Olivier Assayas
| Olivier Assayas | |
|---|---|
 Assayas in 2010 | |
| Born |
25 January 1955 Paris, France |
| Occupation | Film director, screenwriter, film critic |
| Years active | 1977–present |
| Spouse(s) | Maggie Cheung (1998–2001) |
| Partner(s) | Mia Hansen-Løve (2009–2016) |
| Children | 1 |
Olivier Assayas (born 25 January 1955) is a French film director, screenwriter and film critic.
Life and career
Assayas was born in Paris, France, the son of French director/screenwriter Raymond Assayas, alias Jacques Rémy (1911–1981). His father was of Italian Jewish origin and his mother was of Protestant Hungarian origin.[1][2][3][4] Assayas started his career in the industry by helping his father. He ghostwrote episodes for TV shows his father was working on when his health failed. In a 2010 interview, Assayas stated that his main political influences when growing up were Guy Debord and George Orwell.[5] Speaking of the 1968 May uprising to overthrow General de Gaulle, Assayas in the same interview stated: "I was defined by the politics of May '68, but for me May '68 was an anti-totalitarian uprising. People seemed to forget that at the occupied Odéon theater, you had crossed flags-black and red, and I was on the side of the black element.".[6]
He made his debut in 1986, after directing some short films and writing for the influential film magazine Cahiers du cinéma.
Assayas's film Cold Water was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.[7]
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 films, HHH: A Portrait of Hou Hsiao-hsien, 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 film Clean with him.
He met actress-director Mia Hansen-Løve 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".[8] They separated in 2016.
He directed and co-wrote the acclaimed 2010 French television miniseries Carlos, about the life of the terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez. Venezuelan 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.[9]
His 2012 film, Something in the Air, was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 69th Venice International Film Festival.[10] Assayas won the Osella for Best Screenplay at Venice.[11] His 2014 film Clouds of Sils Maria was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or in the main competition section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival.[12] Sils Maria won the Louis Delluc Prize and garnered six César Award nominations including Best Film, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. The film won a César Award for Best Supporting Actress for American actress Kristen Stewart.[13][14] In 2016, Assayas won Best Director Award (Cannes Film Festival) for Personal Shopper, which also starred Kristen Stewart.[15]
On June 29, 2017, it was announced that Olivier Assayas would preside over the 2017 70th anniversary Locarno Film Festival.[16]
Style and influences
In an interview with Nick Pinkerton of Reverse Shot, Assayas talked about his 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.[17]
Filmography
| Year | Title | Credited as | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Director | Screenwriter | |||
| 1978 | Nuit féline | Yes | Short film | |
| 1979 | Copyright | Yes | Short film | |
| 1980 | Rectangle - Deux chansons de Jacno | Yes | Short film | |
| 1980 | Scopitone | Yes | Yes | Short film |
| 1982 | Étoiles et toiles | Yes | TV series documentary | |
| 1982 | Laissé inachevé à Tokyo | Yes | Yes | Short film |
| 1984 | Winston Tong en studio | Yes | Short documentary | |
| 1985 | Rendez-vous | Yes | ||
| 1985 | Passage secret | Yes | ||
| 1986 | L'Unique | Yes | ||
| 1986 | Scene of the Crime | Yes | ||
| 1986 | Disorder | Yes | Yes | |
| 1987 | Avril brisé | Yes | ||
| 1989 | Winter's Child | Yes | Yes | |
| 1990 | Filha da Mãe | Yes | ||
| 1991 | Paris Awakens | Yes | Yes | Prix Jean Vigo |
| 1993 | A New Life | Yes | Yes | |
| 1994 | Cold Water | Yes | Yes | |
| 1994 | Tous les garçons et les filles de leur âge... | Yes | Yes | TV series |
| 1996 | Irma Vep | Yes | Yes | |
| 1997 | Cinéma, de notre temps | Yes | Yes | TV series documentary (Episode: HHH - Un portrait de Hou Hsiao-hsien) |
| 1998 | Man Yuk: A Portrait of Maggie Cheung | Yes | Documentary short | |
| 1998 | Late August, Early September | Yes | Yes | |
| 1998 | Alice and Martin | Yes | ||
