1927-12-30 ( 97 years old ) in Paris, France
Robert Hossein was a French film actor of Parsi origin, director and writer. 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.
Hossein started directing films in 1956 with Les salauds vont en enfer 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.
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 Une corde, un Colt and the low-budgeted but daringly subversive period drama J'ai tué Raspoutine. 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.
He is the son of André Hossein a Zoroastrian French composer of Azerbaijani-Tajik descent, and a Jewish comedy actress from Kiev. 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.
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.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Hossein, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Movies
Raymond Devos dans tous ses sens
2022-11-03
Love Is Better Than Life
2022-01-19
Le Fruit de l'espoir
2020-02-05
Aznavour by Charles
2019-10-02
Belmondo by Belmondo
2016-05-05
Belmondo, il était une fois le beau monde
2011-10-25
Une femme nommée Marie
2011-08-13
Belmondo, itinéraire...
2011-05-18
Les fleurs maladives de Georges Franju
2009-05-05
A Man and His Dog
2009-01-14
Annie Girardot, ainsi va la vie
2008-09-21
Trivial
2007-05-23
San Antonio
2004-07-21
Antigone
2003-05-05
Scandalous Crimes
1999-02-26
Venus Beauty Institute
1999-02-03
The Wax Mask
1997-04-04
Les Miserables
1995-03-22
L'Affaire
1994-04-13
Stranger in the House
1992-10-03
Children of Chaos
1989-11-22
La croisade des enfants
1988-04-07
Levy & Goliath
1987-01-27
A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later
1986-05-13
Le Caviar rouge
1986-01-08
Surprise Party
1983-04-20
The Big Pardon
1982-01-27
The Professional
1981-10-21
Bolero
1981-05-27
Démons de midi
1979-11-28
The Phoney
1975-10-14
The Protector
1974-06-05
Le tour d'écrou
1974-02-25
Prêtres interdits
1973-11-22
A Police Officer Without Importance
1973-04-12
Don Juan or If Don Juan Were a Woman
1973-02-22
A Murder Is a Murder
1972-08-23
Hellé
1972-05-02
The Burglars
1971-10-27
The Lion's Share
1971-09-08
Judge Roy Bean
1971-03-03
Falling Point
1970-09-11
Versatile Lovers
1970-05-06
Time of the Wolves
1970-01-21
The Conspirators
1969-10-24
Desert Assault
1969-07-30
Crime Thief
1969-05-22
Crime Thief
1969-05-22
The Scarlet Lady
1969-05-14
Misdeal
1969-04-30
Life Love Death
1969-01-29
Cemetery Without Crosses
1969-01-25
The Battle of El Alamein
1969-01-01
Tender Moment
1968-12-20
OSS 117 Murder for Sale
1968-07-27
Angelique and the Sultan
1968-03-13
A Little Virtuous
1968-02-21
Lamiel
1967-08-30
The Man Who Betrayed the Mafia
1967-05-20
I Killed Rasputin
1967-05-03
La Musica
1967-03-03
Untamable Angelique
1967-01-01
Brigade Anti Gangs
1966-08-18
Long March
1966-05-31
The Other Truth
1966-04-19
Angelique and the King
1966-01-31
Mademoiselle de Maupin
1966-01-13
God's Thunder
1965-09-08
Marco the Magnificent
1965-08-06
Le commissaire mène l’enquête
1965-07-28
The Dirty Game
1965-06-23
The Vampire of Dusseldorf
1965-04-07
Angelique
1964-12-08
Marked Eyes
1964-09-02
Why Paris?
1964-06-24
OSS 117: Panic in Bangkok
1964-06-12
Death of a Killer
1964-04-01
Highway Pick-Up
1963-11-13
Of Flesh and Blood
1963-07-08
Vice and Virtue
1963-03-01
Enough Rope
1963-01-11
Love on a Pillow
1962-09-05
Paris Pick-Up
1962-05-04
Hitch-Hike
1962-03-16
Madame
1961-12-21
The Game of Truth
1961-11-26
The Taste of Violence
1961-08-10
The Menace
1961-03-01
The Wretches
1960-05-08
Take Me As I Am
1960-01-29
The Verdict
1959-10-02
Double Agents
1959-09-09
Stars Meet in Moscow
1959-08-30
Riff Raff Girls
1959-05-20
The Road to Shame
1959-04-30
Blonde in a White Car
1959-03-27
Provisional Liberty
1958-05-16
Young Girls Beware
1957-07-04
No Sun in Venice
1957-05-31
Crime and Punishment
1956-12-04
Forgive Our Trespasses
1956-08-01
The Wicked Go to Hell
1955-12-07
Rififi
1955-04-13
Série noire
1955-03-04
Quai des blondes
1954-04-07
Maya
1949-12-09
In the Eyes of Memory
1948-11-24
Sextette
1948-09-17
The Devil Who Limped
1948-07-11
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