Mathieu Amalric

Biography: life and films

Mathieu Amalric is one of French cinema's most talented performers, a familiar face to lovers of French auteur films of the 1990s and 2000s. He was born on 25th October 1965 at Neuilly-sur-Seine, Paris, France, the son of the journalist Jacques Amalric and literary critic Nicole Zand. Amalric at first envisaged pursuing a literary career but was redirected towards cinema when the director Otar Iosseliani, a family friend, gave him his first acting job in his film Les Favoris de la lune (1984). Smitten with the film bug, Amalric then started making short films for his own amusement, whilst working for the industry in a variety of fairly menial roles. He served an apprenticeship as an assistant director with Louis Malle on Au revoir, les enfants (1987).

In 1991, Amalric came into contact with another aspiring young film director, Arnaud Desplechin, at the Festival of Angers. The two men had an immediate rapport and Desplechin invited Amalric to audition for the lead role in his first full-length film La Sentinelle (1992). Whilst Amalric did not get the part, he was compensated with a secondary role. It was director Danièle Dubroux who gave Amalric his first substantial role, in her 1996 film Le Journal du séducteur, but his big break came when Desplechin gave him the principal role in his second feature, Comment je me suis disputé (ma vie sexuelle) (1996). This role not only brought Amalric to the attention of the critics but it won him his first César, in the Most Promising Actor category.

Ever since his first César win in 1997, Amalric has been one of the most sought after actors in France, primarily by auteur filmmakers who are keen to make use of his penchant for brooding introspection and the ease with which he can give a voice to seemingly inexpressive characters. As often as not, Amalric is cast as the moody intellectual in the throes of mid-life crisis, struggling to reconcile his inner feelings with the world around him. As well as working with a number of fairly inexperienced directors, Amalric has also lent his talents to some very distinguished filmmakers - Raoul Ruiz (Généalogies d'un crime, 1996), Olivier Assayas (Fin août, début septembre, 1998), Bertrand Bonello (De la guerre, 2008) and Alain Resnais (Les Herbes folles, 2009). He had a supporting role in Steven Spielberg's Munich (2005) and in 2008 he had the honour of playing a Bond villain, in the 22nd James Bond film Quantum of Solace. Amalric's most acclaimed screen performances to date are in Arnaud Desplechin's Rois et Reine (2004) and Julian Schnabel's Le Scaphandre et le Papillon (2007), which both earned him a Best Actor César. Other notable performances are to be found in Nicolas Klotz's La Question humaine (2007) and Desplechin's Un conte de Noël (2008).

As well as being an accomplished actor, Mathieu Amalric has also proved himself to be a capable film director. In 1997, he directed his first full-length film, Mange ta soupe, which was followed by Le Stade de Wimbledon (2001), in which he cast his former real-life partner Jeanne Balibar (the mother of his first two children) in the leading role. In 2003, he directed his first television movie, La Chose publique. Amalric's third film for cinema, Tournée (2010), was critically acclaimed and won him the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival. He has since made a second television movie, L'illusion comique (2010).

Filmography

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