Robert Hossein
| Robert Hossein | |
|---|---|
 Robert Hossein in 2013. | |
| Born |
30 December 1927 Paris, France |
| Occupation |
Actor Film director |
| Years active | 1948–present |
Robert Hossein (born Robert Hosseinoff; 30 December 1927) is a French film actor, director, and writer of Azerbaijani[1][2] and Jewish[3] origin. He directed the 1982 adaption of Les Misérables, and appeared in Vice and Virtue, Le Casse, Les Uns et les Autres and Venus Beauty Institute. His most recent roles include starring as Michèle Mercier's husband in the Angélique series and as a Catholic priest who falls in love with Claude Jade and becomes a communist in Prêtres interdits (Forbidden Priests) in 1973.
Cinematic career
Hossein started directing films in 1955 with Les Salauds vont en enfer,[4] from a story by Frédéric Dard whose novels and plays went on to furnish Hossein with much of his later film material. Right from the start Hossein established his characteristic trademarks: using a seemingly straightforward suspense plot and subverting its conventions (sometimes to the extent of a complete disregard of the traditional demand for a final twist or revelation) in order to concentrate on ritualistic relationships. This is the director's running preoccupation which is always stressed in his films by an extraordinary command of film space and often striking frame compositions where the geometry of human figures and set design is used to accentuate the psychological set-up of the scene. The mechanisms of guilt and the way it destroys relationships is another recurring theme, presumably influenced by Hossein's lifelong interest in the works of Dostoyevski.
In 1967 he was a member of the jury of the 5th Moscow International Film Festival.[5] His 1982 film Les Misérables was entered into the 13th Moscow International Film Festival where it won a Special Prize.[6]
Although Hossein had some modest international successes with films like Toi, le venin and Le Vampire de Dusseldorf, he was much singled out for scorching criticism by the critics and followers of the New Wave for the unashamedly melodramatic frameworks of his films. The fact that he was essentially an auteur director with a consistent set of themes and an extraordinary mastery of original and unusual approaches to staging his stories, was never appreciated. He was not averse to trying his hand at widely different genres and was never defeated, making the strikingly different spaghetti western Cemetery Without Crosses and the low-budgeted but daringly subversive period drama I Killed Rasputin. However, because of the lack of wider success and continuing adverse criticism, Hossein virtually ended his film directing career in 1970, having concentrated on theatre where his achievements were never questioned, and subsequently returning to film directing only twice. With two or three exceptions, his films remain commercially unavailable and very difficult to see.
Personal life
Robert Hossein is the son of André Hossein, a composer, and of a Jewish comedy actress from Soroca (Bessarabia) Anna Mincovschi.[7][8][9][10] He was married three times: first to Marina Vlady (he has two sons with her, Pierre and Igor), later to Caroline Eliacheff (with whom he has a son, Nicholas). He is currently married to actress Candice Patou, with whom he has one son, Julien.
Conversion to Roman Catholicism
At the age of forty, Hossein was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church.
According to an article written by Emannuel Peze, Hossein experienced a conversion to Catholicism in 1971 during a visit to the Marian apparition at San Damiano in Lombardo Italy.[11]
In 2007, he presented a piece entitled Do not be afraid of the life of Pope John Paul II. He has a special devotion to Saint Therese of Lisieux.[12]
Selected filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Director |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1948 | The Lame Devil | a guest | Sacha Guitry |
| Aux yeux du souvenir | uncredited | Jean Delannoy | |
| 1955 | Rififi | Rémy Grutter | Jules Dassin |
| 1956 | Crime et Châtiment | René Brunel | Georges Lampin |
| 1957 | No Sun in Venice (Sait-on jamais...) | Sforzi | Roger Vadim |
| Méfiez-vous fillettes | Raven | Yves Allégret | |
| 1959 | Toi, le venin | Pierre Menda | Robert Hossein himself |
| Les Scélérats | Jess Rooland | Robert Hossein himself | |
| Du rififi chez les femmes | Marcel Point-Bleu | Alex Joffé | |
