Robert Hossein

Robert Hossein
Robert Hossein in 2013
Born	(1927-12-30)30 December 1927 Paris, France
Died	31 December 2020(2020-12-31) (aged 93) Essey-lès-Nancy, France
Occupation(s)	Actor, film director
Years active	1948–2019
Spouses	Marina Vlady ​ ​ (m. 1955; div. 1960)​ Caroline Eliacheff ​ ​ (m. 1962; div. 1964)​ Candice Patou ​ ​ (m. 1976)​
Children	4

Robert Hossein (30 December 1927 – 31 December 2020) was a French film actor, director, and writer. He directed the 1982 adaptation of Les Misérables and appeared in Vice and Virtue, Le Casse, Les Uns et les Autres and Venus Beauty Institute. His other roles include Michèle Mercier's husband in the Angélique series, a gunfighter in the Spaghetti Western Cemetery Without Crosses (which he also directed and co-wrote), and a Catholic priest who falls in love with Claude Jade and becomes a communist in Forbidden Priests.

Cinematic career

Hossein started directing films in 1955 with Les Salauds vont en enfer,^[1] 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.^{[citation needed]} 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 Dostoyevsky.^{[citation needed]}

In 1967, he was a member of the jury of the 5th Moscow International Film Festival.^[2] His 1982 film Les Misérables was entered into the 13th Moscow International Film Festival where it won a Special Prize.^[3]

Hossein with Anthony Quinn in Belgrade in 1969.

Although Hossein had some modest international successes with films like Toi, le venin and The Vampire of Düsseldorf, 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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life

Robert Hossein's grandfather was born in Azerbaijan.^{[4][better source needed]} His father was André Hossein, a composer of Iranian Azerbaijani origin,^{[5][6][7][better source needed]} and his mother was Anna Mincovschi, a Jewish comedy actress from Soroca (Bessarabia).^{[8][9][10][11]} He was married three times: first to Marina Vlady (then Marina Poliakoff; on 23 December 1955, they had two sons, Pierre and Igor), later on 7 June 1962, to Caroline Eliacheff, daughter of Françoise Giroud (they had a son, Nicholas, who became rabbi Aaron Eliacheff).^[8] She was fifteen at the time and he was 34. In 1973, he dated for a short while Michèle Watrin, before she died the following year in a car accident. In 1976, he married actress Candice Patou, with whom he had a son.^{[citation needed]}

Religion

In 1971, Hossein was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church.^[12] 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 Lombard, Italy.^[13]

In 2007, he presented a play entitled Do Not be Afraid (N'ayez pas peur) of the life of Pope John Paul II.^[14] He had a special devotion to Saint Therese of Lisieux.^[15]

Death

Hossein died of COVID-19 on 31 December 2020, one day after his 93rd birthday, during the COVID-19 pandemic in France.^[16]

