Olivier Assayas
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Olivier Assayas
Biography
In the '90s Olivier Assayas emerged as one of the key figures in the new generation of French filmmakers. As a former critic for Cahiers du Cinema and a die-hard cinephile, he makes his films both personal and referential to the works of directors that he adores. His father was a director/screenwriter in the 1940s who later worked mainly for TV. When it was increasingly difficult for him to work because of a health condition, Olivier started to help him, first merely as a secretary, and then ghostwriting a few screenplays for the Maigret TV series. In the late 1970s he joined the team of influential film magazine Cahiers du Cinema, that once launched the French New Wave. While working for Cahiers he wrote essays on his favorite European filmmakers, Robert Bresson, Ingmar Bergman, Andrei Tarkovsky, and published extensive studies on American horror films and Hong Kong Cinema (the latter came out long before Hong Kong cinema became fashionable with Western filmgoers and critics). He collaborated on screenplays of two André Téchiné films, Rendez-Vous and Le Lieu du Crime, and directed a few shorts before making his feature debut in 1986 with Desordre. Though his films enjoyed considerable critical acclaim in France and at international film festivals, his name was virtually unknown in English-speaking countries until the release of his 1996 film Irma Vep, a loving tribute both to Louis Feuillade and Hong Kong cinema. Still faithful to his critical roots, he later directed a documentary on Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien. ~ Yuri German, RoviRelated Videos:
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Olivier Assayas
Filmography:
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Olivier Assayas
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Olivier Assayas
| Olivier Assayas | |
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| Born | January 25, 1955 Paris, France |
| Spouse |
Maggie Cheung (1998-2001) (divorced) Mia Hansen-Løve (200?- present ) |
Olivier Assayas (born January 25, 1955) is a French film director and screenwriter.
He made his debut in 1986, after directing some short films and writing for the influential film magazine Cahiers du cinéma.
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Career
Assayas's father was French director/screenwriter Jacques Rémy (1910–1981).[1] Assayas started his career in the industry by helping him. He ghostwrote episodes for TV shows his father was working on when his health failed.
Assayas's film Cold Water was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.[2]
His biggest hit to date has been Irma Vep, starring Hong Kong star Maggie Cheung, which manages to be a tribute both to French director Louis Feuillade and to Hong Kong cinema.
While working at Cahiers du cinéma, Assayas wrote lovingly about European film directors he admires but also about Asian directors. One of his latest films is a documentary about Taiwanese filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien.
He married Hong Kong movie actress Maggie Cheung in 1998. They divorced in 2001, but their relationship remained amicable, and in 2004 Cheung made her award-winning movie Clean with him.
He married actress-director Mia Hansen-Løve. They met when Hansen-Løve, seventeen at the time, starred in Assayas's 1998 feature Late August, Early September, but "[they] didn't get together until [she] was 20".[3]
He directed and co-wrote the acclaimed 2010 French television miniseries Carlos, about the life of the terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez. The actor Édgar Ramírez won the César Award for Most Promising Actor in 2011 for his performance as Carlos.
In April 2011, it was announced that he would be a member of the jury for the main competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival.[4]
Influences
| “ | That radicality in cinema involved just being outside of the world of modern images, and the key to it was the work of Robert Bresson, who has been by far the most important influence in my work, and intellectually it’s been the influence of Guy Debord—basically, you know, it’s been Debord-Bresson, Bresson-Debord, the things that’ve always defined my framework, the way I look at the world.[5] | ” |
Awards
- Prix Jean Vigo 1992 with Paris Awakens (Paris s'éveille)
Filmography as director
- Carlos (2010)
- L'Heure d'été (2007)
- Boarding Gate (2007)
- Paris, je t'aime (2006) (segment "Quartier des Enfants Rouges")
- Clean (2004)
- Demonlover (2002)
- Sentimental Destinies (2000)
- Late August, Early September (1998)
- HHH: A Portrait of Hou Hsiao-Hsien (1997)
- Irma Vep (1996)
- Cold Water (1994)
- A New Life (1993)
- Paris Awakens (1991)
- Winter's Child (1989)
- Disorder (1986)
- Winston Tong en Studio (short documentary) (1984)
References
- ^ Franck Le Gac, "Olivier Assayas", Senses of Cinema, Issue 39, Great Directors.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: Cold Water". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/2988/year/1994.html. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
- ^ Morris, Octavia (2010-06-27). "The film that changed my life: Mia Hansen-Løve". guardian.co.uk (London). http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/jun/27/film-changed-life-mia-hansen-love. Retrieved 2010-09-25.
- ^ "The Jury of the 64th Festival de Cannes". Cannes. 2011-04-20. http://www.festival-cannes.fr/en/article/58042.html. Retrieved 2011-04-20.
- ^ [1]
External links
- Olivier Assayas at the Internet Movie Database
- Olivier Assayas at AlloCiné (French)
- Interview with Olivier Assayas at IFC.com
- Reverse Shot: Olivier Assayas
- New York Times article on Assayas
- Bringing Down the House: A Conversation with Olivier Assayas, The Notebook, mubi.com
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Mentioned in
Cinema, of Our Time: HHH - Portrait of Hou Hsiao-Hsien
(1997 Film, TV & Radio Film)
Place des Victoires
(2006 Film)
Quartier des Enfants Rouges
(2006 Romance Film)
L'Eau Froide
(1994 Drama Film)
Irma Vep
(1996 Comedy Film)
» More