Michel Hazanavicius

Director

• Born: March 29, 1967
• Place of Birth: Paris, France

Contribution: Michel Hazanavicius is an Academy Award-winning director best known for his French spy parodies and his critically acclaimed silent film The Artist (2011).

Background

Michel Hazanavicius was born in Paris, France, on March 29, 1967, to a Jewish Lithuanian family. His four grandparents had left Eastern Europe in the 1920s, fleeing from the growing persecution of Jewish people, and settled in France. When World War II broke out, Hazanavicius's family hid in the French countryside during the Nazi occupation of France. Some of his family survived imprisonment in the concentration camps.

Hazanavicius shared his passion for the dramatic arts with his older brother, Serge, who became an actor. In 1988, after attending art school, Hazanavicius began writing sketches for the comedy troupe Les Nuls (The Dummies) on the French television network Canal+. He later directed various television commercials for products such as Reebok sneakers and Bouygues Telecom mobile phones. He gained much attention for his 1992 short film Derrick contre Superman (Derrick versus Superman), which comprises edited footage from a variety of old American and European television shows that has been dubbed over and assembled to tell the story of a bumbling detective's attempt to start a television network. Also in 1992, Hazanavicius wrote and directed the animated television movie Ça détourne (It diverts).

Career

Hazanavicius continued to demonstrate his talent for paying homage to films and television shows of the past with his 1993 film La classe américaine (The American class), codirected with Dominique Mézerette. The film is a comedic spoof of Citizen Kane (1941), which is considered to be one of the most iconic movies of all time. For La classe américane, Hazanavicius used clips from the film library of Warner Bros. Studios, stitching together shots from such Hollywood classics as The Crimson Pirate (1952) and All the President's Men (1976) and dubbing over them in French. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Hazanavicius focused his talents on screenwriting, producing material for comedies featuring the actor Yvan Attal, including Delphine 1, Yvan 0 (1996). In 1997, he directed the short film Échec au capital (Failure of Capital), a comedy about Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

Hazanavicius made his big-screen directorial debut in 1999 with Mes amis (My friends), a comedic crime film starring Attal and Hazanavicius's brother, Serge. He then continued working in the advertising world until 2004, when he co-wrote Lucky Luke and the Daltons, a western comedy based on the French comic strip Lucky Luke. On the set, Hazanavicius met Jean Dujardin, an actor with whom he would frequently collaborate from then on.

Next, Hazanavicius wrote and directed his second feature, OSS 117: Le Caire, nid d'espions (OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies). Released in 2006, the film is a spoof of 1960s spy movies, specifically of the fictional spy OSS 117, a character originally created by French crime author Jean Bruce. Dujardin stars in the film as the titular inept spy; Bérénice Bejo has a supporting role. Critics praised the film's tongue-in-cheek humor and Hazanavicius's attention to filmmaking techniques of the time period parodied in the film, such as the use of rear projection during driving scenes. The film was a financial success and led to a 2009 sequel, OSS 117: Rio ne répond plus (OSS 117: Lost in Rio).

The commercial and critical success of the OSS 117 films gave Hazanavicius the opportunity to begin developing the homage to the silent films of the 1920s that he longed to create. He started by comprehensively researching the silent films and melodramas of the period to understand how directors used images rather than dialogue to advance a story line. He decided that for this film project he would reunite Dujardin and Bejo, who had turned out to be such an effective pair in the first OSS 117 film.

The resulting film was The Artist (2011), a movie that would bring Hazanavicius international recognition and accolades. Dujardin stars as a renowned leading man during the silent-film era whose career takes a sharp decline due to the emergence of "talkie" pictures with sound. Aside from the story, the film is also a charming homage to the silent era, complete with a grand finale dance number performed by Dujardin and Bejo. The film also features several American actors, including John Goodman and James Cromwell.

The Artist was an immense hit and one of the most popular films of 2011. It won top prizes at several festivals, including the coveted Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Hazanavicius also took home numerous directing awards, earning the BAFTA, César, and Independent Spirit Awards for best director. The many accolades culminated at the Academy Awards in 2012, where The Artist won five Oscars, including the awards for best director and best picture. Hazanavicius stated that he was very surprised at the attention the film received.

Hazanavicius's next project was directing a segment of the anthology film The Players (Les Infidèles), which also featured Dujardin. He then directed a remake of Fred Zinnemann's Academy Award–winning 1948 film The Search, a drama set in post-World War II Europe and starring Montgomery Clift. Hazanavicius's version starred Bejo and Annette Bening and updated the setting to the Second Chechen War. Despite some praise for its cinematography, the film overall was poorly received, with many reviewers criticizing it as overly sentimental or simplistic. In 2017, Hazanavicius released Le Redoubtable (known as Godard Mon Amour for US release), which he both wrote and directed. The film, which also features Bejo in a supporting role, is a romance based on noted filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard's relationship with young actor Anne Wiazemsky. It earned a mixed critical response.

Hazanavicius kept up a busy schedule in the early 2020s, both writing and directing a string of new films that included The Lost Prince (2020), Final Cut (2022), and The Most Precious of Cargoes (2024).

Impact

Hazanavicius became an international success with his silent film The Artist. After making several films in his native France that borrowed heavily from early Hollywood films, he managed to transform his love of this era into a globally celebrated film. The Artist became one of the most awarded French films of all time. In 2012, Hazanavicius was elected president of the Société Civile des Auteurs-Réalisateurs-Producteurs (French Civil Society of Authors, Directors, and Producers) and was also invited as a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Personal Life

Hazanavicius married Bérénice Bejo, who starred in The Artist. Together they had two children, Lucien and Gloria. Hazanavicius also had two children, Simone and Fantine, from a previous relationship.

Bibliography

Balfour, Brad. "Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist Goes beyond Words & Wins Awards." Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 24 Jan. 2012. Web. 26 July 2013.

Berrin, Danielle. "Is Silence Golden? An Interview with The Artist's Michel Hazanavicius." Jewish Journal. Tribe Media, 16 Feb. 2012. Web. 26 July 2013.

Corliss, Richard. "The OSS 117 Films: Michel Hazanavicius' Warmup for The Artist." Time. Time, 17 Feb. 2012. Web. 26 July 2013.

Hazanavicius, Michel. Interview by Jason Guerrasio. AV Club. Onion, 23 Nov. 2011. Web. 26 July 2013.

"Michel Hazanavicius." IMDb, 2024, www.imdb.com/name/nm0371890. Accessed 20 Sept. 2024.

"Michel Hazanavicius." Rotten Tomatoes, 2024, www.rottentomatoes.com/celebrity/michel-hazanavicius. Accessed 20 Sept. 2024.

Richford, Rhonda. "Michel Hazanavicius Defends French Position on Cultural Exception in US-EU Trade Talks." Hollywood Reporter. Hollywood Reporter, 18 June 2013. Web. 26 July 2013.

Robinson, George. "The Artist Director's Nod to Billy Wilder." Jewish Week. Jewish Week, 27 Dec. 2011. Web. 26 July 2013.