Olivier Assayas

Olivier Assayas

Birth : 1955-01-25, Paris, France

History

Olivier Assayas (born January 25, 1955) is a French film director and screenwriter. He made his debut in 1986, after directing some short films and writing for the influential film magazine Cahiers du cinéma. Description above from the Wikipedia article Olivier Assayas, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Profile

Olivier Assayas
Olivier Assayas

Movies

Suspended Time
Screenplay
April 2020––Lockdown. Etienne, a film director, and his brother Paul, a music journalist, are confined together in their childhood home with their new partners Morgane and Carole. Every room, every object, reminds them of their childhood, and the memories of the absents––their parents, their neighbors… This compels them to measure the distance that separates them from each other and the roots they share, those of their ground zero. As the world around them is becoming increasingly unsettling, unreality, and even a disturbing strangeness, invades their daily gestures and actions.
Suspended Time
Producer
April 2020––Lockdown. Etienne, a film director, and his brother Paul, a music journalist, are confined together in their childhood home with their new partners Morgane and Carole. Every room, every object, reminds them of their childhood, and the memories of the absents––their parents, their neighbors… This compels them to measure the distance that separates them from each other and the roots they share, those of their ground zero. As the world around them is becoming increasingly unsettling, unreality, and even a disturbing strangeness, invades their daily gestures and actions.
Suspended Time
Director
April 2020––Lockdown. Etienne, a film director, and his brother Paul, a music journalist, are confined together in their childhood home with their new partners Morgane and Carole. Every room, every object, reminds them of their childhood, and the memories of the absents––their parents, their neighbors… This compels them to measure the distance that separates them from each other and the roots they share, those of their ground zero. As the world around them is becoming increasingly unsettling, unreality, and even a disturbing strangeness, invades their daily gestures and actions.
Lars Eidinger – To Be or Not To Be
Lars Eidinger is one of Germany’s most talented and versatile actors with his love of improvisation and physical acting style. This documentary seeks to dispel some of the mystique surrounding this exceptional actor’s unique art and also provide an exciting insight into the world of theatre and filmmaking.
The Cinematograph: Birth of an Art
Self - Filmmaker
Throughout the 19th century, imaginative and visionary artists and inventors brought about the advent of a new look, absolutely modern and truly cinematographic, long before the revolutionary invention of the Lumière brothers and the arrival of December 28, 1895, the historic day on which the first cinema performance took place.
The Emma Bovary Trial
Thanks
On January 31, 1857, the French writer Gustave Flaubert (1821-80) took his place in the dock for contempt of public morality and religion. The accused, the real one, is, through him, Emma Bovary, heroine with a thousand faces and a thousand desires, guilty without doubt of an unforgivable desire to live.
Corona Film Club
Self
Documentary about filmmaker and film lover Stig Björkman during the pandemic year of 2020 when he stay in touch with his friends over his laptop.
Wasp Network
Screenplay
Havana, Cuba, 1990. René González, an airplane pilot, unexpectedly flees the country, leaving behind his wife Olga and his daughter Irma, and begins a new life in Miami, where he becomes a member of an anti-Castro organization.
Wasp Network
Director
Havana, Cuba, 1990. René González, an airplane pilot, unexpectedly flees the country, leaving behind his wife Olga and his daughter Irma, and begins a new life in Miami, where he becomes a member of an anti-Castro organization.
SY NYC 12/12/01: The Demonlover Sessions
Self
A fly-on-the-wall documentary about the recording of the music score by Sonic Youth.
André Téchiné: A Passion for Cinema
Self - Filmmaker
A walk through the career of French filmmaker André Téchiné, from his own point of view and that of those who worked with him: Catherine Deneuve, Daniel Auteuil, Emmanuelle Béart, Juliette Binoche and Sandrine Kiberlain, among others.
Non-Fiction
Writer
Alain, a successful Parisian publisher struggling to adapt to the digital revolution, has major doubts about the new manuscript of Léonard, one of his long-time authors — another work of auto-fiction recycling his love affair with a minor celebrity. Selena, Alain’s wife, a famous stage actress, is of the opposite opinion.
Non-Fiction
Director
Alain, a successful Parisian publisher struggling to adapt to the digital revolution, has major doubts about the new manuscript of Léonard, one of his long-time authors — another work of auto-fiction recycling his love affair with a minor celebrity. Selena, Alain’s wife, a famous stage actress, is of the opposite opinion.
