Robert Hossein

Biography

Robert Hossein (30 December 1927 – 31 December 2020) was a French actor, director and writer whose career spanned front of and behind the camera for several decades. Outside Spain and France he is best known for adventure and espionage films, but his work as a filmmaker was more personal than that reputation suggests, and his name remains tied to French postwar theatre as well as cinema.

Hossein began directing in 1955 with Les Salauds vont en enfer, adapted from a Frédéric Dard story; Dard's novels and plays later supplied much of his screen material. From the outset he worked with a recognisable method: a seemingly simple suspense plot, often subverted to the point of dropping the expected final twist, in favour of ritualistic relationships between characters. His films are noted for a strong command of screen space and striking compositions in which the arrangement of figures and sets heightens the psychological tension of a scene. Guilt and the way it corrodes relationships recur throughout his work, a preoccupation often linked to his lifelong interest in Dostoevsky.

During the 1960s he moved between genre pictures and more ambitious projects. He enjoyed modest international success with titles such as Toi, le venin and The Vampire of Düsseldorf, but critics, particularly those associated with the New Wave, attacked the melodramatic excess of his films, and his consistency as an auteur was rarely recognised at the time. He did not shy away from变化 of tone: he directed Addio Lara, a period drama about the murder of Rasputin, and tried the spaghetti western with Cemetery Without Crosses, which he also co-wrote. In 1967 he sat on the jury of the 5th Moscow International Film Festival, and his 1982 Les Misérables won a Special Prize at the 13th edition of that festival.

Around 1970 he largely stopped directing for the cinema, turning to the theatre, where his achievements were never questioned, and he returned to feature direction only twice more. As an actor his career was longer and more varied, with roles in Rififi (1955), Venus Beauty Institute (1999) and the Angélique series, in which he played Michèle Mercier's husband. Many of his films remain unavailable commercially and are hard to see, with a few exceptions. His personal life was eventful: he married three times, first to Marina Vlady, and in 2007 he presented a play about Pope John Paul II, reflecting a Catholic faith he embraced in middle age. He died of COVID-19 in December 2020, one day after his 93rd birthday. His legacy is that of an idiosyncratic filmmaker still under-reassessed, and of a performer whose long career crossed popular genres and auteur cinema.

Key films

• Rififi (1955): his role in Jules Dassin's heist classic brought him to wider international attention.
• Angélique, marquise des anges (1964): he played Michèle Mercier's husband in the popular series.
• The Professional (1981): he appeared in Georges Lautner's thriller alongside Jean-Paul Belmondo.
• Venus Beauty Institute (1999): a role in Tonie Marshall's drama that shows his later work as an actor.
• Wax Mask (1997): he took part in Sergio Stivaletti's version of Maschera di cera.
• Witness Protection (1995): an appearance in a thriller that reflects his frequent work in suspense.