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Role	Director
1948	The Lame Devil	a guest	Sacha Guitry
	To the Eyes of Memory	uncredited	Jean Delannoy
1954	Quay of Blondes	Chemise rose	Paul Cadéac
1955	The Infiltrator	Jo	Pierre Foucaud
	Rififi	Rémy Grutter	Jules Dassin
	The Wicked Go to Hell	Fred	Robert Hossein
1956	Crime and Punishment	René Brunel	Georges Lampin
1957	No Sun in Venice (Sait-on jamais...)	Sforzi	Roger Vadim
	Méfiez-vous fillettes [fr]	Raven	Yves Allégret
1959	Toi, le venin	Pierre Menda	Robert Hossein
	The Road to Shame	Pierre Rossi	Édouard Molinaro
	Du rififi chez les femmes	Marcel Point-Bleu	Alex Joffé
	The Verdict	Georges Lagrange	Jean Valère
	Double Agents	Lui	Robert Hossein
1960	Riff-Raff	Ed Dawson	Maurice Labro
	Les Scélérats	Jess Rooland	Robert Hossein
1961	La Menace [fr]	Savary	Gérard Oury
	Madame Sans-Gêne	François-Joseph Lefebvre	Christian-Jaque
1962	Girl on the Road	Edouard	Jacqueline Audry
	Le Repos du guerrier	Renaud Sarti	Roger Vadim
1963	Le Meurtrier	Inspecteur Corby	Claude Autant-Lara
	Vice and Virtue	Schorndorf	Roger Vadim
	Chair de poule	Daniel Boisset	Julien Duvivier
1964	Banco à Bangkok pour OSS 117	Dr Sinn	André Hunebelle
	Les Yeux cernés	Franz	Robert Hossein himself
	Angélique, Marquise des Anges	Jeoffrey de Peyrac	Bernard Borderie
1965	The Vampire of Düsseldorf	Peter Kürten	Robert Hossein himself
	The Dirty Game	Dupont	Christian-Jaque and others
	Marco the Magnificent	Prince Nayam	Denys de La Patellière and Noël Howard
	God's Thunder	Marcel	Denys de La Patellière
1966	Madamigella di Maupin	Capitain Alcibiade	Mauro Bolognini
	Angelique and the King	Jeoffrey de Peyrac	Bernard Borderie
	The Second Twin	Pierre Montaud, the Advocate	Christian-Jaque
	Brigade antigangs	Inspector Le Goff	Bernard Borderie
	La Longue Marche	Carnot	Alexandre Astruc
1967	I Killed Rasputin	Serge Hukhotin	Robert Hossein himself
	Lamiel	Valber	Jean Aurel
	Untamable Angelique	Jeoffrey de Peyrac	Bernard Borderie
1968	Angelique and the Sultan	Jeoffrey de Peyrac	Bernard Borderie
	The Private Lesson	Enrico Fontana	Michel Boisrond
	A Little Virtuous	Louis Brady	Serge Korber
1969	The Battle of El Alamein	Erwin Rommel	Giorgio Ferroni
	Cemetery Without Crosses	Manuel	Robert Hossein himself
	Life Love Death	as himself	Claude Lelouch
	The Scarlet Lady	Julien Auchard	Jean Valère
	Nell'anno del Signore	Leonida Montanari	Luigi Magni
1970	Le Temps des loups	"Dillinger"	Sergio Gobbi
	Point de chute	the boss	Robert Hossein himself
1971	The Lion's Share	Maurice Ménard	Jean Larriaga
	The Burglars	Ralph	Henri Verneuil
1972	Un meurtre est un meurtre [fr]	Jean Carouse	Étienne Périer
1973	Don Juan, or If Don Juan Were a Woman	Louis Prévost	Roger Vadim
	Forbidden Priests	Jean Rastaud	Denys de La Patellière
1981	Les Uns et les Autres	Simon Meyer / Robert Prat	Claude Lelouch
	Le Professionnel	Inspector Rosen	Georges Lautner
1982	Le Grand Pardon [fr]	Manuel Carreras	Alexandre Arcady
	Les Misérables	not credited as actor	Robert Hossein himself
1986	A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later	as himself	Claude Lelouch
1995	Les Misérables	the master of ceremonies	Claude Lelouch
1997	Wax Mask	Boris Volkoff	Sergio Stivaletti
1999	Venus Beauty Institute	the pilot	Tonie Marshall
2006	Trivial	Antoine Bérangère	Sophie Marceau
2009	A Man and His Dog	cameo appearance	Francis Huster

Honours

•  France : Commander of the Légion d'honneur, 2005

Foreign honours

•  Monaco : Commander of the Order of Cultural Merit (2006)^[17]

Member of Eurasian Academy (2016).^[18][19]

References

1. Les Salauds vont en enfer at IMDb
2. "5th Moscow International Film Festival (1967)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 9 December 2012.
3. "13th Moscow International Film Festival (1983)". MIFF. Archived from the original on 7 November 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
4. Ilham Aliyev and President of the French Republic Francois Hollande had dinner together
5. Робер О­ссейн: «Нашу с Мариной Влади семью погубил русский быт» Russian: "Мой отец Андре Оссейн родился в Самарканде, хотя по национальности он азербайджанец, был очень талантливым человеком." Shigareva, Yulia (28 August 2013). Argumenty i Fakty.
6. Robert HosseinEurasian Academy official website Archived 2019-10-01 at the Wayback Machine
7. "Ilham Aliyev and President of the French Republic Francois Hollande had dinner together". president.az. 12 May 2014. Retrieved 17 August 2019.
8. "Robert Hossein et son fils le rabbin Aaron Eliacheff" (10 February 2011) Harissa
9. According to the program Le Plus Grand Cabaret du Monde, presented by Patrick Sébastien on 22 September 2007
10. Genealogy of the Hossein-Mincovschi Family
11. The International Who's Who 2004
12. "Robert Hossein, un artiste à la recherche de l'amour de Dieu". www.archivioradiovaticana.va. Retrieved 2020-12-31.
13. Peze, Emmanuel. (1985) Published in the Marian Collection (1985) by Brother Albert Pfleger, Marist. As reported by the Mary of Nazareth project, at [1]
14. James Mackenzie "French Showman Brings Pope John Paul II to Stage" (20 September 2007) Reuters.
15. Pyotr Rozvarin (19 March 2002) "A Pessimist Full of Optimism: An interview with Robert Hossein", Vremya novostei, No. 47 Retrieved 22 December 2007 (in Russian)
16. Robert Hossein, le géant du théâtre populaire, est mort (in French)
17. Sovereign Ordonnance n°800 of 18 Nov. 2006 by Prince Albert II
18. Eurasian Academy Official Site
19. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 21 November 2016. Retrieved 21 November 2016.

External links

• Robert Hossein at IMDb