4 Interfacing with Hollywood
-
Will Higbee
Abstract
The release of Assassins in France in 1997 was to prove a defining moment in Mathieu Kassovitz's directorial career. The film's intensely polemical stance, its more experimental approach, combined with a wholly negative worldview and graphic depiction of violence, effected, for the first time, a conscious distancing by Kassovitz from his popular audience. The degree of negative and often highly personal criticism directed at Assassins, following on from the tense and pressured conditions under which the film had been completed in time for the Cannes festival, led Kassovitz to the verge of depression and nervous exhaustion. The version of Les Rivières pourpres adapted for the screen by Kassovitz and Grangé focuses squarely on the parallel investigations of two police detectives. The policier has, moreover, always formed the natural point of interface between French and American cinema.
Abstract
The release of Assassins in France in 1997 was to prove a defining moment in Mathieu Kassovitz's directorial career. The film's intensely polemical stance, its more experimental approach, combined with a wholly negative worldview and graphic depiction of violence, effected, for the first time, a conscious distancing by Kassovitz from his popular audience. The degree of negative and often highly personal criticism directed at Assassins, following on from the tense and pressured conditions under which the film had been completed in time for the Cannes festival, led Kassovitz to the verge of depression and nervous exhaustion. The version of Les Rivières pourpres adapted for the screen by Kassovitz and Grangé focuses squarely on the parallel investigations of two police detectives. The policier has, moreover, always formed the natural point of interface between French and American cinema.
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of plates vi
- Series editors’ foreword vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Dedication x
- Introduction 1
- 1 The popular polemicist 6
- Plates 46
- 2 Social struggles in the popular sphere 49
- 3 Postmodern social fables 95
- 4 Interfacing with Hollywood 127
- 5 Kassovitz 172
- Conclusion 202
- Filmography 205
- Select bibliography 211
- Index 217
Chapters in this book
- Front matter i
- Contents v
- List of plates vi
- Series editors’ foreword vii
- Acknowledgements ix
- Dedication x
- Introduction 1
- 1 The popular polemicist 6
- Plates 46
- 2 Social struggles in the popular sphere 49
- 3 Postmodern social fables 95
- 4 Interfacing with Hollywood 127
- 5 Kassovitz 172
- Conclusion 202
- Filmography 205
- Select bibliography 211
- Index 217
