The Screen Illusion

Mathieu Amalric is a French actor and director who has appeared in both French and American films. Scheduled to play villain Dominic Greene in 2008 James Bond film Quantum of Solace, Amalric has has been described by critics as “the Antoine Doniel of the 90s” due to his on-screen personality, which tends toward tragically romantic, quirky and intellectual roles.

Amalric was born Oct. 25, 1965 to parents Jacques, a newspaper editorialist, and Nicole, a literary critic, in Hauts-de-Seine, France. He began his film career in his 20s, with a role as Julien in Les Favoris de la Lune (Favorites of the Moon), a French crime drama. During the 1990s, Amalric blossomed as a screen presence. Throughout this period, Amalric remained in French film, achieving roles in several movies including La Sentinel (The Sentinel) (1992), Le Journal du Seducteur (Diary of a Seducer) (1996) and Fin Aout, Debut Septembre (Late August, Early September) (1998).

It was also during this time period that Amalric took his first foray into directing, with 1996’s Mange Ta Soupe (Eat Your Soup), a comedy. In perhaps a semi-autobiographical series of sketches, the movie’s main character returns home to his literary critic parents and self-absorbed sister with questions about life, which are met with the careless attitude of “mange ta soupe” (stop talking and just eat). Amalric would next direct in 2001’s Le Stade de Wimbledon (Wimbledon Stadium), followed by La Chose Publique in 2003.

Directing did not distract Amalric from his acting career. He continued in movie roles, eventually crossing over into the American film scene with the Stephen Spielberg-directed Munich in 2005. The drama depicted the killing of Israeli Olympic athletes in 1972 by Black September gunmen. Considered controversial, the movie nonetheless earned Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations and brought Amalric into the U.S. film spotlight. The following year the actor appeared another American film, the Academy Award-winning Marie Antoinette.

Returning to French-produced movies, Amalric achieved what is considered to be his greatest film success to date, the dramatic role of a paralysis victim in the movie Le Scaphandre et le Papillon (the Diving Bell and the Butterfly) in 2007. The film, a memoir of Jean-Dominique Bauby, who suffered from “locked-in syndrome”, an almost total paralysis, included such unusual camera angles as as a slow opening and closing of the shutter to portray Bauby’s visual vantage point. American actor Johnny Depp was originally considered for the role. The movie met with critical acclaim and earned more than two dozen awards and nominations.

Amalric will once again appear in an American production with Quantum of Solace, the latest in the long-running James Bond movie series. The French actor will play villain Dominic Greene, who hides behind false-front company Green Planet to secretly restore a madman to political power. — http://www.mathieuamalric.net/