Yves Boisset Jean Vautrin was a secret kind – Le Figaro

INTERVIEW – The director, who adapted to the Heatwave screen and Blue like hell of the writer passed away on Tuesday, talks his memories with the old Prix Goncourt.

At the age of 82, the writer and screenwriter Jean Vautrin died Tuesday at his home in Gradignan near Bordeaux, announced Danielle Gain agent. He had started a film career under his real name Jean Herman, before launching in the early 1970s in the literature. Popular writer, he has been elected Goncourt prize in 1989 for the book A big step towards the Good Lord . Two of his works, Heatwave and Blue like hell , have been adapted to the big screen by Yves Boisset, in 1984 and 1986. The French director pays tribute to his colleague and friend, whom he had met there over twenty years at the table of Jean-Patrick Cuff.

LE FIGARO. – What are your memories of Jean Vautrin

Yves Boisset?. – I’ve just learned his disappearance. I saw John there just three months, he was funny, he was very intelligent. Overall, it was a very cultivated and devastating humor. He had an immense talent. Our first meeting was in there more than twenty years, at a dinner with Jean-Patrick Cuff. We got along well right away. Our collaboration for Heatwave and Blue like hell happened very naturally. It was an honor to work for him.

Do you have any anecdotes of filming with him?

Jean was a very secret, we almost never saw him on set.

Before starting a great career as a writer, he was also in the movie …

He was a great builder script and had a great sense of cinema. His film Farewell, Friend , he realized in 1968 with Alain Delon, was a huge success. He also worked with Michel Audiard, with whom he got along very well. John wrote the scenarios, Michel dialog. This is also Audiard who wrote replicas Heatwave .

Why he decided to put aside his filmmaking career?

His later life was marked by a terrible tragedy, the the birth of her autistic son. I think he left the movie business to be able to care for him as writing and directing films took him considerable time. After the birth, John became very sensitive to the plight of children. This is also felt in his works, where one notices the presence of many young people marked by the disease.