Yves Boisset

Biography: life and films

Yves Boisset was born in Paris, France, on 14th March 1939. He developed an interest in cinema at an early age and started out as a film critic, contributing articles to review magazines such as Cinéma and Midi Minuit Fantastique. In the late 1950s, he collaborated with Jean-Pierre Coursodon and Bertrand Tavernier on the book Vingt ans de cinéma américain. Boisset began his film career by working as an assistant to many eminent directors, including Yves Campi (Le Vent se lève (1959)), Jean-Pierre Melville (L'Aîné des Ferchaux (1963)), Claude Sautet (L'Arme à gauche (1965)) and René Clément (Paris brûle-t-il? (1966)). He made his directing debut in the late 1960s with two routine thrillers, Coplan sauve sa peau (1968) and Cran d'arrêt (1970).

It was with his third feature, Un condé (1970), that Boisset found his voice and used it effectively to make an outspoken attack on police methods in modern day France. This was the first in a series of provocative but mostly well-received films criticising society and those in positions of power - the judiciary, the police and politicians. Boisset acquired a reputation as a left-leaning provocateur, and his films made a valuable contribution both to the development of the neo-polar, a new kind of thriller with an overt political slant, and on-going public debates on such important subjects as the misuse of power in high places and racism.

Boisset followed his thriller L'Attentat (1972), inspired by the Ben Barka affair, with R.A.S. (1973), one of the first French films to tackle the then taboo subject of the Algerian War. Dupont Lajoie (1975), a shocking indictment of racism in contemporary France, won the Special Jury Prize at the Berlin International Film Festival in 1975, and Le Juge Fayard dit Le Shériff (1977), an attack on political involvement in the judiciary, was honoured with the Prix Louis-Delluc in 1976, whilst also giving Patrick Dewaere one of his best screen roles. La Femme flic (1980) was no less controversial, as it dealt with the subject of paedophilia.

Boisset also adapted a number of novels by some well-known authors, memorably bringing together Philippe Noiret, Charlotte Rampling, Fred Astaire and Peter Ustinov in Un taxi mauve (1977) (after a book by Michel Déon) and subjecting Marlène Jobert to a flight for her life in Folle à tuer (1975) (after Jean-Patrick Manchette). Boisset had a notable hit with La Clé sur la porte (1978), based on a novel by André Weinfeld, thanks to the inspired pairing of Annie Giradot and Patrick Dewaere. Allons z'enfants (1980) is arguably the most satisfying of Boisset's adaptations. Based on Yves Gibeau's novel, it offers a stark and damning picture of youth being forced into the army by their parents and then ending up as canon fodder. In the 1980s, Boissot mainly concerned himself with thrillers, the best of these being Espion, lève-toi (1982), Le Prix du danger (1983) (remade as The Running Man four years later with Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Canicule (1984), with Lee Marvin.

From the mid-1980s, Yves Boisset's box office appeal was on the decline so he switched to working more or less exclusively for television. Much of his made-for-television work consists of historical pieces - L'Affaire Seznec (1993), L'Affaire Dreyfus (1995) and Le Pantalon (1997). He also made a number of informative, well-researched documentaries, such as La Bataille d'Alger (2007) and Les Mystères sanglants de l'OTS (2006), an exposé of the Order of the Solar Temple. He hasn't made a film for cinema since La Tribu (1990) and his most recent television offering is 12 balles dans la peau pour Pierre Laval (2009). He published his autobiography, La Vie est un choix, in 2011.

Filmography

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