Michel Hazanavicius

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Michel Hazanavicius (2015)

Michel Hazanavicius (born March 29, 1967 in Paris ) is a French film and television director and screenwriter. At home in the comedy field, he gained notoriety in France primarily through the popular agent parodies OSS 117 - The Spy Who Loved Himself (2006) and OSS 117 - He Is Enough For Himself (2009). International recognition brought him the silent film homage The Artist (2011), which was awarded five Oscars and three Golden Globe Awards . Hazanavicius himself was the first French filmmaker to receive an Oscar for directing . Repeatedly he worked with the actor Jean Dujardin .

Life

Childhood and first film work

Michel Hazanavicius was born into a Jewish family of Polish - Lithuanian origin. His parents survived World War II as children in France by going into hiding.

Hazanavicius grew up with his older brother Serge (* 1963) in his hometown of Paris. Although his uncle is a sound engineer by profession , he came from a family that had little contact with the film business. As a child, Hazanavicius said he began to entertain others with his humor. His grandfather took him to silent movie screenings. At the age between ten and twelve he had seen his own admission numerous film classics, including Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai , The Third Man by Carol Reed , Billy Wilder's The Apartment or Once Upon a Time in the West by Sergio Leone . Hazanavicius developed a taste for American cinema and westerns during this time . Above all, The Third Man inspired Hazanavicius to become a film director. A career aspiration that kept him busy for a long time. His brother Serge should start an acting career in the early 1990s.

Hazanavicius attended the École nationale supérieure d'arts de Cergy-Pontoise (ENSAPC). He gained his first experience in television in 1988 as an intern at the French pay TV channel Canal + . Hazanavicius quickly rose to work as a sketch writer for the station's own comedian group Les Nuls , which was founded in the late 1980s by Bruno Carette , Alain Chabat , Dominique Farrugia and Chantal Lauby . In addition, Hazanavicius also worked as a writer for the radio. In 1992 he and Dominique Mezerette directed Derrick contre Superman , which was also broadcast on television. With the aid of numerous excerpts from well-known TV series and their resynchronization told the short film a new story about the German series Commissioner Derrick , who together with, inter alia, Starsky & Hutch and Captain Kirk opens to save a TV channel while against Superman , Roger Moore and number 6 to struggle Has. The television films Ca détourne (1992) and La classe américaine (1993) followed the same pattern . In the latter film, which was broadcast on French television on New Year's Eve , Hazanavicius and Mezerette were legally allowed to use the Warner Bros. film archive , including scenes from Hollywood strips with John Wayne , James Stewart , Henry Fonda , Paul Newman , Dustin Hoffman or Robert Redford could be used. Some of the original French voice actors have also been won over for La classe américaine .

While working in television, Hazanavicius gained a foothold in the advertising industry and was involved in the production of more than 40 commercials. In 1997 he was the sole director of the 14-minute short film Échec au capital . The comedy is about Karl Marx 's writing process on Das Kapital and his decision not to complete the main work. Hazanavicius also wrote the screenplays for the cinema comedies Delphine 1, Yvan 0 by Les Nuls comedienne Dominique Farrugia (1996) and Le clone by Fabio Conversi (1998).

First feature film projects and successes with "OSS 117"

In 1999 Michel Hazanavicius directed his first own feature film project, for which he also wrote the script. In Mes amis is a black comedy, which is located in the television milieu - a producer and a fellow actor (played by Yvan Attal and Hazanavicius' brother Serge) try despite hectic schedule at a French sitcom the corpse of a nocturnal chance acquaintance ( Karin Viard ) dispose. The French daily Le Figaro praised the fact that Mes amis was quite successful as a “burlesque fantasy” and compared the work with Danny Boyle's Kleine Murders Among Friends (1994).

In 2004 Hazanavicius wrote the screenplay for Tuez-les tous! a television documentary about the genocide in Rwanda , which he co-produced with his production company La Classe Américaine , which he founded in 2002 . In the same year, together with the well-known French comedian duo Éric Judor and Ramzy Bédia, the script for the real-life comic film The Daltons vs. Lucky Luke by Morris followed . The Franco-German-Spanish co-production by Philippe Haïm - with Judor and Bédia in the leading roles and Til Schweiger as Lucky Luke - reached 1.6 million cinema-goers in France, but was rated in Germany as a "failed comedy staged as a number revue" .

