Yann Moix

Yann Moix (French pronunciation: [jan mwaks], [mwɑks]; born 31 March 1968) is a French author, film director and media commentator. The author of fifteen novels and the recipient of several literary prizes, he has also directed two feature films, including the box-office hit Podium (2004).

Beyond his writing and filmmaking, Moix is a highly visible figure in the French media, including a stint as columnist on the talk show On n'est pas couché. However, his career has been marked by various public controversies that have at times overshadowed his works.

Early life and education

Yann Moix was born on 31 March 1968 in Nevers, France to a French family of Catalan descent. He is a first cousin once removed of Spanish authors Terenci Moix and Ana María Moix. His younger brother, Alexandre Moix, is also an author and filmmaker.

Moix earned a bachelor's degree in Philosophy from the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne and graduated from the École supérieure de commerce de Reims. He subsequently graduated from Sciences Po.

Career

Moix is the author of several novels. He won the Prix Goncourt for first novel, as well as the Prix François Mauriac from the Académie Française, for Jubilations vers le ciel in 1996. In 2013, he won the Prix Renaudot for Naissance.

In 2004, Moix directed the comedy film Podium, based on one of his novels. The film was a major commercial success in France. On the contrary, his second feature film, Cinéman, flopped in 2009 at the French box office and was panned by most critics. In 2017, Moix directed Re-Calais, a documentary about the migrant crisis in the Calais area.

From 2008 to 2013, Moix wrote a weekly column in the literary supplement of Le Figaro. Between 2015 and 2018, he was a panelist on the talk show On n'est pas couché. From 2018 to 2019 he hosted his own talk show, Chez Moix, on Paris Première. He is a regular contributor to Europe 1's morning show and a panelist on the debate show L'Heure des pros on CNews. A close friend of Bernard-Henri Lévy, Moix is a contributor to La Règle du jeu, a magazine created by Lévy.

Moix's autobiographical novel Orléans, about the abuse he said he had endured as a child, was a commercial success in France in 2019. It was followed by three other autobiographical novels, Reims (2021), Verdun and Paris (both 2022).

Controversies

In 2009, Moix signed a petition in support of film director Roman Polanski, calling for his release after Polanski was arrested in Switzerland in relation to his 1977 charge for drugging and raping a 13-year-old girl.

In 2010, Moix signed a petition against the Gayssot Act created by a friend of his, Holocaust denier Paul-Éric Blanrue, stating that Robert Faurisson and Serge Thion were "serious, intelligent, though delirious revisionists".

In January 2019, Moix's comments about women his own age caused outrage on social media in France. In an interview with the French edition of the women's magazine Marie Claire, Moix commented that women in their 50s were “invisible” to him and that he preferred "younger women's bodies." He added that he preferred dating Asian women, particularly if they are Korean, Chinese or Japanese.

In August 2019, his novel Orléans was published to critical acclaim, but several critics expressed doubt about its content. The book, despite being presented as a novel, was made to look heavily autobiographical, implying that Yann Moix actually endured as a young boy what the protagonist goes through. The book is laced with loathing for the narrator's parents, with Moix positioning himself between the lines as a real-life long-suffering victim who finally dares to tell the truth. Moix's parents disputed those allegations and his younger brother, who is not mentioned in the novel, claimed that some of the severe incidents depicted in the book actually took place between himself and his brother, with Yann Moix as the tormentor.

In the middle of this controversy, the French magazine L'Express revealed on 26 August 2019 that Yann Moix, who has always positioned himself as a staunch defender of the Jewish cause and of ill-treated minorities as a whole, had contributed as a student to a holocaust denying and antisemitic non-professional magazine. At first, Moix admitted having drawn the cartoons it contained, but strongly denied having written any of the text. The following day, L'Express unearthed a document in which the same texts appear, presumably drafts for the magazine, signed by Yann Moix himself, including a short story about a Jew trying to bargain the price of his train ticket to Buchenwald. Moix then admitted that he wrote the texts which he said now make him "want to puke"; he also stated that he was never antisemitic, just filled at the time with self-hatred, claiming that he felt "liberated" now that the story had come out.