Searching for Ingmar Bergman
Himself - Filmmaker
A meaningful account of the personal and professional life of the great Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007) that explores his film legacy, with interviews with his closest collaborators and a new generation of filmmakers.
Aware, Anywhere
Himself
30 years after his debut, Olivier Assayas is back in New York to present his latest feature film shot in Paris, London, Prague and Oman - This portrait of the filmmaker is part of the collection « Cinéma, de notre temps » created by Janine Bazin and André S. Labarthe.
Based on a True Story
Screenplay
Delphine is the author of an autobiographical novel that has become a bestseller. Exhausted by the promotional tour, just when she feels out of place, paralyzed by the idea of having to start writing again, she meets Elle, a young, attractive, intelligent, intuitive woman who seems to understand her better than anyone.
Luchino Visconti: Between Truth and Passion
Self - Movie Director
Forty years after his death, this documentary pays tribute to one of the major filmmakers of Italian cinema, to an original work that continues to inspire today's cinema. Coming from one of the greatest families of the Italian aristocracy, he could have been a rich and cultured man, living in opulence and idleness, but Luchino wanted a different destiny. This is the story that director Elisabeth Kapnist and Christian Dumais-Lvowski wanted to tell. Count Visconti di Modrone wears the clothes of a legend that he never stopped shaping throughout his life. This documentary reconstructs the fabric of a brilliant life, dedicated to art; theater, opera, and cinema. This artistic work is also that of a committed man, who was a fellow traveler of the Communist Party, and who resisted fascism.
Personal Shopper
Dialogue
Maureen, mid-20s, is a personal shopper for a media celebrity. The job pays for her stay in Paris, a city she refuses to leave until she makes contact with her twin brother who previously died there. Her life becomes more complicated when a mysterious person contacts her via text message.
Personal Shopper
Director
Maureen, mid-20s, is a personal shopper for a media celebrity. The job pays for her stay in Paris, a city she refuses to leave until she makes contact with her twin brother who previously died there. Her life becomes more complicated when a mysterious person contacts her via text message.
Personal Shopper
Screenplay
Maureen, mid-20s, is a personal shopper for a media celebrity. The job pays for her stay in Paris, a city she refuses to leave until she makes contact with her twin brother who previously died there. Her life becomes more complicated when a mysterious person contacts her via text message.
Truffaut / Godard, scénario d'une rupture
Self
An inquiry into two of the most influencial French filmakers friendship and feud.
Hitchcock/Truffaut
Self
Filmmakers discuss the legacy of Alfred Hitchcock and the book “Hitchcock/Truffaut” (“Le cinéma selon Hitchcock”), written by François Truffaut and published in 1966.
Flowers of Taipei: Taiwan New Cinema
Self
With Taiwan remaining in the grip of martial law in 1982, a group of filmmakers from that country set out to establish a cultural identity through cinema and to share it with the world. This engaging documentary looks at the movement's legacy.
Clouds of Sils Maria
Writer
A veteran actress comes face-to-face with an uncomfortable reflection of herself when she agrees to take part in a revival of the play that launched her career 20 years earlier.
Clouds of Sils Maria
Director
A veteran actress comes face-to-face with an uncomfortable reflection of herself when she agrees to take part in a revival of the play that launched her career 20 years earlier.
Professor Goudet's Lessons
Self
Stéphane Goudet is all over the Tati box-set as the preeminent Tati scholar, so it is only fitting that he conclude the disc with a half hour lecture that concludes the themes and methods of the filmmaker.
Something in the Air
Screenplay
During the 1970s a student named Gilles gets entangled in contemporary political turmoils although he would rather just be a creative artist. While torn between his solidarity to his friends and his personal ambitions he falls in love with Christine.
Something in the Air
Director
During the 1970s a student named Gilles gets entangled in contemporary political turmoils although he would rather just be a creative artist. While torn between his solidarity to his friends and his personal ambitions he falls in love with Christine.
Une Journée particulière
Self
At the 60th anniversary of Cannes Film Festival, 34 famous directors are followed by camera.
carlos
Writer
carlos
Director
Carlos
Writer
Carlos
Director
Carlos
Screenplay
The story of Venezuelan revolutionary, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, who founded a worldwide terrorist organization and raided the OPEC headquarters in 1975 before being caught by the French police.
