Mathieu Kassovitz Movies
As one of the most provocative young directors in France, Mathieu Kassovitz has made a name for himself directing films notable for both the inflammatory subjects they explore and the degree of controversy they incite. Kassovitz's most celebrated feature, 1995's La Haine (Hate in the U.S.), generated both critical exaltation and a burst of resentful recognition for its portrayal of racial tensions in Paris. The violence of this film was magnified in Kassovitz's Assassins, a 1997 film that provoked both raves and rants for its unflinchingly graphic content.Born in Paris on April 3, 1967, Kassovitz seemed destined for some sort of film career. The son of director Peter Kassovitz, Mathieu made his film debut in his father's Au Bout du Bout au Banc in 1981. The same year, he appeared in L'Année Prochaine....Si Tout Va Bien with Isabelle Adjani. Kassovitz made his directorial debut ten years later, with Cauchemar Blanc, but it was his 1993 Metisse (also known as Café au Lait) that first got him substantial attention. He also had a starring role in the film, which was notable for its poignant yet comic exploration of Parisian race relations, an exploration that would later be more brutally manifested in La Haine. Kassovitz subsequently ventured out as an actor in the 1994 documentary 3000 Scenarios Contre un Virus. The documentary, which was inspired by 3,000 ideas of French school children, consisted of 30 short films about the AIDS virus. It was a remarkable effort, one that Kassovitz followed with another acting turn in Regarde les Hommes Tomber in 1994. The film was a critical success and the adulation it received proved to be good preparation for Kassovitz's next project, La Haine (1995). The film was widely hailed as a masterpiece, winning a number of awards including a Best Director Award at Cannes and three French Academy of Cinema Awards, including Best Film.
Kassovitz then turned to lighter but no less intriguing fare, with the leading role in Un Hero Très Discret (1996). As a dim but sweet wannabe war hero, Kassovitz reminded audiences of the sunnier side of his persona that had previously been displayed in films such as Café au Lait. This aspect of his persona was again evident in his next role in Mon Homme (1996), a comedy that reunited him with Discret co-star Anouk Grinberg. However, Kassovitz soon resumed his role as a director unwilling to back away from the more violent side of human nature, with Assassins, released in 1997. Starring Michel Serrault as a retired assassin, the film, which also featured Kassovitz as Serrault's protégé, created a sizable amount of controversy due to the horrific violence it portrayed. Despite such controversy, the film also won critical acclaim, further establishing his favorable reputation. The same year, Kassovitz had a minor role in Luc Besson's The Fifth Element, and then in 1998, starred with frequent collaborator Vincent Cassel in Le Plaisir. As someone equally comfortable in front of and behind the camera, Kassovitz seemed to have a long and plentiful career ahead of him, or at least a legacy as one of the most vital members of the French film industry of the '90s.
Eschewing the lens in favor of the director's chair for the 2000 thriller Crimson Rivers, Kassovitz teamed with French stars Jean Reno and Vincent Cassel for the tale of a pair of detectives investigating a gruesome series of murders committed on the campus of a remote mountain college. A visually stylish adaptation of Jean-Christophe Grange's popular novel, the film performed well at the French box office and was nominated for five César Awards. Though mainstream American audiences may have been more familiar with the popular actor/director due to his charming performance as Nino in the art-house hit Amélie (2001), Crimson Rivers proved that as a director Kassovitz still had what it took to make viewer's skin crawl. In 2002, Kassovitz was back in front of the cameras for Asterix and Obelix Meet Cleopatra, and his role as a priest in director Costa-Gavras' controversial drama Amen found the part-time actor nominated for a Best Actor César. The very next year, Kassovitz directed his first English- language film, the Halle Berry thriller Gothika. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi
- 1981
- R
Set in Paris, this romance centers on a pair of lovers who wrangle over whether or not they want to marry and have children. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Isabelle Adjani, Thierry Lhermitte, (more)
- 1981
- R
In this tender and sentimental comedy, Ben (Victor Lanoux), a Parisian Jew, copes with the dramas in his everyday life against the background of his family's survival of the Holocaust. Things between him and his wife are not any too easy, and on top of it, he has to heed his father's concerns, even though he lives in Israel now. His grandfather, who lives in the south of France, is a very old man, but is still a romantic obsessed with women. These tensions come to the fore when the family gathers to celebrate the patriarch's 90th birthday. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Victor Lanoux, Jane Birkin, (more)
- 1991
- R
Martin Sheen stars as an American newsman in Rome who begins to investigate the appearance of several corpses found throughout Europe with their hands cut off. He soon uncovers not only plots of plutonium theft, but also of nuclear arms deals and dark political schemes. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi
- 1992
