Yves Boisset was a French director who cut his teeth as an assistant on films by Jean-Pierre Melville, René Clément, Sergio Leone, and others. As a director, he was known for his fiery thrillers with far-leftist political bents. His films were often controversial, if not outright banned. Kino Lorber has brought four of his films together in one wonderful package.
Buy Malfeasance: Four Films by Yves BoissetAngel’s Leap (1971) begins with a literal bang. A man on a bicycle rolls up to a car and throws a bomb inside. The target was a man who would most likely win the upcoming elections in Marseilles. Soon after, the man’s brother is killed. A third brother, Louis Orsini (Jean Yanne), has nothing to do with politics, but runs a successful business in Thailand with his wife and daughter. When they are killed, he heads to Marseilles for revenge.
Sterling Hayden plays an FBI agent assisting the French police investigating the murders of the Orsini brothers. He does his dialogue in French, which is as weird as that sounds. Also along for the ride are Senta Berger and Gordon Mitchell.
This is the most entertaining film of the bunch, and the most thrilling. There are some good bits of action, including a scene in Thailand where a dude gets both his legs blasted by a pistol and then is left alone with a cobra.
Mad Enough to Kill (1975) is much slower and more psychological. Julie Ballenger (Marlène Jobert) has spent the last five years in a psychiatric clinic. She is hired by Stephane Mostri (Michael Lonsdale) to look after his young ward, Thomas (Thomas Waintrop). While taking a walk in the park, they are kidnapped by Thompson (Tomas Milian). He forces Julie to type out a ransom note and send it to Stephane. This way she’ll get blamed, and who would ever believe a former psych patient if she says differently?
They manage to escape, but now her face is all over the news, and she has a fear of cops, so she just runs. Jobert is terrific, as is the little kid. Boisset puts us right into Julie’s mindset, as she’s tormented throughout the entire film. Even before the kidnapping, Mostri’s chauffeur is constantly sexually harassing her. Poor girl never has a moment’s rest.
The Woman Cop (1980) is a bit like Prime Suspect if Jane Tennyson ever got transferred to the countryside. Inspector Corinne Levasseur (Miou-Miou) gets into trouble when she interviews a suspected drug dealer, who happens to be the mayor’s son, without the judge’s consent. She’s transferred to a northern mining town where she’s treated with contempt by most of her colleagues and must face rampant sexism by her boss.
When a young child is found molested and dead, fingers immediately point to an old homosexual and former Nazi collaborator, but Levasseur isn’t buying it. The more she investigates, the more she uncovers a sinister child-sex ring probably run by a prominent businessman. But the powers that be try and shut her down at every turn.
Miou-Miou gives a fine, understated performance, and Boisset really twists the knife into how the rich and powerful are nothing but horrible scumbags either directly participating in or covering up the most heinous of crimes. Considering all that’s going on around us right now, this one hit pretty hard.
Rise Up, Spy (1982) is something like a French version of The Manchurian Candidate, with the great Lino Ventura portraying Sébastien Grenier, a mild-mannered businessman working in Zurich who’s actually a sleeper agent. When a man is executed on a tram by leftist terrorists, he’s awakened.
A man named Chance (Michael Piccoli) keeps showing up, acting like Grenier’s handler, but Grenier doesn’t really remember him or trust him. Later, a guy played by Bruno Cremer shows up stating that Chance is actually working for the Russians and Grenier ought to be careful.
Grenier spends most of the time confused as to what’s going on around him. I have to admit I felt the same. Like a lot of spy films, the plotting is complicated, with clouds forming around every other character as to who they are and who they work for.
The first two-thirds are pretty slow, but then something happens, and Grenier leaps into action, pushing us into an intense finale.
I had never heard of Yves Boisset before this set landed on my doorstep. I can’t say that these four films have turned me into a huge fan. These films are all good, but none of them really stood out to me. Certainly, when I come across another one of his films, I’ll watch it, but I’ll not likely seek them out. But if you are a fan, then this is a very nice boxed set.
Kino Lorber presents Angel’s Leap, Mad Enough To Kill, and The Woman Cop with new 4K scans. Rise Up, Spy comes from a previous 2K scan.
Extras include:
- Audio Commentary for Angels’ Leap by Mystery Writer and Filmmaker Max Allan Collins with Film Historian and Host of Cereal at Midnight Podcast Heath Holland
- Audio Commentaries for Man Enough to Kill and The Woman Cop by Film Historians Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson
- Audio Commentary for Rise Up, Spy by Howard S. Berger and Nathaniel Thompson
