Mathieu Kassovitz

Mathieu Kassovitz is a filmmaker who has enjoyed considerable popular success with French audiences, but has divided French critics. Although his often controversial films have provoked substantial interest from academics, to date, published work on Kassovitz has focused almost exclusively on his breakthrough film: La Haine (1995). This volume attempts to redress such a critical imbalance by offering the first book-length study in either English or French of Kassovitz's entire output since the early 1990s and considering his global ambitions as a filmmaker. In a new departure for the French Film Directors series, it also analyses Kassovitz’s work as an actor.

The book contextualizes Kassovitz as a ‘popular’ filmmaker and, in so doing, argues that his films must be understood in relation to key shifts that have taken place in French popular culture over the last two decades. Through a detailed analysis of individual films, it suggests that Kassovitz's cinema functions as both a site of tension and a point of intersection for debates surrounding the current state of French cinema (in particular its relationship to Hollywood) and a broader range of controversial socio-political issues (such as racism, exclusion and violence) affecting contemporary France.

Contents
List of plates
Series Editors’ foreword
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. The Popular polemicist
2. Social struggles in the popular sphere
3. Postmodern social fables
4. Interfacing with Hollywood
5. Kassovitz: the actor/auteur
Conclusion
Filmography
Select bibliography
Index