Carlos
Director
The story of Venezuelan revolutionary, Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, who founded a worldwide terrorist organization and raided the OPEC headquarters in 1975 before being caught by the French police.
… But Film Is My Mistress
self
Guided by Liv Ullmann and with commentaries from a number of prominent filmmakers for whom Bergman is and remains an important influence - such as Woody Allen, Olivier Assayas, Bernardo Bertolucci, Arnaud Desplechin, John Sayles, Martin Scorsese and Lars von Trier, the film provides a vivid portrait of the artist who in each new project found a challenge for himself and for the people he worked with - both actors and colleagues behind the camera.
Summer Hours
Writer
Three siblings struggle to deal with the recent death of their mother, the end of their childhoods and their unique visions for the future.
Summer Hours
Director
Three siblings struggle to deal with the recent death of their mother, the end of their childhoods and their unique visions for the future.
Eldorado
Director
Olivier Assayas’ Eldorado is a riveting documentary chronicling the efforts of Ballet Preljocaj to choreograph an otherworldly icon of 21st century music: Karlheinz Stockhausen’s ethereal Sonntags-Abschied.
Inventory
Interviewee
A documentary by Olivier Gonard, shot partly in Paris’s Musée d’Orsay, that examines Olivier Assayas' film Summer Hours, and its approach to art.
To Each His Own Cinema
Writer
A collective film of 33 shorts directed by different directors about their feeling about cinema.
To Each His Own Cinema
Director
A collective film of 33 shorts directed by different directors about their feeling about cinema.
In the Mood for Doyle
Himself
Christopher Doyle is one of the best known and most acclaimed directors of photography in world cinema. Born in Australia, he sees himself as an Asian citizen rather than a Westerner. His artistic contribution to the films of Wong Kar-wai, Zhang Jimou and Fruit Chan films, among others, is indisputable. Filmed in DV and Super8, this documentary is a kind of wild and stylized road movie -- from Bangkok to Hong Kong, via New York. The camera follows this eccentric and outrageous artist as he gives us his thoughts on his past and present work. From the recent sets of Invisible Waves by Thailand's Pen ek Ratanaruang, and M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water, to the locations in Hong Kong where he shot some of his most famous pictures, such as In The Mood for Love and Dumplings, Chris Doyle talks about his cinematic fascination for Asian culture.
Boarding Gate
Writer
A sordid and complex series of events unfolds when an ex-prostitute becomes involved with a couple in Hong Kong.
Boarding Gate
Director
A sordid and complex series of events unfolds when an ex-prostitute becomes involved with a couple in Hong Kong.
Upsurge
Director
A thief with an ambiguous relationship to a young woman steals her purse during a screening.
Paris Je T'aime
Writer
Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuaron are among the 20 distinguished directors who contribute to this collection of 18 stories, each exploring a different aspect of Parisian life. The colourful characters in this drama include a pair of mimes, a husband trying to chose between his wife and his lover, and a married man who turns to a prostitute for advice.
Paris Je T'aime
Director
Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuaron are among the 20 distinguished directors who contribute to this collection of 18 stories, each exploring a different aspect of Parisian life. The colourful characters in this drama include a pair of mimes, a husband trying to chose between his wife and his lover, and a married man who turns to a prostitute for advice.
Noise
Director of Photography
Footage from 2005’s Festival Art Rock in Saint-Brieuc, France, featuring Metric, Sonic Youth, Jeanne Balibar, and other acts.
Noise
Director
Footage from 2005’s Festival Art Rock in Saint-Brieuc, France, featuring Metric, Sonic Youth, Jeanne Balibar, and other acts.
Clean
Writer
After she ends up in prison and loses custody of her son, a woman struggles to assimilate outside her former life and remain clean long enough to regain custody of her son.
Clean
Director
After she ends up in prison and loses custody of her son, a woman struggles to assimilate outside her former life and remain clean long enough to regain custody of her son.
Making of 'demonlover'
Self
Twenty years after David Cronenberg prophesied the dark side of the Internet age in Videodrome, acclaimed French filmmaker Olivier Assayas updated it for the New Millennium in his startlingly prescient Demonlover, a chilling exploration of the nexus between sex and violence available at the click of a button.
Demonlover
Director
A French corporation goes head-to-head with an American web media company for the rights to a 3-D manga pornography studio, resulting in a power struggle that culminates in violence and espionage.
