Miramax Presents The Film That Lit My Fuse is a Deadline video series that aims to provide an antidote to headlines about industry uncertainty by swinging the conversation back to the creative ambitions, formative influences and inspirations of some of today’s great screen artists.
Every installment asks the same five questions. This week’s subject is Michel Hazanavicius, the French filmmaker who won the Best Director Oscar for his Best Picture-winning The Artist. That 2011 film, shot in black and white, became the first mostly silent film to win the award since the very first Oscar ceremony in 1929, right before the talkies became the rage.
The Paris-born Hazanavicius went from commercials to his directing debut with the French telepic La Classe anericaine. He followed with Mes amis, and then OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies, which parodied the espionage genre dominated by the James Bond series. He is married to Bérénice Bejo, who starred in The Artist with Jean Dujardin.
His latest film, Final Cut, opens today in New York and Los Angeles before expanding. Pic is a remake of the Japanese cult classic One Cut of the Dead, in which a director tries to make a live, single-take, low-budget zombie film, when the cast and crew are actually becoming zombies. For Hazanavicius, it’s a blood-soaked homage to genre fare and zombie films he loves.
Find out here how the versatile filmmaker found his mojo.