In this witty and fast-paced short comedy, Claudine is driving her rattletrap of a car and pulling a camping trailer behind it on the way to spending a summer vacation with her boyfriend. The other passenger in her car is Henri, a boy she has little time for. He is her boyfriend's younger brother and is a non-stop complainer. Neither one of them can manage more than a few civil words with the other, and when the car breaks down on the road and they have to take refuge in the camper, it begins to look as though their near-feud will get worse. Instead, Henri begins to show some unsuspected qualities, such as a serious and abiding interest in using home video cameras to make decent films. Before long, they are joined by another stranded traveler, Titia, a local girl who is hiding from her now-rejected boyfriend. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dodine Herry, Philippe Harel, (more)
A Caribbean beauty living in Paris wraps two very different but equally devoted men around her little figure when she announces that one of them is the father of her baby. Both Felix, a poor Jewish bicycle messenger boy, and Jamal, the genteel son of African Muslim diplomats, are in love with her and so become ardent rivals for Lola's affection. This frenetic comedy is the directorial debut of Mathieu Kassovitz, who also plays the role of Felix. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Julie Mauduech, Hubert Kounde, (more)
- 1994
This unique French offering is a compilation of 30 short films focused on AIDS. The mini-films were based on over 3,000 ideas put in by French school children and were made by filmmakers on a voluntary basis. Most of the vignettes deal with heterosexuality and AIDS, but one deals with drug-usage, and one with homosexuality. It took four production houses three years to create this inspirational and informative film. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anémone, Daniel Gélin, (more)
This French crime thriller was the directorial debut of screenwriter Jacques Audiard and won three Césars. Jean Yanne stars as Simon Hirsch, a bored, middle-aged salesman who accompanies his best friend, cop Mickey (Yvon Back), on a stakeout for the sake of excitement. When Mickey is shot and put into a coma, Simon sets aside his job and family in order to catch the would-be killers. In a parallel story that takes place a few years earlier, a thug and gambler named Marx (Jean-Louis Trintignant) teaches a simple-minded youth named Johnny (Mathieu Kassovitz) the finer points of thug life, including shakedowns and professional hits. The paths of Marx and Johnny don't cross with that of Simon until the film's surprising climax. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jean Yanne, (more)
- 1995
A successful prostitute attempts to fashion a homeless man into her ideal pimp in this unconventional, darkly humorous French drama. Marie (Anouk Grinberg) has no real need for a pimp, being a self-reliant, unabashed woman so fond of her job as a hooker that she is able to convince strangers to try it themselves. Indeed, her financial success allows her to take care of Jeannot (Gérard Lanvin), an impoverished vagrant whom she finds on the streets. She provides him with a bath and a place to sleep, and the two rapidly become lovers. Nevertheless, Marie is soon imploring Jeannot to act as her pimp, begging him to slap her around and take her money. He takes to his new role and soon decides to talk a manicurist (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) into becoming the next member of his stable. The newcomer's inexperience proves to be his downfall, however, as the manicurist lands him in trouble with the law. Director Bertrand Blier attempts to create a controversial look at sexuality by combining black comedy with scenes of smoky sensuality, though many critics found the central premise and the presentation of Marie's contradictory, masochistic character too unconvincing for the film to be fully successful. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anouk Grinberg, Gérard Lanvin, (more)
While to most outsiders Paris seems the very picture of beauty and civility, France has had a long and unfortunate history of intolerance toward outsiders, and this powerful drama from filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz takes an unblinking look at a racially diverse group of young people trapped in the Parisian economic and social underclass. Vinz (Vincent Cassel), who is Jewish, Hubert (Hubert Kounde), who is Black, and Said (Said Taghmaoui), who is Arabic, are young men from the lower rungs of the French economic ladder; they have no jobs, few prospects, and no productive way to spend their time. They hang out and wander the streets as a way of filling their days and are sometimes caught up in frequent skirmishes between the police and other disaffected youth. One day, a street riot breaks out after police seriously injure an Arab student; the three friends are arrested and questioned, and it is learned that a policeman lost a gun in the chaos. However, what they don't know is that Vinz picked it up and has it in his possession, and when Vinz, Hubert, and Said get into a scuffle with a group of racist skinheads, the circumstances seem poised for tragedy. Actress Jodie Foster was so impressed with La Haine when she saw it at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival that she helped to arrange American distribution for the film through her production company, Egg Pictures. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Vincent Cassel, Hubert Kounde, (more)
- 1996
