His real-life upbringing provides plenty of raw material for his craft. The grandson of Hungarian-Jewish concentration-camp survivors, Kassovitz was raised in the run-down working-class Parisian neighborhood of Belleville. He hung out in suburban public-housing projects like Chanteloup, where he later filmed “Hate.” Like his father, French television director Peter Kassovitz, he loved movies, and spent his days at the cinema watching American action pictures like “Lethal Weapon” and “Terminator.” Straight out of high school, young Kassovitz worked as a film-set assistant. At 18, he acted in one of his father’s movies and began to make short films himself. In 1993, he directed his first feature, “Cafe au Lait,” a charming romantic comedy about an interracial love triangle. (He later married its star, Julie Mauduech, and they just had their first child.) “Cafe au Lait” was showcased at the New York Film Festival, where critics compared it enthusiastically to Spike Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It.”
His reputation as a serious and promising filmmaker only grew with “Hate,” the story of three teenage pals–a black, an Arab and a Jew–who roam the streets smoking dope, fighting with the police and beating up skinheads. It so stirred the French social conscience that President Jacques Chirac sent Kassovitz a letter of congratulations, and the then Prime Minister Alain Juppe set up a screening for his cabinet. At the time, Kassovitz sniped, “Fine, go, see the film. But if you really want to do something, go in these neighborhoods, without the comfort of the movie theater and the popcorn. Go see what it’s really like.”
Since then, Kassovitz has mellowed a bit. His new maturity is evident in his work, from his most recent directorial effort, last year’s “The Crimson Rivers,” a murder mystery-thriller set in the Alps, to his acting, particularly in “Amelie.” At the same time, he is becoming more and more recognizable everywhere he goes. Butterworth recalls seeing Kassovitz last May at a nightclub in Cannes, where the actor served on the annual film festival’s jury. “People went crazy over him, yelling his name, queuing up to get his autograph,” says Butterworth. “That’s when I realized what a huge star he is in France, and what his potential is. He’s so multitalented. He could do anything.” Moviegoers around the globe may soon reach the same conclusion.
