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.

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Rififi

7.8

The Professional

7.2

Angelique

6.7

Angelique and the King

6.5

Venus Beauty Institute

5.8

The Burglars

7.0

Angelique and the Sultan

6.4

Untamable Angelique

6.6

Bolero: Dance of Life

7.0

Les Miserables

6.7

The Big Pardon

6.2

Cemetery Without Crosses

6.4

The Conspirators

7.6

OSS 117: Panic in Bangkok

7.7

The Wax Mask

5.7

The Little Murders of Agatha Christie

7.4

San Antonio

3.6

Love on a Pillow

5.8

Don Juan or If Don Juan Were a Woman

4.4

A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later

5.6

Trivial

4.3

God's Thunder

6.3

The Battle of El Alamein

5.3

Stranger in the House

6.4

Love Is Better Than Life

5.2

A Man and His Dog

5.9

Highway Pick-Up

6.8

The Vampire of Dusseldorf

5.6

OSS 117 Murder for Sale

5.7

Aznavour by Charles

6.9

Madame

5.6

Levy & Goliath

5.1

The Devil Who Limped

6.4

Vice and Virtue

5.5

The Game of Truth

5.9

A Murder Is a Murder

5.4

The Road to Shame

6.0

Belmondo by Belmondo

7.8

Blonde in a White Car

6.6

Marked Eyes

5.8

Belmondo, itinéraire...

7.5

Mademoiselle de Maupin

6.0

Falling Point

5.8

Crime and Punishment

7.0

Maya

5.6

Petits Meurtres en famille

7.9

Children of Chaos

5.4

The Wicked Go to Hell

6.2

In the Eyes of Memory

6.6

Paris Pick-Up

6.0

The Taste of Violence

7.1

The Dirty Game

5.8

La Musica

4.5

The Wretches

6.2

Life Love Death

5.1

A Little Virtuous

6.1

Marco the Magnificent

5.3

Double Agents

5.4

Young Girls Beware

5.3

The Menace

5.5

No Sun in Venice

5.1

Nulle part ailleurs

5.6

Vivement dimanche

3.0

Hitch-Hike

5.5

Riff Raff Girls

5.8

Enough Rope

5.3

The Other Truth

5.0

Hellé

4.6

Crime Thief

5.1

Denn sie kennen kein Erbarmen - Der Italowestern

6.6

Champs-Elysées

6.2

Death of a Killer

5.8

Tender Moment

5.7

Time of the Wolves

5.4

I Killed Rasputin

4.4

Surprise Party

5.0

Brigade Anti Gangs

6.6

Lamiel

4.8

Provisional Liberty

4.0

The Phoney

4.2

Versatile Lovers

3.0

Scandalous Crimes

3.3

The Scarlet Lady

5.7

Misdeal

3.0

L'Affaire

3.0

Les fleurs maladives de Georges Franju

7.0

The Lion's Share

4.0

Quai des blondes

5.3

Le Gorille

7.0

Prêtres interdits

4.5

The Protector

3.5

Desert Assault

5.0

Annie Girardot, ainsi va la vie

8.0

Le tour d'écrou

7.0

Take Me As I Am

6.0

Antigone

6.5

The Man Who Betrayed the Mafia

3.2

Le Grand Échiquier

8.0

Apostrophes

8.5

Cinépanorama

8.0

Le Juge

9.0

Stars 90

6.2

Sacrée soirée

6.2

Belmondo, il était une fois le beau monde

6.0

Forgive Our Trespasses

5.0

Judge Roy Bean

6.0

Série noire

2.0

Téléthon

5.0

Samedi soir

6.0

Midi trente

6.0

Reflets de Cannes

2.0

Long March

0.0

Hossein, Ronet, Trintignant : Confidences de trois acteurs inoubliables

0.0

Raymond Devos dans tous ses sens

0.0

Sextette

0.0

Marie-France Pisier, une femme sous influence

0.0

The Verdict

0.0

A Police Officer Without Importance

0.0

Le Caviar rouge

0.0

Why Paris?

0.0

Le commissaire mène l’enquête

0.0

Une femme nommée Marie

0.0

Of Flesh and Blood

0.0

Stars Meet in Moscow

0.0

Démons de midi

0.0

La croisade des enfants

0.0

Le Fruit de l'espoir

0.0

Spécial cinéma

0.0