| The Verdict | Georges Lagrange | Jean Valère | |
| 1961 | La Menace | Savary | Gérard Oury |
| Madame Sans-Gêne | François-Joseph Lefebvre | Christian-Jaque | |
| 1962 | Girl on the Road | Edouard | Jacqueline Audry |
| Le Repos du guerrier | Renaud Sarti | Roger Vadim | |
| 1963 | Le Meurtrier | Inspecteur Corby | Claude Autant-Lara |
| Vice and Virtue | Schorndorf | Roger Vadim | |
| Chair de poule | Daniel Boisset | Julien Duvivier | |
| 1964 | Banco à Bangkok pour OSS 117 | Dr Sinn | André Hunebelle |
| Les Yeux cernés | Franz | Robert Hossein himself | |
| Angélique, Marquise des Anges | Jeoffrey de Peyrac | Bernard Borderie | |
| 1965 | The Vampire of Düsseldorf | Peter Kürten | Robert Hossein himself |
| The Dirty Game | Dupont | Christian-Jaque and others | |
| Marco the Magnificent | Prince Nayam | Denys de La Patellière and Noël Howard | |
| God's Thunder | Marcel | Denys de La Patellière | |
| 1966 | Madamigella di Maupin | Capitain Alcibiade | Mauro Bolognini |
| Angelica and the King | Jeoffrey de Peyrac | Bernard Borderie | |
| Brigade antigangs | Inspector Le Goff | Bernard Borderie | |
| La Longue Marche | Carnot | Alexandre Astruc | |
| 1967 | I Killed Rasputin | Serge Hukhotin | Robert Hossein himself |
| Lamiel | Valber | Jean Aurel | |
| Indomptable Angélique | Jeoffrey de Peyrac | Bernard Borderie | |
| 1968 | Angélique et le Sultan | Jeoffrey de Peyrac | Bernard Borderie |
| 1969 | The Battle of El Alamein | Erwin Rommel | Giorgio Ferroni |
| Cemetery Without Crosses | Manuel | Robert Hossein himself | |
| Life Love Death | as himself | Claude Lelouch | |
| The Scarlet Lady | Julien Auchard | Jean Valère | |
| Nell'anno del Signore | Leonida Montanari | Luigi Magni | |
| 1970 | Le Temps des loups | "Dillinger" | Sergio Gobbi |
| 1971 | The Lion's Share | Maurice Ménard | Jean Larriaga |
| The Burglars | Ralph | Henri Verneuil | |
| 1972 | Un meurtre est un meurtre | Jean Carouse | Étienne Périer |
| 1973 | Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman | Louis Prévost | Roger Vadim |
| Forbidden Priests | Jean Rastaud | Denys de La Patellière | |
| 1981 | Les Uns et les Autres | Simon Meyer / Robert Prat | Claude Lelouch |
| Le Professionnel | Inspector Rosen | Georges Lautner | |
| 1982 | Le Grand Pardon | Manuel Carreras | Alexandre Arcady |
| Les Misérables | not credited as actor | Robert Hossein himself | |
| 1986 | A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later | as himself | Claude Lelouch |
| 1995 | Les Misérables | the master of ceremonies | Claude Lelouch |
| 1997 | The Wax Mask | Boris Volkoff | Sergio Stivaletti |
| 1999 | Venus Beauty Institute | the pilot | Tonie Marshall |
| 2006 | Trivial | Antoine Bérangère | Sophie Marceau |
| 2009 | A Man and His Dog | cameo appearance | Francis Huster |
Honours
-
France : Commander of the Légion d'honneur, 2005
Foreign honours
-
Monaco : Commander of the Order of Cultural Merit (2006) [13] 
Azerbaijan : Member of Eurasian Academy (2016).[14][15]
References
- ↑ Всемирно известный азербайджанец из Франции Робер Оссейн-Гусейнов, или граф Жофрей де Пейрак (Russian)
- ↑ Робер Оссейн -Настоящая фамилия Гусейнов (Russian)
- ↑ Rav Aaron Eliacheff: «Les racines juives de mon père, Robert Hossein, remontent à son grand-père, un certain Minkowski»
- ↑ Les Salauds vont en enfer at the Internet Movie Database
- ↑ "5th Moscow International Film Festival (1967)". MIFF. Retrieved 2012-12-09.
- ↑ "13th Moscow International Film Festival (1983)". MIFF. Retrieved 2013-01-31.
- ↑ "Robert Hossein et son fils le rabbin Aaron Eliacheff" (10 February 2011) Harissa
- ↑ According to the program Le Plus Grand Cabaret du Monde, presented by Patrick Sébastien on 22 September 2007
- ↑ Genealogy of the Hossein-Mincovschi Family
- ↑ The International Who's Who 2004
- ↑ Peze, Emmanuel. (1985) Published in the Marian Collection (1985) by Brother Albert Pfleger, Marist. As reported by the Mary of Nazareth project, at
- ↑ Pyotr Rozvarin (19 March 2002) "A Pessimist Full of Optimism: An interview with Robert Hossein", Vremya novostei, No. 47 Retrieved 22 December 2007 (Russian)
- ↑ Sovereign Ordonnance n°800 of 18 Nov. 2006 by Prince Albert II
- ↑ Eurasian Academy Official Site
- ↑ http://www.teleqraf.com/news/116405
- ↑ http://www.today.az/news/entertainment/156134.html
- ↑ http://www.azernews.az/culture/105302.html
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Robert Hossein. |