Cyril Collard, a renowned French filmmaker, actor, writer, musician, and poet, lived a life that was marked by his bold and unflinching approach to his craft. Born in 1957 to libertine Parisians, Collard was given a traditional Catholic education in Versailles, but he forsook a college science degree to pursue a career in film.
In the early 1980s, Collard turned his passion into a reality, becoming an assistant to director and writer Maurice Pialat on several projects. He then went on to direct two short films, Grand huit and Alger la blanche, the latter of which was a frank and racially-tense study on passion and violence.
Collard's TV series, Le Lyonnais, which he also composed the score for, scrutinized the life of teenage graffiti artists, while he was also featured in the TV movie Mariage blanc. In 1986, he learned he was HIV-positive, and this experience inspired his first autobiographical novel, Condamné amour, which was later turned into a short film.
Two years later, Collard published his second novel, Les nuits fauves, which turned the "politically correct" look at AIDS inside out, examining his bisexuality and his defiant and unrealistic perception of his disease. The novel was a powerful and unflinching portrayal of his experiences, and it would later serve as the basis for his film, Savage Nights.
Released in 1992, Savage Nights was a bold and unflinching film that both enraptured and enraged the French audience. Collard played the protagonist, a hedonistic and self-important filmmaker who insists on living his prurient lifestyle despite his HIV illness, with tragic consequences. The film was a critical and commercial success, and it earned Collard several awards, including four Cesar Awards.
Tragically, Collard himself died of AIDS at the age of 35, just a few days before he was to receive his awards. A posthumous book, L'ange sauvage, and a collection of his poetry, L'animal, were published in 1994.