A little philosophy can be a dangerous thing. Especially if it comes from the sudden blinding insights of the none too bright. Such insights, based upon totally illogical conclusions form the basis of this devilishly dark, distorted French absurdist comedy. At the beginning of the eccentric tale, a noted author deliberately drives his car into a brick wall, a suicide method employed by the protagonist of his last novel. Taxi driver Evangila and her brother North are deeply upset their favorite author's sudden death. They discuss the deeper implications of his act, and deduce that the author killed himself because he was increasingly obsessed with the notion that he was actually a character in someone else's novel. Finding their conclusion perfectly sound, the duo make the next logic leap and decide that they too are literary characters in someone else's book. That being the case, then all responsibility for their actions lies on the writer's shoulders, not theirs; therefore, they can do whatever they want with no consequence. Meanwhile the writer's bereaved widow, Karenina, decides she wants to join her husband in death. She makes several sucide attempts, but someone always 'rescues' her at the crucial moment. In desperation, she decides to simply leap from a tall bridge. As Karenina plots her demise, North and Evangela continue to wrestle with their newfound philosophy. The newest twist is that the author of their lives is in reality their god. Since he is the tangible, living being who dictates their every move, they decide to consult a priest in the hope that he can convince their Creator to meet them and answer a few burning questions. Unfortunately the priest can't help them and suggests that perhaps someone near death could provide more insight, someone about to commit suicide perhaps? Evangela and North, figuring a tall bridge is a good place to encounter a suicide immediately go to a certain bridge and end up meeting Karenina. When a spiritualist and God Himself get involved the story really goes off the deep end and that is when the fun really begins. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Marie Trintignant, Maria de Medeiros, (more)
- 1996
Irony abounds in this French comedy that tells the tale of an unsophisticated, rather dim-bulbed country lad who follows the advice of a former French freedom fighter and tries to change himself into a hero of the recently ended French Resistance. Poor Albert is no stranger to deceit. For his first 12-years, his mother led him to believe that his father was a war hero. He is devastated to learn that his father really died of alcoholism. During the war, Albert does all he can to avoid fighting for the Resistance, even though the Nazis control his village. He marries and moves in with his wife's family, innocent of the fact that the whole time he is there, they are concealing downed British fliers. The night their town is freed, Albert leaves for Paris where he meets Dionnet, "The Captain," a bona-fide Resistance hero. It is he, who teaches Albert how to successfully change his identity. After much practice and memorization, Albert finally has a new identity and goes to work as a secretary for Mr. Jo, a former double agent. Albert stays in a boarding house, where a resident prostitute teaches him about lovemaking. Meanwhile, Albert becomes recognized as a courageous patriot, a role he manages to sustain only a little while before it all falls apart and the painful truth is finally revealed. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mathieu Kassovitz, Anouk Grinberg, (more)
- 1997
Mathieu Kassovitz's Assassins(s) stars Michel Serrault as Mr. Wagner. For over 40 years, Mr. Wagner has been a successful assassin, but now he is 70; his hands tremble and his eyesight and reflexes are rapidly failing. Mr. Wagner is ready to retire, but first he must find a successor. Max (Mathieu Kassovitz) is 25 years old. He augments his salary as a welder by committing petty crimes. With his emotions dulled from many years of watching television and his reflexes perfected from countless hours of video gaming, he seems to Wagner, the perfect protégé. In addition to teaching Max how to handle his weapons and techniques for killing, Mr. Wagner also teaches him about the ethics of assassination. Unfortunately, Max seems to have a short attention span and operates with a set of different rules; these quirks manifest themselves when he goes out on his first solo hit. This examination on the harmful effects of pop culture was screened at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mathieu Kassovitz, Michel Serrault, (more)
Good and evil battle for the future of 23rd century Earth in this visually striking big-budget science fiction epic. In the movie's prologue, which is set in 1914, scientists gather in Egypt at the site of an event that transpired centuries earlier. Aliens, it seemed, arrived to collect four stones representing the four basic elements (earth, air, fire and water) - warning their human contacts that the objects were no longer safe on Earth. A few hundred years later (in the 23rd century), a huge ball of molten lava and flame is hurtling toward Earth, and scientist-holy man Victor Cornelius (Ian Holm) declares that in order to prevent it from destroying the planet, the same four elemental stones must be combined with the fifth element, as embodied by a visitor from another world named Leeloo (Milla Jovovich). However, if the force of evil presents itself to the stones instead, the Earth will be destroyed, and an evil being named Zorg (Gary Oldman) will trigger the disaster. Despite her remarkable powers, Leeloo needs help with her mission, and she chooses her accomplice, military leader-turned-cab driver Korben Dallas (Bruce Willis), when she literally falls through the roof of his taxi. Writer and director Luc Besson began writing the script for The Fifth Element when he was only 16 years old, though he was 38 before he was able to bring it to the screen.
