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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Fotos
Películas (121)
Picking Strawberries
2025
Raymond Devos dans tous ses sens
2022 · Self
Belmondo: The Incorrigible
2022
Love Is Better Than Life
2022 · Robert Prat
Hossein, Ronet, Trintignant : Confidences de trois acteurs inoubliables
2021 · Self (archive footage)
Noni : Le Fruit de l'espoir
2020 · Le grand-père d'Angeli
Aznavour by Charles
2019 · Self - Actor (archive footage)
Belmondo by Belmondo
2016 · Self
Marie-France Pisier, une femme sous influence
2014 · Self
Belmondo, il était une fois le beau monde
2011 · Self
Une femme nommée Marie
2011 · Narrator (voice), Stage Director
Belmondo, itinéraire...
2011 · Self
Les fleurs maladives de Georges Franju
2009 · Self
A Man and His Dog
2009 · Un homme a la soupe populaire
Du rififi chez les hommes - Jules Dassin, l'élégance du noir
2009 · Himself
Annie Girardot, ainsi va la vie
2008 · Self
Trivial
2007 · Antoine Bérangère
Denn sie kennen kein Erbarmen - Der Italowestern
2006 · Self
San Antonio
2004 · Le ministre de l'intérieur / The Minister
Antigone
2003 · Créon, Art Direction
Scandalous Crimes
1999 · Judge Bocchi
Venus Beauty Institute
1999 · L'aviateur
The Wax Mask
1997 · Boris Volkoff
Les Miserables
1995 · Le maître de cérémonie
Paradjanov, le dernier collage
1995 · Self
L'Affaire
1994 · Paul Haslans
Stranger in the House
1992 · Narrator (voice)
Cyrano de Bergerac
1990 · Director
Children of Chaos
1989 · Robert
Kean
1988 · Stage Director
La croisade des enfants
1988 · Philippe-Auguste
Levy & Goliath
1987 · Goliath customer (uncredited)
A Man and a Woman: 20 Years Later
1986 · Robert Hossein
Le Caviar rouge
1986 · Alex, Screenplay, Director
Surprise Party
1983 · André Auerbach
Les Misérables
1982 · Screenplay, Director
The Big Pardon
1982 · Manuel Carreras
The Professional
1981 · Commissaire Rosen
Bolero
1981 · Simon Meyer / Robert Prat
Démons de midi
1979 · Metteur en scène de théâtre
Hernani
1975 · Stage Director
The Phoney
1975 · Kaminsky
The Protector
1974 · Arnaud
Le Tour d'Écrou
1974 · Peter Quint
Prêtres interdits
1973 · Jean Rastaud
A Police Officer Without Importance
1973 · Pierre Fresse
Don Juan or If Don Juan Were a Woman
1973 · Louis Prévost
A Murder Is a Murder
1972 · Jean Carouse
Hellé
1972 · Kleber
The Burglars
1971 · Ralph
The Lion's Share
1971 · Maurice Ménard
Judge Roy Bean
1971 · Black Bird
Falling Point
1970 · Le Caïd, Director, Writer
Versatile Lovers
1970 · Serge Belaïeff
Time of the Wolves
1970 · Dillinger
The Conspirators
1969 · Leonida Montanari
Desert Assault
1969 · Capitaine Curd Heinz (Rudi en Français)
Crime Thief
1969 · Tian
The Scarlet Lady
1969 · Julien
Misdeal
1969 · Martin von Klaus
Life Love Death
1969 · Man in the movie
Cemetery without Crosses
1969 · Manuel, Director, Writer
The Battle of El Alamein
1969 · Erwin Rommel
Once Upon a Time in the West
1968 · Member of Frank's Gang in Flashback (uncredited)
Tender Moment
1968 · Enrico Fontana
OSS 117 Murder for Sale
1968 · Dr. Saadi
Angelique and the Sultan
1968 · Joffrey de Peyrac "Le Rescator"
A Little Virtuous
1968 · Louis Brady
Untamable Angelique
1967 · Joffrey de Peyrac, 'Le Rescator'
Lamiel
1967 · Roger Valber
The Man Who Betrayed the Mafia
1967 · Maître Bianchini
I Killed Rasputin
1967 · Serge Sukhotin, Director, Writer
La Musica
1967 · Him
Brigade Anti Gangs
1966 · Chief Commissioner Le Goff
Long March
1966 · Carnot
The Other Truth
1966 · Pierre Montaud, the Advocate
Angelique and the King
1966 · Jeoffrey de Peyrac
Mademoiselle de Maupin
1966 · Captain Alcibiade
God's Thunder
1965 · Marcel
Marco the Magnificent
1965 · Prince Nayam
Le commissaire mène l’enquête
1965 · The lover (segment "Pour qui sonne le ...")