Hazanavicius' second feature film OSS 117 - The Spy Who Loved Each Other , which gave him his breakthrough as a cinema director in France in 2006 , did not make it to German theaters . Based on the OSS-117 novels by Jean Bruce , Jean Dujardin took on the title role of Hubert Bonisseur de La Bath in the dignified spy film parody. In the style of the early James Bond films, the story is set in Egypt in the 1950s. Leading actor Dujardin had previously worked on The Daltons against Lucky Luke . According to Hazanavicius, several directors before him had rejected the film project, which contained a lot of racist jokes and more violence in the first version of the script. He revised the film script, whereupon OSS 117 - The Spy Who Loved himself became a popular success in France. Almost 2.3 million visitors saw the film, which was also favored by French specialist critics and a successful sequel ( OSS 117 - He is enough for himself , 2009) with over 2.6 million cinema-goers in France.

International success with "The Artist"

The success of the OSS 117 films made it possible for Hazanavicius in 2011 to realize the silent film homage The Artist, which he had planned in the early 2000s . The director, who counts among his role models the filmmakers who started out silent films, Alfred Hitchcock , Walter Lang , John Ford , Ernst Lubitsch , Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau and Billy Wilder , did not have in mind to revive the slapstick of Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin : “It wasn't the slapstick that meant so much to me. It was the melodramas . The knot was to share the sensual experience I felt while watching Murnau's ' Sunrise ' in the cinema , ” says Hazanavicius. In preparation for the script, which he wrote within four months, Hazanavicius said he saw 150 silent films. In addition to Sunrise , he was also inspired by Murnau's City Girl , the films by Frank Borzage and King Vidor's The Crowd . For the filming of The Artist , which Thomas Langmann produced, he worked again with Jean Dujardin as well as cameraman Guillaume Schiffman and film composer Ludovic Bource . The story of an American silent film star (Dujardin), who failed to make the transition to sound film in the 1920s, was written by Hazanavicius in a silent film format of 1.33: 1 in black and white pictures with subtitles and almost no spoken words in 35 days at the original locations Shot in Hollywood . “What I love is to create a show and that people find it a joy while always being aware that it is a show. I am interested in stylizing reality, the possibility of juggling codes. This is how the idea of ​​a Hollywood set from the late 20s and early 30s, in black and white, emerged, ”says Hazanavicius.

Hazanavicius with the César won for The Artist

The Artist premiered in competition at the 64th Cannes International Film Festival 2011, where Jean Dujardin was awarded the Actor Award for his role as George Valentin . The film became Hazanavicius' biggest box office success to date and was able to find an influential American distributor in The Weinstein Company . Although Hazanavicius referred to himself as a “crook” who “stole” the silent film format in order to make a modern film and, among other things, took the complete breakfast sequence from Orson Welles Citizen Kane , The Artist was in the favor of critics and audiences. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung praised Hazanavicius' directorial work as an elegantly photographed, "brilliant homage to old Hollywood" , which "takes up elements of adventure films, romantic comedies and melodramas of the late twenties in a playful and ironic way" . The film is "a declaration of love for filmmaking, incredibly lively, full of curious ideas, rich in details and carried by outstanding actors," which the Los Angeles Times agreed with. The French production won numerous other awards in the 2011/2012 film awards season, including five Academy Awards , three Golden Globe Awards , seven BAFTA Awards and six Césars . Hazanavicius himself was the first French filmmaker to receive an Oscar for directing , two other nominations in the Oscar categories for screenplay and editing and won the Directors Guild of America Award , the directing award of the renowned New York Film Critics Circle , the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award , the César for best director and two British Academy Film Awards (direction and screenplay).

