a European Film Awards, European Film Award and a Screen Ac ...

, another massive commercial success in France, and '' Gothika'' (2003), a fantasy thriller (considered by some to be a commercial failure, although it grossed over three times its roughly $40 million budget), with Halle Berry, Robert Downey Jr., and Penélope Cruz. He used the money he made from ''Gothika'' to develop a far more personal project ''Babylon Babies'', the adaptation of one of Maurice G. Dantec's books, which eventually would become '' Babylon A.D.''. 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 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 Emmanuel Boundzéki Dongala (born 1941) is a Congolese chemist and novelist. He was born in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo, in 1941. He was Richard B. Fisher Chair in Natural Sciences at Bard College at Simon's Rock until 2014. As a chemist, hi ...

. The film adaptation titled '' Johnny Mad Dog'', written and directed by Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire, premiered at the

2008 Cannes Film Festival The 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 14 to 25 May 2008. American actor and filmmaker Sean Penn served as jury president for the main competition. French filmmaker Laurent Cantet won the Palme d'Or, the festival's top prize, for th ...

where it was screened within the

Un Certain Regard (; 'A Certain Glance') is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's official selection. It is run at the Debussy, parallel to the competition for the . This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob. The section presents 20 films with unusua ...

section. In 2011, he starred in and directed ''

Rebellion Rebellion is an uprising that resists and is organized against one's government. A rebel is a person who engages in a rebellion. A rebel group is a consciously coordinated group that seeks to gain political control over an entire state or a ...

'', a war film based on a true story of French commandos who clashed with tribes in

New Caledonia New Caledonia ( ; ) is a group of islands in the southwest Pacific Ocean, southwest of Vanuatu and east of Australia. Located from Metropolitan France, it forms a Overseas France#Sui generis collectivity, ''sui generis'' collectivity of t ...

, the

Melanesia Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from New Guinea in the west to the Fiji Islands in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea. The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Vanu ...

n territory of France. His future project

science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses Speculative fiction, speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as Extraterrestrial life in fiction, extraterrestria ...

''MNP'' is named after

Mir ''Mir'' (, ; ) was a space station operated in low Earth orbit from 1986 to 2001, first by the Soviet Union and later by the Russia, Russian Federation. ''Mir'' was the first modular space station and was assembled in orbit from 1986 to ...

Space Station, whose writing in Cyrillic letters (Мир) look like the letters MNP, and also the production company.

Actor

Kassovitz is most famous outside France for his acting role as Nino Quincampoix in

Jean-Pierre Jeunet Jean-Pierre Jeunet (; born 3 September 1953) is a French film director and screenwriter. His films combine fantasy, realism, and science fiction to create idealized realities or to give relevance to mundane situations. Jeunet debuted as a direc ...

's film''

Amélie ''Amélie'' (, , ) is a 2001 French-language romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, the film is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre. It tells the story ...

''. He also had small roles in '' La Haine'' (which he also directed), '' Birthday Girl,'' and ''

The Fifth Element ''The Fifth Element'' () is a 1997 English-language French science-fiction action film conceived and directed by Luc Besson, and co-written by Besson and Robert Mark Kamen. It stars Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, Gary Oldman, Ian Holm, an ...

''. He played leading roles in '' A Self-Made Hero'' (1996) by

Jacques Audiard Jacques Audiard (; born 30 April 1952) is a French film director, producer, and screenwriter. One of the most awarded French filmmakers in history, his international accolades include an Academy Award, two British Academy Film Awards, and three ...

and in '' Amen.'' (2003) by

Costa-Gavras Konstantinos "Kostas" Gavras (; born 12 February 1933), known professionally as Costa-Gavras, is a Greek-French film director, screenwriter, and producer who lives and works in France. He is known for political films, such as the political thril ...

. Kassovitz is also recognizable for playing a conflicted Belgian explosives expert in

Steven Spielberg Steven Allan Spielberg ( ; born December 18, 1946) is an American filmmaker. A major figure of the New Hollywood era and pioneer of the modern blockbuster, Spielberg is widely regarded as one of the greatest film directors of all time and is ...

's 2005 film ''

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

'', alongside

Eric Bana Eric Martin Andrew Banadinović (born 9 August 1968), known professionally as Eric Bana (), is an Australian actor. He began his career in the sketch-comedy series '' Full Frontal'' before gaining notice in the comedy drama '' The Castle'' (199 ...

, Daniel Craig, and

Geoffrey Rush Geoffrey Roy Rush (born 6 July 1951) is an Australian actor. Known for often playing eccentric roles on both stage and screen, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Geoffrey Rush, numerous accolades, including an Academy Aw ...

. Kassovitz was a jury member for the

2001 Cannes Film Festival The 54th Cannes Film Festival took place from 9 to 20 May 2001. Norwegian actress and director Liv Ullmann was named Jury President for the main competition. Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti won the ''Palme d'Or'' for the drama film '' The Son's ...

. 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 Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

. So far five seasons have been screened.

Personal life

Kassovitz was married to French actress Julie Mauduech, whom he directed and acted alongside in his 1993 film ''Métisse'' (''Café au lait'', English title) and also made a brief appearance in ''La Haine'' (during the scene in the Parisian art gallery). In 2009, Kassovitz won with a Tesla Roadster the ''Rallye Monte Carlo des Véhicules à Énergie Alternative'' (starting event of the

FIA Alternative Energies Cup The FIA ecoRally Cup is an international motorsport competition for electric vehicles organized by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile. The cup consists of several Regularity rally, regularity rallies, usually located in Europe and ra ...

) in the category reserved to

electric vehicles An electric vehicle (EV) is a motor vehicle whose propulsion is powered fully or mostly by electricity. EVs encompass a wide range of transportation modes, including road vehicle, road and rail vehicles, electric boats and Submersible, submer ...

.Classement final officiel 2009
ACM.mc; accessed 6 August 2015.
un-vehicule-electrique-parcourt-390-kilometres
', ''World Sports Events''; accessed 6 August 2015. Kassovitz is also known for his outspokenness, frequently making controversial comments on socio-political issues. Kassovitz was an ardent critic of former president

Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Paul Stéphane Sarközy de Nagy-Bocsa ( ; ; born 28 January 1955) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2007 to 2012. In 2021, he was found guilty of having tried to bribe a judge in 2014 to obtain information ...

, 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 labeled 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

Producer * ''La Chepor'' (2004)

Feature film

file:L Ordre et la Morale Mathieu Kassovitz 2.jpg, Kassovitz at the preview of ''

'', 2011 Acting roles

Television

Acting roles

Awards and nominations

Cannes Film Festival César Awards European Film Awards Lumière Awards Other awards

Notes

References

External links

Official website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Kassovitz, Mathieu 1967 births Male actors from Paris French male film actors French film directors French-language film directors French people of Hungarian-Jewish descent FIA E-Rally Regularity Cup drivers Living people Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Director winners European Film Awards winners (people) César Award winners Most Promising Actor César Award winners 20th-century French male actors 21st-century French male actors Best Director Lumières Award winners French male television actors French film producers French male screenwriters French screenwriters French film editors French male non-fiction writers