~ Mark Deming, Rovi
~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, Milla Jovovich, (more)
- 1998
Director Nicolas Boukhrief, who debuted with the 1995 Up Yours, returned with this French-Italian-Luxembourgian-Belgian drama in seven segments. In a variation on Schnitzler's La Ronde, each segment introduces a character seen in the next episode: In the opening, a murderer strangles a woman. A French soldier, injured in a bomb blast, is attracted to his nurse, but she's engaged to an aspiring stand-up comic. In the Paris Metro, the comedian befriends an older woman, who travels to Italy to join her impotent husband. The husband seeks excitement and finds it with a con artist who supplies sex and drugs. The young con artist's sister is an actress in porn films, and she brings the story full circle when she meets the murderer from the first scene. ~ Bhob Stewart, Rovi
- Starring:
- Vincent Cassel, Francois Renaud, (more)
This remake of the 1975 German film Jakob der Lügner stars Robin Williams in a dramatic role as a man who uses his active imagination to bring a ray of hope where hope was all but unknown. Jakob Heym (Robin Williams) is the owner of a small café during the Nazi occupation of Poland; he has little money and is struggling to keep body and soul alive in the shadow of the Third Reich. One day, he overhears a radio broadcast, forbidden to Polish ears, that reports a major victory for Russian troops over the German army. Enthusiastic about this good news, Jakob begins spreading word of the Russian army's progress through the Polish ghetto. He notices that the story gives people hope and makes it easier for them to get through the day. So Jakob begins inventing stories and passing them along, creating fictional war reports that suggest that the occupation may soon be ending. However, when the occupation troops get wind of these stories, they become convinced that someone has communications equipment stashed away somewhere, and they're determined to find both the radio and its operator at all costs. Jakob the Liar was the first American feature for director Peter Kassovitz; the supporting cast includes Armin Mueller-Stahl, Alan Arkin, Bob Balaban, and Liev Schreiber. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robin Williams, Alan Arkin, (more)
Two very different policemen seeking the truth about separate crimes find a terrible common link in this thriller from France. Pierre Niemans (Jean Reno) is a noted French detective assigned to investigate a brutal murder at a prestigious college located high in the Alps; the victim was first disfigured and dismembered, then strangled to death. Niemans soon realizes the murder was not an isolated incident when several similarly mangled corpses are discovered. Meanwhile, in a town 150 miles away, a young police investigator, Max Kerkerian (Vincent Cassel), is called in to investigate when the grave of a ten-year-old girl is dug up and ransacked. While interviewing the mother (Dominique Sanda) of the young girl, he crosses paths with Niemans, whose investigation has led him to the same town, and the two men begin to realize a surprising and troubling link between the crimes. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean Reno, Vincent Cassel, (more)
A man looking for love gets more than he bargained for when he chooses his prospective wife on the internet in this dark comedy. The manager of a bank in a small British community (Ben Chaplin) decides that he's in need of long-term companionship, and through an on-line marriage broker called From Russia With Love, he obtains a "mail order" bride (Nicole Kidman). While he's more than pleased that his new fiancée is so beautiful, she turns out to have a dangerous and mysterious side that he wasn't counting on, and things become quite complicated when two of her cousins (Vincent Cassel and Mathieu Kassovitz) arrive from Russia and move into his tiny house in St. Albans. Though set in England, Birthday Girl was actually shot in Australia, which allowed leading lady Nicole Kidman to stay in touch with her then- husband, Tom Cruise, who was shooting Mission: Impossible II in Australia at the same time. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nicole Kidman, Ben Chaplin, (more)
One woman decides to change the world by changing the lives of the people she knows in this charming and romantic comic fantasy from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Amelie (Audrey Tautou) is a young woman who had a decidedly unusual childhood; misdiagnosed with an unusual heart condition, Amelie didn't attend school with other children, but spent most of her time in her room, where she developed a keen imagination and an active fantasy life. Her mother Amandine (Lorella Cravotta) died in a freak accident when Amelie was eight, and her father Raphael (Rufus) had limited contact with her, since his presence seemed to throw her heart into high gear. Despite all this, Amelie has grown into a healthy and beautiful young woman who works in a cafe and has a whimsical, romantic nature. When Princess Diana dies in a car wreck in the summer of 1997, Amelie is reminded that life can be fleeting and she decides it's time for her to intervene in the lives of those around her, hoping to bring a bit of happiness to her neighbors and the regulars at the