Robert Hossein
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.
Known For
Credits
- 2022 · Raymond Devos dans tous ses sens as
- 2022 · Love Is Better Than Life as Robert Prat
- 2021 · Hossein, Ronet, Trintignant : Confidences de trois acteurs inoubliables as Lui-même
- 2020 · Le Fruit de l'espoir as Le grand-père d'Angeli
- 2019 · Aznavour by Charles as Self - Actor (archive footage)
- 2016 · Belmondo by Belmondo as Self
- 2014 · Marie-France Pisier, une femme sous influence as Self
- 2011 · Belmondo, il était une fois le beau monde as Self
- 2011 · Une femme nommée Marie as Voce narrante
- 2011 · Belmondo, itinéraire... as Self
- 2009 · Les fleurs maladives de Georges Franju as Self
- 2009 · A Man and His Dog as Un homme a la soupe populaire
- 2009 · The Little Murders of Agatha Christie as Simon
- 2008 · Annie Girardot, ainsi va la vie as Self
- 2007 · Trivial as Antoine Bérangère
- 2006 · Petits Meurtres en famille as Simon
- 2006 · Denn sie kennen kein Erbarmen - Der Italowestern as Self
- 2005 · Le Juge as Roger Marino
- 2004 · San Antonio as Le ministre de l'intérieur / The Minister
- 2003 · Antigone as Créon
- 1999 · Scandalous Crimes as Judge Bocchi
- 1999 · Venus Beauty Institute as L'aviateur
- 1998 · Vivement dimanche as Self
- 1997 · The Wax Mask as Boris Volkoff
- 1995 · Les Miserables as Le maître de cérémonie
- 1994 · L'Affaire as Paul Haslans
- 1992 · Stranger in the House as Narrator (voice)
- 1990 · Stars 90 as self
- 1990 · Le Gorille as Joseph Beaucis
- 1989 · Children of Chaos as Robert
- 1988 · La croisade des enfants as Philippe-Auguste
- 1987 · Téléthon as Self
- 1987 · Sacrée soirée as self
- 1987 · Nulle part ailleurs as Self
- 1987 · Levy & Goliath as Client de Goliath (uncredited)
- 1986 · A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later as Robert Hossein
- 1986 · Le Caviar rouge as Alex
- 1983 · Surprise Party as André Auerbach
- 1982 · The Big Pardon as Manuel Carreras
- 1982 · Champs-Elysées as Self
- 1981 · The Professional as Commissaire Rosen
- 1981 · Bolero: Dance of Life as Simon Meyer / Robert Prat
- 1979 · Démons de midi as Metteur en scène de théâtre
- 1975 · The Phoney as Kaminsky
- 1975 · Apostrophes as Self
- 1974 · Spécial cinéma as Self
- 1974 · The Protector as Arnaud
- 1974 · Le tour d'écrou as Peter Quint
- 1973 · Prêtres interdits as Jean Rastaud
- 1973 · A Police Officer Without Importance as Pierre Fresse
- 1973 · Don Juan or If Don Juan Were a Woman as Louis Prévost
- 1972 · A Murder Is a Murder as Jean Carouse
- 1972 · Hellé as
- 1972 · Midi trente as Self
- 1972 · Le Grand Échiquier as Self
- 1972 · Le Grand Échiquier as Self - Main Guest
- 1971 · The Burglars as Ralph
- 1971 · The Lion's Share as Maurice Ménard
- 1971 · Judge Roy Bean as Black Bird
- 1971 · Samedi soir as Self
- 1970 · Falling Point as Le Caïd
- 1970 · Versatile Lovers as Serge Belaïeff
- 1970 · Time of the Wolves as Dillinger
- 1969 · The Conspirators as Leonida Montanari
- 1969 · Desert Assault as Capitaine Curd Heinz (Rudi en Français)
- 1969 · Crime Thief as Tian
- 1969 · Crime Thief as Christian
- 1969 · The Scarlet Lady as Julien
- 1969 · Misdeal as Martin von Klaus
- 1969 · Life Love Death as The man in the movie
- 1969 · Cemetery Without Crosses as Manuel
- 1969 · The Battle of El Alamein as Erwin Rommel
- 1968 · Tender Moment as Enrico Fontana
- 1968 · OSS 117 Murder for Sale as Dr. Saadi
- 1968 · Angelique and the Sultan as Joffrey de Peyrac "Le Rescator"
- 1968 · A Little Virtuous as Louis Brady
- 1967 · Lamiel as Roger Valber
- 1967 · The Man Who Betrayed the Mafia as Maître Bianchini
- 1967 · I Killed Rasputin as Serge Sukhotin
- 1967 · La Musica as Him
- 1967 · Untamable Angelique as Joffrey de Peyrac "Le Rescator"
- 1966 · Brigade Anti Gangs as Le commissaire principal Le Goff
- 1966 · Long March as Carnot
- 1966 · The Other Truth as Pierre Montaud, the Advocate
- 1966 · Angelique and the King as Jeoffrey de Peyrac
- 1966 · Mademoiselle de Maupin as Capitaine Alcibiade
- 1965 · God's Thunder as Marcel
- 1965 · Marco the Magnificent as Prince Nayam
- 1965 · Le commissaire mène l’enquête as
- 1965 · The Dirty Game as Dupont
- 1965 · The Vampire of Dusseldorf as Peter Kuerten
- 1964 · Angelique as Jeoffrey de Peyrac
- 1964 · Marked Eyes as Franz
- 1964 · Why Paris? as
- 1964 · OSS 117: Panic in Bangkok as Dr. Sinn
- 1964 · Death of a Killer as Pierre Massa
- 1963 · Highway Pick-Up as Daniel Boisset
- 1963 · Of Flesh and Blood as Samuel
- 1963 · Vice and Virtue as SS Oberst Erik Schörndorf
- 1963 · Enough Rope as Inspektor Corby
- 1962 · Love on a Pillow as Renaud Sarti
- 1962 · Paris Pick-Up as Robert Herbin
- 1962 · Hitch-Hike as Edouard, le fou
- 1961 · Madame as Le sergent François-Joseph Lefebvre
- 1961 · The Game of Truth as L'inspecteur de police
- 1961 · The Taste of Violence as Perez
- 1961 · The Menace as Savary
- 1960 · The Wretches as Jess Rooland
- 1960 · Take Me As I Am as Ed Dawson
- 1959 · The Verdict as Georges Lagrange
- 1959 · Double Agents as Lui
- 1959 · Stars Meet in Moscow as
- 1959 · Riff Raff Girls as Marcel Point-Bleu
- 1959 · The Road to Shame as Pierre Rossi
- 1959 · Blonde in a White Car as Pierre Menda
- 1958 · Provisional Liberty as
- 1957 · Young Girls Beware as Raven
- 1957 · No Sun in Venice as Sforzi
- 1956 · Crime and Punishment as René Brunel
- 1956 · Forgive Our Trespasses as (uncredited)
- 1956 · Cinépanorama as Self
- 1955 · The Wicked Go to Hell as Fred
- 1955 · Rififi as Rémi Grutter
- 1955 · Série noire as Jo
- 1954 · Quai des blondes as Chemise Rose
- 1954 · Reflets de Cannes as Self
- 1949 · Maya as Un témoin du meurtre qui n'a rien vu (uncredited)
- 1948 · In the Eyes of Memory as A student from the Simon course
- 1948 · Sextette as
- 1948 · The Devil Who Limped as Un invité en blanc (non crédité)