RIP Yves Boisset

 

Director Yves Boisset ("Dupont Lajoie") dies at the age of 86

TFI Info

March 31, 2025

 

Director Yves Boisset, who marked the 1970s with politically engaged films, died on Monday at the age of 86, his family told AFP. The filmmaker, who very often defied censorship with landmark films of the 1970s, such as The Attack on the Ben Barka Affair, R.A.S on the Algerian War or Dupont Lajoie on ordinary racism, had been treated for several days at the Franco-British hospital of Levallois-Perret in the Hauts-de-Seine, where he died.

A left-wing filmmaker, inspired by real events, considering each film as a struggle, he intended to denounce "stupidity, of which racism is a specific variant" and "seek the truth". After twenty feature films, he abandoned cinema in 1991 in favour of television, keeping intact a desire – "bordering on recklessness", according to one critic – to do battle with injustices.

A committed director

Born on March 14, 1939 in Paris, this film graduate did his military service in Algeria. He then worked as a journalist for the monthly magazine Cinéma and as an assistant to directors such as Jean-Pierre Melville and Vittorio de Sica. His first film in 1968 was a nice B movie, Coplan Saves His Skin. He then changed gears, making 10 films in ten years. And not dwarfs! First, Un condé (1970), with Michel Bouquet, a dark portrait of the police. "From there, the trouble (with censorship) began," he said.

In 1972, it was L'Attentat, with Jean-Louis Trintignant, inspired by the assassination in France of the Moroccan opponent Mehdi Ben Barka. The film attacks the Gaullist government. The crew is banned from filming on several locations.

He took up the Algerian war

A year later, R.A.S ("Rien à reporter") was released. He was one of the first filmmakers to take up the Algerian War. A story of insubordination that the then far-right leader, Jean-Marie Le Pen, and his friends said all the bad things they thought. The censors demanded that the torture scenes be shortened. Reels were stolen during filming, and funding was blocked several times. Regardless, R.A.S is a public success.

In 1975, his most famous film, Dupont Lajoie, was released, based on racist murders in Marseille committed a few years earlier. Jean Carmet bursts onto the screen. Fights and intimidation by the far right took place during the filming and theatrical release. Screenings are cancelled.

Heroes who want to make the truth triumph

Tireless, in 1977 he directed Le Juge Fayard dit le Shériff, with Patrick Dewaere, based on the assassination of Judge François Renaud. "It's the story of a guy – it's going to be more or less the same subject in most of my films – who is desperately looking for the truth to triumph and who is going to pay for it," sums up Yves Boisset.

Charles Pasqua's SAC (Service d'action civique, service d'ordre gaulliste) obtained from the courts that any mention of the organization disappear from the film. The team punches the soundtrack, replacing the word "SAC" with a beep-beep. Result: "Every time the spectators hear it, they start shouting 'BAG: murderer!' This gave the film a great publicity effect," he rejoiced.

Tired of fighting, he stopped acting in 1991

Screenwriter of his films, he also directed Spy, Rise Up (with Lino Ventura), Canicule (with Lee Marvin) and Blue as Hell (with Lambert Wilson). One of his main successes is Un taxi mauve (with Philippe Noiret and Charlotte Rampling). Tired of being constantly put in the way, he stopped acting in 1991: "I tried to survive by making TV movies that were often films that reflected obvious social concerns."

In 1993, he directed The Seznec Affair, in 1995 The Dreyfus Affair, in 1997 The Pants (about those shot for the example of the 14-18 war), in 2006 The Bloody Mysteries of the Order of the Solar Temple and, in 2009, The Salengro Affair. A work that has been rewarded several times.

Passionate about athletics during his youth, this father of three children published his memoirs in 2011, La Vie est un choix. In it, he accused – for which he was convicted of defamation – the former Socialist minister Michel Charasse of having carried out a tax audit during the preparation of an embarrassing film for President François Mitterrand on the arms trade. A film that was never made.

BOISSET, Yves (Yves Félix Claude Boisset)

Born: 3/14/1939, Paris, Île-de-France, France

Died: 3/31/2025, Levallois-Perret, Île-de-France, France

 

Yves Boisset’s westerns – assistant director, director.

Death at Owell Rock – [assistant director]

Red River (TV) – 1995 [director]