After The Artist, Hazanavicius took part in the feature film comedy Men and Women , in which seven directors (including Jean Dujardin and Emmanuelle Bercot ) explore male infidelity and its variations. The film with Jean Dujardin and Gilles Lellouche in the leading roles opened in French cinemas at the end of February 2012. At the beginning of January 2012 it was announced that Hazanavicius was working on a loose remake of Fred Zinnemann's The Drawn (1948). The story is to be relocated to war-torn Chechnya , where a development worker (portrayed by Bérénice Bejo ) takes care of a boy without a family. The film ran under the title The Search at the Cannes Film Festival in 2014.

family

Hazanavicius with his wife Bérénice Bejo (2014)

Michel Hazanavicius lives in Paris. He is in a relationship with the actress Bérénice Bejo , to whom he starred in his feature films OSS 117 - The Spy Who Loved Each Other and The Artist . The relationship with Bejo resulted in a son (* 2008) and a daughter (* 2011). Hazanavicius has two other children from an earlier relationship.

Parallel to his work as a filmmaker, Hazanavicius took on small acting roles in the films La cité de la peur (1994), Delphine 1, Yvan 0 (1996), Didier (1997) and My wife, the actress (2001).

Filmography

Director

  • 1992: Derrick contre Superman (TV short film)
  • 1992: Ca détourne (TV film)
  • 1993: La classe américaine (TV movie)
  • 1994: C'est pas le 20 heures (TV series)
  • 1996: Les films qui sortent le lendemain dans les salles de cinéma (TV documentary)
  • 1997: Échec au capital (short film)
  • 1999: Mes amis
  • 2006: OSS 117 - The spy who loved each other (OSS 117: Le Caire nid d'espions)
  • 2009: OSS 117 - He is enough for himself (OSS 117: Rio ne répond plus)
  • 2011: The Artist
  • 2012: Men and women (Les infidèles)
  • 2014: The Search
  • 2017: Le Redoutable