Demonlover
Writer
A French corporation goes head-to-head with an American web media company for the rights to a 3-D manga pornography studio, resulting in a power struggle that culminates in violence and espionage.
Sentimental Destinies
Screenplay
In late nineteenth century Charante, Protestant minister Jean Barnery causes local disquiet when he arranges a separation from his obsessive wife. He and his lover keep their love strong as the world changes around them.
Sentimental Destinies
Director
In late nineteenth century Charante, Protestant minister Jean Barnery causes local disquiet when he arranges a separation from his obsessive wife. He and his lover keep their love strong as the world changes around them.
HHH - Un portrait de Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Screenplay
Entry on Taiwanese new-wave filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien for French television's "Cinéma, de notre temps" series, directed by Olivier Assayas.
HHH - Un portrait de Hou Hsiao-Hsien
Director
Entry on Taiwanese new-wave filmmaker Hou Hsiao-Hsien for French television's "Cinéma, de notre temps" series, directed by Olivier Assayas.
Late August, Early September
Writer
A story about the transition from late youth to early maturity, the film follows several friends and lovers as they come to make decisions on how to live their lives--getting a job more in harmony with ones ideals, committing to a lover, giving up a lover that no longer loves you: a film about grown-ups growing up.
Late August, Early September
Director
A story about the transition from late youth to early maturity, the film follows several friends and lovers as they come to make decisions on how to live their lives--getting a job more in harmony with ones ideals, committing to a lover, giving up a lover that no longer loves you: a film about grown-ups growing up.
Alice and Martin
Writer
Twenty-year-old Martin seems to be living the dream. After moving from the French countryside to Paris, he quickly found professional success as a fashion model and romantic fulfillment in dating his half-brother's fiery roommate, Alice. Deep down, however, he is avoiding inner turmoil that stems from his tumultuous upbringing. But when Alice becomes unexpectedly pregnant, the full force of his repression is let loose, wreaking havoc on his life.
Man Yuk: A Portrait of Maggie Cheung
Director
Experimental short made by Olivier Assayas for Fondation of Contemporary Art and starring Maggie Cheung.
Irma Vep
Writer
Hong Kong action diva Maggie Cheung (playing herself) comes to France when a past-his-prime director casts her in a remake of the silent classic Les Vampires. Clad in a rubber catsuit and unable to speak a word of French, Cheung finds herself adrift in the insanity of the film industry…
Irma Vep
Director
Hong Kong action diva Maggie Cheung (playing herself) comes to France when a past-his-prime director casts her in a remake of the silent classic Les Vampires. Clad in a rubber catsuit and unable to speak a word of French, Cheung finds herself adrift in the insanity of the film industry…
Cold Water
Writer
An outer suburb of Paris, 1972. Gilles and Christine, both sixteen, are classmates and lovers who have become frustrated with the aloofness of their families and the general monotony of their lives. When the pair are caught shoplifting, Christine's father ships her off to a home for emotionally disturbed children, temporarily putting space between her and Gilles. Luckily for them, though, she escapes and the couple contemplate running away together.
Cold Water
Director
An outer suburb of Paris, 1972. Gilles and Christine, both sixteen, are classmates and lovers who have become frustrated with the aloofness of their families and the general monotony of their lives. When the pair are caught shoplifting, Christine's father ships her off to a home for emotionally disturbed children, temporarily putting space between her and Gilles. Luckily for them, though, she escapes and the couple contemplate running away together.
A New Life
Screenplay
In a shock after her mother’s sudden death, warehouse forklift driver Tina seeks out the rich, enigmatic businessman father she has never known and discovers a half-sister, Lise.
A New Life
Director
In a shock after her mother’s sudden death, warehouse forklift driver Tina seeks out the rich, enigmatic businessman father she has never known and discovers a half-sister, Lise.
François Truffaut: Stolen Portraits
Self
Documentary overview of the life of French filmmaker François Truffaut.
Paris Awakens
Writer
Adrien is 19 years old. He has not met his father, Clément for 4 years. Adrien returns home and the two try to better understand each other. Clément lives together with Louis, a twenty-something girl who wants to be an actress. The boy starts a flirt with Louise which pushes the father-son relationship back to a crisis...
