Mathieu Amalric

Son of Jacques Amalric, columnist at Liberation, and Nicole Zand, literary critic at Le Monde, Mathieu Amalric was asked in 1984 by Otar Iosseliani, a friend of the family, to play comedy in Les Favorites de la lune. After this first contact with the cinema (and a year of hypokhâgne), the young man, who does not intend to work as an actor, goes on filming as a props, manager or canteen. Assistant director intern on Au revoir les enfants, he also works with Monteiro and Romain Goupil.

In 1996, Mathieu Amalric rose to fame as an actor: noticed in Le Journal du seducteur, he played Paul Dedalus, the clumsy and undecided seducer of How I was disputing ... by Arnaud Desplechin, a performance for which he won. the César for Best Promising Actor in 1997. New darling of auteur cinema, he tours with Techiné (Alice and Martin), Assayas (end of August, beginning of September) or Jean-Claude Biette and becomes the traveling companion - and hiking - by the Larrieu brothers (A man, a real in 2003).

Alongside his acting activities, Mathieu Amalric distinguished himself in directing, first in 1997 with Mange ta soup, a feature film with autobiographical accents which earned him praise from Godard. Then follow Le Stade de Wimbledon (2001), a poetic and mysterious walk with Jeanne Balibar (who was his companion), La Chose publique, presented at the Directors' Fortnight in 2003. But it was in 2010 that the consecration arrived with the very burlesque Tour, presented in Cannes in official competition and awarded the Best Director's Prize, to the delight of Amalric and her star troupe of strippers.

This double hat does not prevent him from going back and forth in front of the camera: darling child of arthouse cinema, in 2004 he found Desplechin for Kings and Queen, in which he played Ismaël, a boy interned by mistake. in a psychiatric hospital, a performance hailed by a César for Best Actor. New perspectives opened up for Amalric, solicited by Claude Miller and Pascal Thomas.

In Cannes, in 2007, he is omnipresent: overwhelming as a paraplegic in Le Scaphandre et le Papillon, he is also part of the troupe brought together by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (Actresses) and plays the hero of the disturbing The Human Question. Fetish actor of filmmakers "authors" (like Damien Odoul or Bertrand Bonello), he remains above all a pillar of the Desplechin family (A Christmas tale) and integrates that of the elder Resnais (Les Herbes folles, 2009, Vous n ' haven't seen anything yet, 2012).

Despite sometimes very elitist choices, Mathieu Amalric has the particularity of not being labeled: eclectic, he participates in more accessible and fanciful projects, as when he lends his voice to the Rabbi's cat in the eponymous animated film. (2011), before appearing as a suicidal violinist in the highly hybrid Plum Chicken (id.).

In addition, the actor is able to navigate between auteur cinema and blockbusters. In France, he is thus on the bill of Mesrine: L'Ennemi public n ° 1, and his talent even crosses borders: in the space of six years, he has made a place for himself at the international level in working under the leadership of Spielberg (Munich, 2005) or Cronenberg (Cosmopolis, 2012),

Very active, Mathieu Amalric multiplies the services in original films, like The Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson or Arrête ou je continue by Sophie Fillières. In Gilles Lellouche's hilarious Le Grand Bain (2018), the 52-year-old actor regains a taste for life thanks to synchronized swimming. Liking to find the same directors, he is on the bill of Jimmy P. (Psychotherapy of an Indian of the plains) (2013), Trois souvenirs de ma jeunesse (2015) and Les Fantômes d'Ismaël (2017) by Desplechin , then to that of J'accuse (2019) by Roman Polanski, focused on the Dreyfus affair.

In addition to these numerous performances in front of the camera, Mathieu Amalric directed La Chambre bleue (2014), adapted from the novel by Georges Simenon, as well as Barbara (2017), a poetic evocation of the life of the famous singer with Jeanne Balibar in the role - title. Both are presented at the Cannes Film Festival.