Encyclopedia of French Film Directors

(Claude Chabrol, France / West Germany, 1995). He
is also a movie theater owner and a fi lm distributor.
Book: 1994 Bande à Part (Grasset).
Filmography
1964 Nuit noire, Calcutta (short)
Les Idoles (documentary; short; co-director
with Paule Sengissen)
1966 Comédie (short; co-director with Jean Ravel,
Jean-Marie Serreau)
Adolescence (documentary; short)
1969 Sept Jours ailleurs (also co-screenwriter)
1970 Camarades / US festival: Comrades (also coscreenwriter,
producer)
1972 Coup pour Coup / US festival: Blow for Blow
(France / West Germany)
KASSOVITZ, MATHIEU (August 3, 1968, Paris,
France–)
The son of director Peter Kassovitz and fi lm editor
Chantal Rémy, he made his fi lm debut as actor in a
movie shot by his father (1979 Au Bout du bout du
banc / USA: Make a Room for Tomorrow). He dropped
out of school at age seventeen to work as a trainee
assistant director and then assistant director (1987
La Rumba, Roger Hanin; 1989 Moitié-Moitié, Paul Boujenah;
1990 Stirn et Stern, TV movie, Peter Kassovitz).
He began directing at age twenty-two without giving
up his acting career and notably played in Regarde les
Hommes tomber (Jacques Audiard, 1994), Un Héros
très discret / USA: A Self-Made Hero (Jacques Audiard,
1996), The Fifth Element / Le Cinquième Elément (Luc
Besson, 1997), Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain / Die
Fabelhafte Welt der Amelie / UK: Amelie / USA: Amélie /
The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain (Jean-Pierre Jeunet,
France / Germany, 2001), Birthday Girl (Jez Butterworth,
UK / USA, 2001), Amen / Der Stellvertreter / UK
and USA: Eyewitness (Costa-Gavras, France / Germany
/ Romania, 2002), and Munich (Steven Spielberg, USA,
2005). He produced or co-produced several movies
(2004 La Chepor, short, David Tessier; 2005 Nèg Maron,
Jean-Claude Flamand; 2006 Fehér Tenyèr / White Palms,
Szabolcs Hadju, Hungary; Avida, Gustave de Kervern
and Benoît Delépine; 2007 Les Deux Mondes, Daniel
Cohen; 2008 Les Enfants de Don Quichotte (Acte
1), documentary, Ronan Denecé, Augustin Legrand,
Jean-Baptiste Legrand; Johnny Mad Dog, Jean-Stéphane
Sauvaire, France / Belgium / Liberia).
KASSOVITZ, PETER • 555
Filmography
1990 Fierrot le Pou (short; also screenwriter, dialogist,
actor)
1991 Cauchemar blanc (short; also screenwriter)
1992 Assassins . . . (short; also screenwriter, dialogist,
actor)
1993 Métisse / USA: Cafe au Lait (also screenwriter,
dialogist, actor; France / Belgium)
1995 La Haine / USA: Hate (also screenwriter, dialogist,
actor, editor)
1997 Assassin(s) (also screenwriter, dialogist, actor,
editor)
10 Films contre 100 Millions de Bombes
(short)
Lumière sur un Massacre (short)
1998 Article premier (short)
2000 Les Rivières pourpres / UK and USA: The Crimson
Rivers (also co-screenwriter, co-adapter,
co-dialogist)
2003 Gothika (USA)
2008 Babylon A.D. (also co-screenwriter; USA /
France)
KASSOVITZ, PETER (November 17, 1938, Budapest,
Hungary–)
He fl ed Budapest during the Hungarian Revolution
in 1956. Since 1958, he collaborated as an assistant
cameraman and then cameraman on many movies.
A drawer under the pseudonym of Kasso, he
directed cartoons, commercials, and industrial fi lms.
He appeared in a few fi lms (1962 Vivre sa Vie Film en
Douze Tableaux / UK: It’s My Life / USA: My Life to Live,
Jean-Luc Godard; 1967 Le Mur, Serge Roullet; 1993
Métisse / USA: Café au Lait, Mathieu Kassovitz; 1995
La Haine / USA: Hate, Mathieu Kassovitz), worked as a
TV collection director (1993 Des Héros très ordinaires,
episodes “Les Saigneurs,” Yvan Butler; “Le Prix d’une
Femme,” Gérard Krawczyk) and executive producer
(2006 Fehèr Tenyér, Szabolcs Hadju, Hungary), and
co-wrote a TV movie (2007 Un Juge sous Infl uence,
Jean Marboeuf). He authored two novels (1996 Les
Femmes d’abord, Editions Denoël; 1997 Les Mille et
une Raisons de désespérer, Editions Verticales). His son
is actor and director Mathieu Kassovitz.
Filmography
1959 600.000 Etudiants (documentary)
1960 La Forme et le Fond (animated short)