Paris Awakens
Director
Adrien is 19 years old. He has not met his father, Clément for 4 years. Adrien returns home and the two try to better understand each other. Clément lives together with Louis, a twenty-something girl who wants to be an actress. The boy starts a flirt with Louise which pushes the father-son relationship back to a crisis...
Lovely Child
Writer
Maria is a sweet child. She hasn’t father and doesn’t like her mother. She has a boyfriend, A bandit who would like to change his class.
Winter's Child
Writer
Feckless aspiring architect Stéphane leaves his pregnant girlfriend for theater designer Sabine; Sabine in turn vainly attempts to overcome her violent obsession with an actor in her theater company. A game of emotional chutes and ladders ensues.
Winter's Child
Director
Feckless aspiring architect Stéphane leaves his pregnant girlfriend for theater designer Sabine; Sabine in turn vainly attempts to overcome her violent obsession with an actor in her theater company. A game of emotional chutes and ladders ensues.
Broken April
Writer
A 100-year-old family feud in Albania continues to target men for vengeful execution in this somber drama.
Disorder
Writer
Three young friends steal some music equipment for their struggling post-punk band and, in a panic, kill the shop’s owner. Assayas’ debut feature examines, with characteristic restraint and acuity, the psychological fallout as the band unravels—and each of its members grapple with their own feelings of guilt, paranoia, and despair.
Disorder
Director
Three young friends steal some music equipment for their struggling post-punk band and, in a panic, kill the shop’s owner. Assayas’ debut feature examines, with characteristic restraint and acuity, the psychological fallout as the band unravels—and each of its members grapple with their own feelings of guilt, paranoia, and despair.
Scene of the Crime
Screenplay
In the woods, a 13-year-old boy is grabbed by an escaped convict and told to bring money later that day. The boy does as he's told, only to be attacked by the convict's partner. A murder ensues, and through happenstance, the murderer and the boy's mother form an alliance. All this takes place in four days during which the boy has his first communion, his separated parents face each other amidst grandmother's hopes they'll reunite, the grandfather just wants to go fishing, the school's chaplain complains about the boy's behavior, and the convicts' shared girlfriend comes, gun in hand, to help them escape to Tangier. The mother's surprising decisions complete the story.
Passage secret
Writer
In a somewhat deflated story of robbery and deception set against the rooftops and byways of Paris, a group of enterprising petty thieves take advantage of the dog days of August to burglarize vacated apartments. At this time of year, all Parisiens are on vacation elsewhere, and the city is invaded by tourists on vacation from their own cities. In this mass rearrangement of the European population, the thieves get away with their looting until they run into an architect who catches them in the act. But his morals are nothing to brag about, as he gets more involved in what they are doing and wants some of their take. He is also smitten with one of the down-and-out women the thieves have been supporting (Dominque Laffin). As in so many French dramas, these conflicting relationships are doomed to be resolved only by tragedy.
Rendez-vous
Dialogue
Nina, young girl from the provinces discovering the capital, meets people by chance, and carries out apprenticeship of the theatre and love. Paulot first of all, reassuring figure of an ordinary man, solid as a rock. Then Quentin, a fallen actor tormented by a past drama, violent as lightning. Finally, Scrutzler, an inflexible and exhausted director who chooses Nina, throws her on the stage. A revelation is born through these three meetings. But, it is with herself that Nina has an appointment.
Rendez-vous
Screenplay
Nina, young girl from the provinces discovering the capital, meets people by chance, and carries out apprenticeship of the theatre and love. Paulot first of all, reassuring figure of an ordinary man, solid as a rock. Then Quentin, a fallen actor tormented by a past drama, violent as lightning. Finally, Scrutzler, an inflexible and exhausted director who chooses Nina, throws her on the stage. A revelation is born through these three meetings. But, it is with herself that Nina has an appointment.
Winston Tong en studio
Director
Winston Tong and collaborators are interviewed during a busy day at the recording studio.
Laissé inachevé à Tokyo
Screenplay
A young woman travels to Japan to write a novel.
Laissé inachevé à Tokyo
Director
A young woman travels to Japan to write a novel.
Rectangle: Deux Chansons de Jacno
Director
Two minimalist music videos that Assayas shot for French electro-pop star Jaco, Rectangle and Anne cherchait l'amour (featuring Elli Medeiros)
Idol's Eye
Director
A thief unknowingly steals a blue diamond from Chicago mob boss Tony Accardo, setting off a war between the two men as they both try to keep one step ahead of the FBI.