French actor and director Mathieu Kassovitz is in a “worrying” condition after a motorbike accident in greater Paris on Sunday, authorities say.
The 56-year-old, who is best known for his 1995 film La Haine and his role in 2001 film Amélie, was on a motorcycle training course at the time, a police source told Agence France-Presse.
French media reported he was preparing for a role in an upcoming film when he was “very seriously injured”, including head trauma and a fractured pelvis.
One of his daughters was on a motorcycle behind him with an instructor, and witnessed the accident, Le Parisien reported.
Kassovitz was taken to hospital in Kremlin-Bicêtre, according to authorities in Essonne, south of the French capital.
Kassovitz wrote, directed and starred in La Haine at the age of 27, alongside Vincent Cassel, Hubert Koundé and Saïd Taghmaoui. The film follows three men over 24 hours after a riot in Paris and won Kassovitz the best director prize at Cannes film festival. It also won the César for best film, France’s equivalent of the Oscars.
Kassovitz also starred as the love interest Nino in Amélie; a Mossad explosives expert in Steven Spielberg’s Munich; and more recently as the lead in French spy thriller series The Bureau, which has been a hit around the world.
His most recent film, Visions, sees him play the husband of Diane Kruger, an airline pilot who begins to have an affair with her ex-girlfriend. The film premiered at the Angoulême Francophone film festival two weeks ago.
Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.