Mathieu Kassovitz, a French actor and director, is in a “worrying” condition following a motorbike accident in the greater Paris area on Sunday, according to authorities. A police source told Agence France-Presse that the 56-year-old actor, who was best known for his role in the 1995 film La Haine and his role in the 2001 film Amรฉlie, was taking a motorcycle training course at the time of the accident.
According to French media, the actor was preparing for a role in an upcoming movie when he wasย “very seriously injured,”ย as he was reportedly suffering head trauma and a fractured pelvis as a result of his injuries. One of his daughters, who was riding behind him with an instructor on a motorcycle, witnessed the accident,ย Le Parisien reported. Kassovitz has been transported to the Kremlin-Bicรชtre hospital, according to French authorities in Essonne, south of the capital of France.ย
Videos by PopCulture.com
People close to him toldย AFPย Monday that Kassovitz has undergone surgery for injuries to his ankle, leg, and pelvis. “The operations went well,” said Peter Kassovitz, the actor’s father and a Hungarian-born director, in a statement released by his agent. “Mathieu will begin a normal process of healing, rest, and returning to fitness.” Kassovitz, according to people close to him, was wearing a helmet at the time of the accident and did not sustain any head injuries as a result. Local prosecutors and police have launched an investigation into the cause of the accident.
According to his comments on a motoring program on French television in 2019, Kassovitz told the audience that he had perceived himself more as an intellectual than a sportsman but had acquired a passion for motorbikes later in life after getting his license at the age of 40 and immediately using large motorcycles. As he told the program onย RMC Dรฉcouverte: “I like machines, I like the technicality of managing to handle them.”ย
During his youth, Kassovitz wrote and directed the filmย La Haineย at age 27. The film is about three men in Paris, played by Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundรฉ, and Saรฏd Taghmaoui, who are followed over a period of 24 hours after a Paris riot. This movie won Kassovitz the Cannes Film Festival award for the best director award. Moreover, this film won the Cรฉsar Award for Best Film, the French equivalent of the Oscars.
The filmย Rebellion, which he starred in and directed in 2011, is based on a true story about French commandos clashing with tribes in New Caledonia, the Melanesian territory of France. Kassovitz has played a range of roles, including the love interest Nino inย Amรฉlie, a Mossad explosives expert inย Steven Spielberg‘sย Munich, and more recently as the lead in the French spy thriller seriesย The Bureau, which was a worldwide hit. In his latest film, Visions, he portrays the husband ofย Diane Kruger, who plays an airline pilot who begins an affair with her ex-girlfriend. The film premiered at the Angoulรชme Francophone Film Festival two weeks ago.
