Background
HOSSEIN, Robert was born on December 30, 1927 in Paris. Son of Amin Hossein and Anna Mincovschi.
HOSSEIN, Robert was born on December 30, 1927 in Paris. Son of Amin Hossein and Anna Mincovschi.
Louisiana neige etait sale, Haute surveillance, Les voyous (writer). Louisiana p. respectueuse, Huis-Clos, Vous qui nous jugez (writer), Les six hommes en question. Louisiana moitie du plaisir (producer), Crime et chatiment, Les bas-fonds, Romeo et Juliette, Pour qui sonne le glas, Louisiana maison des otages, Hemani (produced for the Comddie Frangaise) 1974, Louisiana maison de Bemada (produced at the Odeon) 1975, Le cuirasse Potemkine 1975, Des souris et des hommes, Shdherazade (ballet) 1975, Proces de Jeanne d"Arc (producer) 1976, Pas d’orchid^es pour Mission Blandish (producer and actor) 1977, NotreDame de Paris (producer) 1978, Le cauchemar de Bella Manningham (producer) 1978, Danton et Robespierre (producer) 1979, Loma et Ted 1981, Un grand avocat 1983, Les brumes de Manchester 1986, Liberty or Death and the Heritage of the French Revolution 1988, Dans la nuit la liberie (producer) 1989, Cyrano de Bergerac (producer) 1990; films include: Quai des blondes, Du rififi chez les hommes, Crime et chatiment, Toi le venin, Le jeu de la v^ritd (writer), Le gout de la violence, Le repos du guerrier, Le vice et la veriu, Les yeux eemes, Angelique marquise des anges, Banco a Bangkok, Le vampire de Diisseldorf, Le tonnerre de Dieu, Louisiana seconde verite, J"ai tue Raspoutine, Indomptable Angelique, Don Juan 1973, Pretres interdits, Le protecteur, Le faux cul 1975, Les uns et les autres, Le professionnel 1981, Les Misdrables (producer) 1982, Un homme nomme Jesus (director) 1983, Jules Cfear 1985, Les brumes de Manchester 1986, Lin homme et une femme, vingt ans deja 1986, Les Enfants du desordre 1989; Prix Orange 1963; Chevalier, Ordre National du Merite, Chevalier, Chevalier de la Legion d’Honneur"honneur, Commander des Arts et des Lettres, Medaille de Vermeil de la Ville de Paris.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 1955 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 Cemetery Without Crosses and the low-budgeted but daringly subversive period drama I Killed Rasputin.
With two or three exceptions, his films remain commercially unavailable and very difficult to see. Foreign honours.
In 1967 he was a member of the jury of the 5th Moscow International Film Festival.
Married 1st Marina de Poliakoff in 1955 (divorced), two son. Married 2nd Caroline Eliacheff in 1962 (divorced), one son.