Screenwriter

Awards and nominations

  • 2006: Golden Space Needle Award of the Seattle International Film Festival for OSS 117 - The Spy Who Loved Each Other (Best Film)
  • 2006: Tokyo Grand Prix of the Tokyo International Film Festival for OSS 117 - The Spy Who Loved Each Other (Best Film)
  • 2007: César nomination for OSS 117 - The Spy Who Loved Each Other (Best Screenplay - together with Jean-François Halin )
  • 2011: Audience Award of the Festival Internacional de Cine de Donostia-San Sebastián for The Artist
  • 2011: Audience Award of the Hamptons International Film Festival for The Artist ("Best Narrative Feature")
  • 2011: Audience Award of the St. Louis International Film Festival for The Artist ("Best International Feature")
  • 2011: New York Film Critics Circle Award for The Artist (Best Director)
  • 2011: Nomination for the European Film Award for The Artist (Best Film - together with Thomas Langmann and Emmanuel Montamat )
  • 2011: Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award for The Artist (Best Director)
  • 2011: Chicago Film Critics Association Award for The Artist (Best Original Screenplay)
  • 2011: Detroit Film Critics Society Award for The Artist (Best Director)
  • 2011: Florida Film Critics Circle Award for The Artist (Best Original Screenplay)
  • 2011: New York Film Critics Online Award for The Artist (Best Director)
  • 2011: Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Award for The Artist (Best Director, Best Screenplay)
  • 2011: Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for The Artist (Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing)
  • 2011: Utah Film Critics Association Award for The Artist (Best Director)
  • 2012: AACTA Award for The Artist (Best Director)
  • 2012: Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for The Artist (Best Director)
  • 2012: two Golden Globe nominations for The Artist (Best Director, Best Screenplay)
  • 2012: London Critics' Circle Film Award for The Artist (Best Director)
  • 2012: Vancouver Film Critics Circle Award for The Artist (Best Screenplay)
  • 2012: Prize of the Spanish Cìrculo de Escritores Cinematograficos for The Artist (Best Foreign Film)
  • 2012: Premio Sant Jordi for The Artist (Best Foreign Film)
  • 2012: Directors Guild of America Award for The Artist (Best Feature Film Director )
  • 2012: two British Academy Film Awards for The Artist ( Best Director , Best Original Screenplay ), another nomination (Best Editing - together with Anne-Sophie Bion )
  • 2012: Goya for The Artist (Best European Film)
  • 2012: Eddie Award for The Artist (best editing of a feature film comedy or musical - together with Anne-Sophie Bion)
  • 2012: César for The Artist (Best Director), two further nominations (Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing - together with Anne-Sophie Bion)
  • 2012: Independent Spirit Award for The Artist (Best Director)
  • 2012: Oscar for The Artist (Best Director), two further nominations (Best Original Screenplay, Best Editing - together with Anne-Sophie Bion)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ruben V. Nepali: Meet the director behind surprise Best Picture Contender at entertainment.inquirer.net 10 December 2011 (accessed on 27 February 2012).
  2. ↑ Emotional 'Artist' connection. In: New York Post , February 3, 2012, p. 13.
  3. ↑ Nick Allen: 'The Artist' Interview with Director Michel Hazanavicius at thescorecardreview.com, December 24, 2011 (accessed December 31, 2011).
  4. ↑ a b Eric Libiot: The Artist Le silence est d'or. In: L'Express , October 5, 2011, No. 3144, p. 160.
  5. ↑ a b c Adam Woodward: Michel Hazanavicius ( Memento of the original from January 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.littlewhitelies.co.uk archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at littlewhitelies.co.uk, December 21, 2011 (accessed December 31, 2011).
  6. ↑ a b c Stuart Jeffries: The Artist: the silent film they said no one wanted to see at guardian.co.uk, December 8, 2011 (accessed December 31, 2011).
  7. ↑ List of school leavers ( memento of July 30, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) at ensapc.fr (French; accessed on March 2, 2012).
  8. ↑ a b Profile of Michel Hazanavicius at allocine.fr (French; accessed December 31, 2011).
  9. ↑ Derrick contre Superman at allocine.fr (French; accessed December 31, 2011).
  10. ↑ Le cinéma d'Hazanavicius, du pastiche au muet at culture.ulg.ac.be (accessed on December 31, 2011).
  11. ↑ Échec au capital at allocine.fr (French; accessed December 31, 2011).
  12. ↑ Claude Baigneres: 'Mes amis' de Michel Hazanavicius: Satirique et macabre. In: Le Figaro , June 3, 1999 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  13. ↑ Biography ( Memento of the original from December 7, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at theartist-derfilm.de (accessed on January 14, 2002). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / theartist-derfilm.de
  14. ^ The Daltons vs. Lucky Luke in the Lumiere database (accessed December 31, 2011).
  15. ↑ Andrea Dittgen: The Daltons against Lucky Luke. In: film service. 17/2005 (accessed via Munzinger Online ).
  16. ↑ OSS 117 - The Spy Who Loved Each Other in the Lumiere database (accessed December 31, 2011).
  17. ↑ Didier Peron: Le gang des pastiches. In: Liberation , April 19, 2006, No. 7759, pp. 1–2.
  18. ↑ Isabelle Regnier: Retour gagnant pour l'espion OSS 117. In: Le Monde , April 19, 2006 (accessed via LexisNexis Wirtschaft ).
  19. ↑ OSS 117 - He is himself enough in the Lumiere database (accessed on August 28, 2016).
  20. ↑ a b c Official press release (PDF; 4.9 MB) at festival-cannes.com, p. 5 (accessed on January 1, 2012).
  21. ↑ Official press booklet (PDF; 4.9 MB) at festival-cannes.com, pp. 6–8 (accessed on January 1, 2012).
  22. ↑ Official press booklet (PDF; 4.9 MB) at festival-cannes.com, p. 49 (accessed on January 1, 2012).
  23. ↑ Laura Emerick: A Frenchman's hooray for Hollywood. In: Chicago Sun-Times , December 23, 2011, p. 6.
  24. ^ Robbie Collin: The last and loveliest film of the year. In: The Daily Telegraph , December 30, 2011, p. 25.
  25. ↑ a b Kenneth Turan: Worth a shout. In: Los Angeles Times , November 25, 2011, Part D, p. 1.
  26. ↑ Susanne Ostwald: The life looked. In: Neue Zürcher Zeitung. May 18, 2011, No. 115, p. 49.
  27. ↑ David Gritten: Bérénice Bejo to star in husband's new film at telegraph.co.uk, January 16, 2012 (accessed February 27, 2012).
  28. ↑ a b Michael Phillips: Michel Hazanavicius: Master of silence makes film to match at chicagotribune.com, December 29, 2011 (accessed December 31, 2011).
  29. ↑ Bio express. In: 24 Heures. October 22, 2011, p. 44.
personal data
SURNAME Hazanavicius, Michel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French director and screenwriter
DATE OF BIRTH March 29, 1967
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris