06/04/2006

Three years after his companion Monica Bellucci had the honour, Vincent Cassel will be the official master of ceremonies of the 59th edition of the Cannes Film Festival (May 17-28).

The French actor, who succeeds this honour from Belgian actress Cécile de France, has already participated twice in official competition at Cannes, with Hate by Mathieu Kassovitz in 1995 (winner of the Best Director Award) and Irreversible by Gaspard Noé in 2002.

Cassel (39) started his career in 1989 and has since then appeared in approximately thirty features, most notably in Dobermann by Jan Kounen, Jeanne d'Arc by Luc Besson, Crimson Rivers by Mathieu Kassovitz, Brotherhood of the Wolf by Christophe Gans, Read My Lips [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Jacques Audiard, and Spy Bound by Frédéric Schoendoerffer.

In the past two years Vincent Cassel has acted in US productions, such as Ocean's Twelve by Steven Soderbergh and Derailed by Mika Hafström. Also on his slate is Public Enemy No. 1 by Jean-François Richet, in which he plays gangster Jacques Mesrine, and, last but not least, Babylon A.D. by Mathieu Kassovitz, whose cast remains a secret for the moment.

(Translated from French)