The Dirty Game
1965 · Dupont
The Vampire of Dusseldorf
1965 · Peter Kuerten, Screenplay, Director
Angelique
1964 · Jeoffrey de Peyrac
Marked Eyes
1964 · Franz, Director, Story
Why Paris?
1964
Shadow of Evil
1964 · Dr. Sinn
Death of a Killer
1964 · Pierre Massa, Adaptation, Director, Screenplay
Highway Pick-Up
1963 · Daniel Boisset
In the Midst of Life
1963 · Co-Producer
Of Flesh and Blood
1963 · Samuel
Vice and Virtue
1963 · SS Oberst Erik Schörndorf
Enough Rope
1963 · Inspektor Corby
Love on a Pillow
1962 · Renaud Sarti
Paris Pick-Up
1962 · Robert Herbin
Hitch-Hike
1962 · Edouard, le fou
Madame
1961 · Le sergent François-Joseph Lefebvre
The Game of Truth
1961 · L'inspecteur de police, Director, Writer
The Taste of Violence
1961 · Perez, Screenplay, Dialogue, Director
The Menace
1961 · Savary
The Wretches
1960 · Jess Rooland, Director, Screenplay
Take Me As I Am
1960 · Ed Dawson
The Verdict
1959 · Georges Lagrange, Writer
Double Agents
1959 · Lui, Screenplay, Director
Stars Meet in Moscow
1959 · Self
Riff Raff Girls
1959 · Marcel Point-Bleu
The Road to Shame
1959 · Pierre Rossi
Blonde in a White Car
1959 · Pierre Menda, Director, Screenplay
Provisional Liberty
1958 · Jean-Paul Viberty / Jean Rungis
Young Girls Beware
1957 · Raven
No Sun in Venice
1957 · Sforzi
Crime and Punishment
1956 · René Brunel
Forgive Our Trespasses
1956 · (uncredited), Screenplay, Director
The Wicked Go to Hell
1955 · Fred, Director, Screenplay
Rififi
1955 · Rémi Grutter
Série noire
1955 · Jo
Quai des blondes
1954 · Chemise Rose
Maya
1949 · Un témoin du meurtre qui n'a rien vu (uncredited)
In the Eyes of Memory
1948 · A student from the Simon course
Sextette
1948
The Devil Who Limped
1948 · Guest in white (uncredited)
Series (18)
The Little Murders of Agatha Christie
2009 · Simon
Petits Meurtres en famille
2006 · Simon
Le Juge
2005 · Roger Marino
Vivement dimanche
1998 · Self
Stars 90
1990 · Self
Le Gorille
1990 · Joseph Beaucis
Téléthon
1987 · Self
Sacrée soirée
1987 · Self
Nulle part ailleurs
1987 · Self
Champs-Elysées
1982 · Self
Henry James Stories
1976 · Peter Quint
Apostrophes
1975 · Self
Spécial cinéma
1974 · Self
Midi trente
1972 · Self
Le Grand Échiquier
1972 · Self, Self - Main Guest
Samedi soir
1971 · Self
Cinépanorama
1956 · Self
Reflets de Cannes
1954 · Self