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He may have made only three films in his relatively brief life, but Cyril Collard certainly extended his "15 minutes of fame" to near cult status with the release of his last, the bold and unflinching Savage Nights (1992).

The notorious French filmmaker, actor, writer, musician and poet was born in 1957 of libertine Parisians who gave him a standard Catholic education in Versailles. Collard forsook a college science degree for a career in film and in the early 1980s finally turned his passion into a reality. He became assistant to director/writer/actor Maurice Pialat with both the film To Our Loves (1983) [To Our Loves] and several of his music videos and TV programs. Collard showed more than promise after directing two short films Grand huit (1982) and Alger la blanche (1986), the latter a frank, racially-tense study on passion and violence. His TV series Le Lyonnais (1989) (aka Taggers), in which he also composed the score, scrutinized the life of teenage graffiti artists. He was featured in the TV movie Mariage blanc (1985).

In 1986, the darkly handsome filmmaker learned he was HIV-positive. Condamne amour (1987), his first autobiographical novel, dealt with the initial awareness of his HIV status. This was turned into a short film Condamné amour (1991). Two years later came Cyril's second novel, the powerful Les nuits fauves [Savage Nights] (1989), which turned the "politically correct" look at AIDS inside out. The novel thoroughly examined his bisexuality and his defiant, unrealistic and irresponsible perception and handling of his disease.

The movie version Savage Nights (1992), which he directed, was released in 1992 with Collard himself playing the protagonist -- a hedonistic and self-important filmmaker with an insatiable sexual appetite who insists on living his prurient lifestyle to the absolute hilt despite his HIV illness, with tragic consequences. This bleak, uncompromising piece both enraptured and enraged the French audience and would become Collard's biggest film achievement. The critics applauded his braveness and controversial approach to such a taboo subject. With Savage Nights (1992), Collard became the first artist ever to be nominated for the three top categories of the French "Cesar" Awards -- Best Film, Best Director and Best First Film. The film won an amazing four awards -- Best Film, Best First Film, Best Editing and Best Female Newcomer (Romane Bohringer).

Not so ironically, Collard himself died of AIDS at 35 on March 5, 1993, only a few days before he was to reap his film awards. A posthumous book entitled "L'ange sauvage" and collection of Collard's poetry "L'animal" were published in 1994. He co-wrote the screenplay for the urban drama Rai (1995), which was released posthumously.

The controversy unleashed by his autobiographical book and film &quot;Savage
Nights&quot; was compounded after the actual woman on whom the female
character of Laura is based, became infected, contracted AIDS and died.

It was not vanity that had him playing the 1992 autobiographical role
of bisexual Jean in &quot;Savage Nights.&quot; No other French actor was willing
to touch such a risky, career-threatening part.

Trivia

Cyril Collard

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