| 2000 | Sentimental Destinies | Yes | Yes | Nominated—Cannes Film Festival-Palme d'Or |
| 2002 | Demonlover | Yes | Yes | Nominated—Cannes Film Festival-Palme d'Or |
| 2004 | Clean | Yes | Yes | Nominated—Cannes Film Festival-Palme d'Or |
| 2006 | Paris, je t'aime | Yes | Yes | Segment: "Quartier des Enfants Rouges" |
| 2006 | Metric | Yes | Video documentary (idea) | |
| 2006 | Noise | Yes | Documentary | |
| 2007 | Boarding Gate | Yes | Yes | |
| 2007 | To Each His Own Cinema | Yes | Yes | Segment: "Recrudescence" |
| 2007 | Stockhausen / Preljocaj Dialogue | Yes | TV Movie documentary | |
| 2008 | Eldorado | Yes | TV Movie documentary | |
| 2008 | Summer Hours | Yes | Yes | Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Language Film Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Language Film National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Foreign Language Film New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Foreign Language Film Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Foreign Language Film |
| 2010 | Carlos | Yes | Yes | Globes de Cristal Award for Best Television Film or Television Series Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Director Satellite Award for Best Miniseries Nominated—César Award for Best Director Nominated—European Film Award for Best Director Nominated—Lumières Award for Best Film Nominated—Lumières Award for Best Director Nominated—Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Miniseries, Movie or a Dramatic Special |
| 2012 | Something in the Air | Yes | Yes | Venice Film Festival-Golden Osella for Best Original Screenplay Venice Film Festival-Fondazione Mimmo Rotella Award Nominated—Venice Film Festival-Golden Lion |
| 2014 | Clouds of Sils Maria | Yes | Yes | Louis Delluc Prize Nominated—Cannes Film Festival - Palme d'Or Nominated—César Award for Best Film Nominated—César Award for Best Director Nominated—César Award for Best Original Screenplay |
| 2016 | Personal Shopper | Yes | Yes | Cannes Film Festival - Best Director |
| 2017 | Based on a True Story | Yes | ||
References
- ↑ "Olivier Assayas Interview". Outside In Tokyo.
- ↑ Chouaki, Yasmine (1 June 2012). "2. Michka Assayas (rediffusion)". RFI. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
- ↑ "Michka Assayas Ecrivain et journaliste français". Evene. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
- ↑ Franck Le Gac, "Olivier Assayas", Senses of Cinema, Issue 39, Great Directors.
- ↑ White, Rob "Interview with Olivier Assayas" pages 74-77 from Film Quarterly, Volume 64, Issue # 2, Winter 2010 page 75.
- ↑ White, Rob "Interview with Olivier Assayas" pages 74-77 from Film Quarterly, Volume 64, Issue # 2, Winter 2010 page 77.
- ↑ "Festival de Cannes: Cold Water". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 31 August 2009.
- ↑ Morris, Octavia (27 June 2010). "The film that changed my life: Mia Hansen-Løve". guardian.co.uk. London. Retrieved 25 September 2010.
- ↑ "The Jury of the 64th Festival de Cannes". Cannes. 20 April 2011. Retrieved 20 April 2011.
- ↑ "Venezia 69". labiennale. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
- ↑ "Official Awards of the 69th Venice Film Festival". labiennale. Retrieved 9 September 2012.
- ↑ "2014 Official Selection". Cannes. Retrieved 17 April 2014.
- ↑ http://variety.com/2014/film/global/olivier-assayas-sils-maria-wins-louis-delluc-prize-1201380706/
- ↑ César Award for Best Supporting Actress
- ↑ http://deadline.com/2016/05/cannes-film-festival-winners-2016-palme-dor-ful-list-1201760956/
- ↑ "Olivier Assayas to Preside Over Locarn Film Festival". 29 June 2017. Retrieved 29 June 2017.
- ↑ Pinkerton, Nick. "Another interview with Olivier Assayas". Reverse Shot.
Further reading
- Olivier Assayas, A Post-May Adolescence. Letter to Alice Debord, FilmmuseumSynemaPublikationen Vol. 17, Vienna: SYNEMA - Gesellschaft für Film und Medien, 2012, ISBN 978-3-901644-44-3
- Kent Jones (Ed.), Olivier Assayas, FilmmuseumSynemaPublikationen Vol. 16, Vienna: SYNEMA - Gesellschaft für Film und Medien, 2012, ISBN 978-3-901644-43-6
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Olivier Assayas. |
- Olivier Assayas on IMDb
- Olivier Assayas at AlloCiné (in French)
- New York Times article on Assayas
- Bringing Down the House: A Conversation with Olivier Assayas, The Notebook, mubi.com