French director and scriptwriter, born on 14 March 1939. He started as a film critic, wrote for a number of journals (Cinema, Midi Minuit Fantastique), and the weekly "Les Lettres françaises". He also worked with Jean-Pierre Coursodon and Bertrand Tavernier in the first edition (1960) of "Twenty Years American Film".
His first feature film "Coplan Saves His Skin" was released in 1968. In the 1970s, his films were considered as icons of cinema of the Left, often inspired by real events: the police "The Cop" (1970) , the Ben Barka affair "The Attack" (1972), racism "The Common Man" (1975), the intrusion of politics into the court "Judge Fayard Called the Sheriff" (1977).
He also adapted several famous authors: Michel Deon "The Purple Taxi" (1977), Marie Cardinal "The Key on the Door" (1978) and Philippe Djian "Blue As Hell" (1986).
From the mid 1980s, he devoted himself almost exclusively to television, with historical achievements like: "The Seznec Affair" (1993), "The Dreyfus Affair" (1995), "The Pants" (1997), "Jean Moulin" (2002) and "The Affair Salengro" (2009). In 2011 he published his autobiography in the book "Life is A Choice".