Robert Hossein
 |
Robert Hossein | |
|---|---|
 Robert Hossein in 2013. | |
| Born | 30 December 1927 |
| Occupation(s) | Actor Film director |
| Years active | 1948–present |
| Children | 4 |
Robert Hossein (born Abraham Hosseinoff; 30 December 1927) is a French film actor, director, and writer of Azeri[1][2][3] and Jewish 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 other roles include Michèle Mercier's husband in the Angélique series, a gunfighter in the Spaghetti Western Cemetery Without Crosses (which he also directed and co-wrote), and a Catholic priest who falls in love with Claude Jade and becomes a communist in Forbidden Priests. Robert Hossein's father was an Iranian music composer named André Hossein.
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.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed]
Personal life
Robert Hossein is the son of André Hossein, a composer of Azerbaijani origin,[1] and of a Jewish comedy actress from Soroca (Bessarabia) Anna Mincovschi.[7][8][9][10] He was married three times: first to Marina Vlady (then Marina Poliakoff; on December 23, 1955, they had two sons, Pierre and Igor), later on June 7, 1962, to Caroline Eliacheff, daughter of Françoise Giroud (they had a son, Nicholas, who became rabbi Aaron Eliacheff[7]). She was fifteen at the time and he was 34. In 1973, he dated for a short while Michèle Watrin, before she died the following year in a car accident. In 1976, he married actress Candice Patou (they have one son, Julien).[citation needed]
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
Honours
France : Commander of the Légion d'honneur, 2005
Foreign honours
Monaco : Commander of the Order of Cultural Merit (2006) [13]
Member of Eurasian Academy (2016).[14][15]
References
- ^ a b Робер Оссейн: «Нашу с Мариной Влади семью погубил русский быт»
Template:Ru icon Shigareva, Yulia (2013-08-28). Argumenty i Fakty.Мой отец Андре Оссейн родился в Самарканде, хотя по национальности он азербайджанец, был очень талантливым человеком.
- ^ Robert Hossein Template:En icon
- ^ French actor Robert Hossein visits Baku Template:En icon
- ^ Les Salauds vont en enfer at IMDb
- ^ "5th Moscow International Film Festival (1967)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 2013-01-16. Retrieved 2012-12-09.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "13th Moscow International Film Festival (1983)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 2013-11-07. Retrieved 2013-01-31.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ a b "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 [1]
- ^ Pyotr Rozvarin (19 March 2002) "A Pessimist Full of Optimism: An interview with Robert Hossein", Vremya novostei, No. 47 Retrieved 22 December 2007 Template:Ru icon
- ^ Sovereign Ordonnance n°800 of 18 Nov. 2006 by Prince Albert II
- ^ Eurasian Academy Official Site
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2016-11-21. Retrieved 2016-11-21.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help)CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
External links
