- Born:
- April 30, 1952, Paris, France (age 74)
Jacques Audiard
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Who is Jacques Audiard?
Jacques Audiard, born on April 30, 1952, is a French film director and screenwriter known for his acclaimed crime films with strong scripts and lead performances. He is the son of screenwriter Michel Audiard.
Audiard's directorial debut was Regard les hommes tomber (1994), which won the CĂ©sar Award for best first film. Other notable films include Un ProphĂšte (2009), a gangster drama that drew comparisons to The Godfather and was nominated for an Academy Award, and Dheepan (2015), which won the Palme dâOr at Cannes. In 2018, he directed Les FrĂšres Sisters, a crime comedy set in the American West.
Audiard has also directed episodes of the French TV show Le bureau des légendes. His film Les Olympiades (2021) is a subtle love story filmed in black and white. In 2024, Audiard released Emilia Pérez, which earned him three Oscar nominations.
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What is Jacques Audiard known for in the film industry?
Jacques Audiard, a French film director and screenwriter born in 1952, is known for his acclaimed crime films, scripts, and strong lead performances.
Audiard's career began as an assistant editor before he transitioned to screenwriting. His directorial debut, Regard les hommes tomber (1994), won the CĂ©sar Award for best first film. Other notable films include Un ProphĂšte (2009), a gangster drama that earned an Academy Award nomination, and Dheepan (2015), which won the Palme dâOr at the Cannes film festival. In 2024, Audiard received three Oscar nominations for his film Emilia PĂ©rez.
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What are some famous movies directed by Jacques Audiard?
Jacques Audiard is a French director and screenwriter known for his significant contributions to French cinema. Two of his famous movies are:
- Un prophĂšte (A Prophet) (2009)
- De rouille et dâos (Rust and Bone) (2012)
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What themes or styles are common in Audiard's films?
Jacques Audiard's crime films are celebrated for their screenplays and the powerful performances of lead actors. His films often weave together separate storylines, as seen in See How They Fall (1994).
Audiard frequently explores themes of identity and transformation, such as in A Self-Made Hero (1996), where a salesman creates a false identity as a French Resistance hero, and The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005), which centers on a young man torn between criminal life and his aspirations as a concert pianist. His film A Prophet (2009) portrays the rise of a young Arab convict within a Corsican prison gang, drawing comparisons to The Godfather.
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How has Jacques Audiard influenced French cinema?
Jacques Audiard is a French director who has contributed to French cinema with his distinct filmmaking style and storytelling. He is known for directing films such as Un prophĂšte (A Prophet) and De rouille et dâos (Rust and Bone).
Audiard is among the mature and emerging French filmmakers who played a central role in international art cinema at the turn of the 21st century. French film and television companies have managed to finance a rich and varied group of filmmakers while also helping to support production in such other regions as eastern Europe and Africa.
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Jacques Audiard (born April 30, 1952, Paris, France) is a French film director and screenwriter whose crime films have been acclaimed for their scripts and strong lead performances.
Audiard is the son of noted screenwriter Michel Audiard, who is best known for his screenplays for crime films, particularly director Henri Verneuilâs MĂ©lodie en sous-sol (1963; Any Number Can Win) and Claude Millerâs Garde Ă vue (1981). Jacques Audiard studied literature at the Sorbonne but left before completing his degree. He entered the film industry as an assistant editor on several movies in the late 1970s, including Roman Polanskiâs Le Locataire (1976; The Tenant). He switched to screenwriting with the spy thriller Le Professionel (1981; The Professional).
(Read Martin Scorseseâs Britannica essay on film preservation.)
Audiardâs first film as a director was Regard les hommes tomber (1994; See How They Fall), which wove together two separate story linesâone about a man (played by Jean Yanne) searching for the killer of his friend and the other concerning the actions of the murderers (Jean-Louis Trintignant and Mathieu Kassovitz) before the crime. Audiard also cowrote the screenplay, as he would for many of his subsequent movies. Audiard won the CĂ©sar Award (the French equivalent of the Academy Award) for best first film, the first of many CĂ©sars to come his way. His next film, Un HĂ©ros trĂšs discret (1996; A Self-Made Hero), is about a salesman (Kassovitz) who, after the end of World War II, concocts a new identity as a hero in the French Resistance. Sur mes lĂšvres (Read My Lips, 2001) centers on the relationship between a deaf, lip-reading secretary (Emanuelle Devos) and an ex-convict (Vincent Cassel), each of whom relies on the otherâs abilities.
Audiard remade American director James Tobackâs film Fingers (1978) as De battre mon coeur sâest arrĂȘtĂ© (2005; The Beat That My Heart Skipped). Actor Romain Duris won acclaim for his performance as a young man torn between following either his father (Niels Arestrup) into the shady fringes of the real-estate business or his dead mother as a concert pianist. Audiardâs 2009 film Un ProphĂšte (A Prophet) is a gangster drama about a young Arab convict (Tahar Rahim) who falls in with the leader (Arestrup) of a Corsican prison gang. The story of the young manâs rise under the gangsterâs tutelage led many critics to compare Un ProphĂšte favorably to classics of the genre, particularly Francis Ford Coppolaâs The Godfather (1972). Un ProphĂšte was nominated for an Academy Award for best foreign-language film and for 13 CĂ©sar Awards.
Audiard subsequently directed the gritty love story De rouille et dâos (2012; Rust and Bone), which starred Marion Cotillard as an orca trainer struggling to recover from the loss of her legs in a gruesome occupational accident. Dheepan (2015), which won the Palme dâOr at the Cannes film festival, tells the story of a former Tamil Tiger who immigrates to France. In 2018 Audiard helmed Les FrĂšres Sisters (The Sisters Brothers), a crime comedy set in the American West during the 1850s.
In 2020 Audiard directed two episodes of the French espionage TV show Le bureau des lĂ©gendes (The Bureau). He returned to the big screen with Les Olympiades (2021; Paris, 13th District), a subtle, observational love story shot mostly in black and white. In 2024 Audiard released Emilia PĂ©rez, which starred Zoe Saldaña as a lawyer helping a Mexican drug cartel boss (Karla SofĂa GascĂłn) obtain gender-affirming surgery. He received three Oscar nominationsâfor adapted screenplay, directing, and original songâfor the film.