cafe. Amelie starts by bringing together two lonely people -- Georgette (Isabelle Nanty), a tobacconist with a severe case of hypochondria, and Joseph (Dominique Pinon), an especially ill-tempered customer. When Amelie finds a box of old toys in her apartment, she returns them to their former owner, Mr. Bretodeau (Maurice Benichou), sending him on a reverie of childhood. Amelie befriends Dufayel (Serge Merlin), an elderly artist living nearby whose bones are so brittle, thanks to a rare disease, that everything in his flat must be padded for his protection. And Amelie decides someone has to step into the life of Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz), a lonely adult video store clerk and part-time carnival spook-show ghost who collects pictures left behind at photo booths around Paris. Le Fabuleux Destin D'Amelie Poulain received unusually enthusiastic advance reviews prior to its French premiere in the spring of 2001, and was well received at a special free screening at that year's Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, (more)
- 2002
Based on the original '60s French comic books by René Goscinny, Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre is the big-budget sequel to the 1999 box-office hit Astérix and Obélix vs. Caesar. Empress Cleopatra (Monica Bellucci) makes a wager with Julius Caesar (played by writer/director Alain Chabat) that her people can build a beautiful palace in three months. She chooses architect Numerobis (Jamel Debbouze) for the project, which must be completed in time or he will be fed to the crocodiles. Numerobis travels to Gaul to get help from the superpowered Panoramix (Claude Rich) and the warriors Astérix (Christian Clavier) and Obélix (Gérard Depardieu), along with their faithful pet Dogmatix. They use their magic potion to make the Egyptian slave-labor population into superheroes, thereby building the palace in no time. Meanwhile, the angry architect Amonbofis (Gérard Darmon) and Julius Caesar don't want to see them succeed. At the time of its release, Astérix & Obélix: Mission Cléopâtre was the most expensive French film ever made, with a budget of $50 million. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gérard Depardieu, Christian Clavier, (more)
- 2002
- PG
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The collective crimes against humanity known as the Holocaust have been well-documented since the end of World War II, but lingering questions remain about how much was known about the Nazi mass-extermination schemes outside Germany, and what could have been done to prevent them. Political filmmaker Costa-Gavras confronts this thorny issue in this film, adapted from the stage drama The Representative and based in part on actual events. Kurt Gerstein (Ulrich Tukar) is a German chemist whose work on various government health projects led to him being added to the scientific staff of the Nazi SS. While working on disinfection and water purification programs to stem the tide of typhoid among German troops, Gerstein creates a toxic cleanser called Zyclon B. Gerstein soon learns that the SS has found a different use for Zyclon B -- in gas form, it is being used to exterminate Jews and other political undesirables en masse. Gerstein, a man of strong Christian faith, is horrified by this revelation, and he is determined to tell the world in hope of stopping the genocide; however, in Germany, Sweden, and the United States, Gerstein's story falls on deaf ears. One man who does believe Gerstein is Riccardo Fontana (Mathieu Kassovitz), a Jesuit with ties to the Vatican and close contact with Pope Pius XII (Marcel Iures). Fontana urges the Pope to speak out against the ongoing massacre, but the Pope declines, believing Russia is a greater menace to the Catholic Church than the Nazis. In time, desperate to spread the word of the holocaust, Gerstein and Fontana find themselves joining ranks with Roman Jews being rounded up by Nazi forces in occupied Italy. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ulrich Tukur, Mathieu Kassovitz, (more)
A woman is taken on a voyage to the other side of sanity in this moody thriller. Dr. Miranda Grey (Halle Berry) is a clinical psychologist who works alongside her husband, Dr. Doug Grey (Charles S. Dutton), in the mental ward of a top security prison, where Miranda has been devoting much of her attention to a clever but deeply disturbed murderer named Chloe (Penélope Cruz), who shares gruesome tales of torture and violence that may or may not be based in fact. One night, Miranda has a hideous nightmare in which a chance meeting with a strange young girl leads to a terrifying journey into madness. Once she wakes, however, Miranda discovers that the real horror has just begun -- Doug has been brutally murdered, and the evidence points to Miranda as the prime suspect. She soon finds herself a patient in the same facility where she once treated others, and finds that her claims of innocence and sanity do little to convince Dr. Pete Graham (Robert Downey Jr.), the psychologist assigned to her case. Gothika marked the American debut of acclaimed and controversial French filmmaker Mathieu Kassovitz. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Halle Berry, Robert Downey, Jr., (more)
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