Yves Boisset

Yves Boisset was born 14 March 1939, in Paris, France. His parents were teachers, with his mother teaching the German language and his father teaching literature.^[2] Boisset was raised on a farm. When Boisset was 8, his younger brother died after overdosing on medication left out by his grandmother, leading to strife within his family.^[2] Boisset was educated at Lycée Louis-le-Grand^[2] and studied at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC). He disliked the strict atmosphere of the school and left, not graduating.^[2][3] Boisset's first job was as a crime reporter for Paris-Jour in the late 1950s. He began writing for film magazines.^[2][4][5]

Boisset directed his first film in 1968, Coplan Saves His Skin.^[2] Many of his films focused on police, politics, and the criminal justice system.^[4][6] His films were known for their controversial releases,^[7][6] and he for his left-wing political views^[8] and legal and political issues.^[4] He was labeled "the most censored man in France",^[1] and declared himself the most censored filmmaker of the Fifth Republic.^[2] He was arrested multiple times in several different countries during the production of his films.^[4] His 1972 film about the Algerian war, R.A.S., led to violent threats against him was withdrawn from circulation.^[1] His 1972 film The Assassination entered into the 8th Moscow International Film Festival where it won the Silver Prize.^[9] He sued Arnold Schwarzenegger and 20th Century Fox over The Running Man, which he believed had plagiarized his film Le prix du danger.^[4][7] He won the lawsuit.^[10]

Boisset went on to direct several television films.^[2] He directed several investigative documentaries.^[2] In 2006, Boisset directed Les Mystères sanglants de l'OTS, a documentary on the Order of the Solar Temple, a French organization, widely described as a cult, notorious for their mass suicides and murders in the 1990s. Boisset found the official investigation unsatisfactory, and believed a wider conspiracy was at work.^[11][12][13]

In 2011, he published an autobiography, La vie est un choix (transl. Life is a Choice).^[2][7][1] He was afterwards sued for defamation due to the contents of the book.^[4]

Boisset died on 31 March 2025, at the age of 86.^[14] He had been in hospital care in Levallois-Perret for a few days.^{[2][15][16][17]}

• Boisset, Yves (2011). La vie est un choix [Life is a Choice] (in French). Paris: Plon. ISBN 978-2-259-21312-7.