Making movies is always going towards something you don’t know. Going for the unknown. So it could be geographical territory, it could be the relationship between two people, it could be psychological, there’s always something you don’t know.

Jacques Audiard, from our interview at Cannes in 2012.

Last year Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan (out in UK cinemas on the 8th of April) won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes film festival. Standing its ground against a set of phemonenal competitors Audiard’s film won out over films such as Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Assassin, László Nemes’ Son of Saul (which would pick up an Oscar months later) and Todd Haynes’ Carol, which was considered a favourite.

Hailed by some commentators as recompense for previous Cannes juries overlooking the director’s previous films in competition, the win cemented Audiard’s place in the vanguard of a new wave of 21st Century French cinema.

Dheepan’s powerful tale of personal conflict on the shifting sands of identity brings together many of the themes writ large in Audiard’s work. His searing depiction of the grand trials of a diasporic life, is told beautifully (and above all cinematically) through a taut visual vocabulary and, as is often the case with the director, through the microcosmic details which make up such a life.

This week sees the UK cinema release of Audiard’s acclaimed film, and we are celebrating the occasion with a number of features looking at the director’s films and the themes present in Dheepan.

As a primer we begin today with a look at some of Audiard’s films you can catch up on before Dheepan hits cinemas across the country. We’ll be adding a new feature every day and also we’ll be hosting a competition later on in the week.

If you want to read our thoughts on Dheepan click here for our review of the film from Cannes.

Let’s take a look back at key films from Audiard’s career thus far.

read my lipsRead My Lips (2001)

Cast: Vincent Cassel, Emmanuelle Devos, Olivier Gourmet

Revisiting the neo-noir of his earlier film See How They Fall Audiard conjures a compelling thriller with his requisite exploration of the moral maelstrom of redemption and reality. An office romance with a wicked twist, Audiard’s command of gesture and expression brings a profound weight to the leading couple, played to distinct perfection by Vincent Cassel and Emmanuelle Devos, with the sense deprivation of Devos’ Carla allowing for a sensual pull through the tribulations of two people thrown together in a kind of love.


 

BEAT THAT MY HEART SKIPPED (THE) dl 1

The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005)

Cast: Romain Duris, Aure Atika, Emmanuelle Devos

One of the first films to cross continents with Audiard’s expressive majesty, his 2005 film owes much to a scintillating and complex performance from Romain Duris. Based on James Toback’s cult classic Fingers The Beat That My Heart Skipped takes our hand and dives deep into the Parisian underworld for a thrilling exploration of choice and destiny.

Duris is the standout here. His character’s unwieldy veering from familial responsibility and his own latent desire for a career as a musician makes fertile ground for Audiard.

Here’s an amazing scene:

and the trailer,


 

a prophet

A Prophet (2009)

Cast: Tahar Rahim, Niels Arestrup, Adel Bencherif

Losing out to The Secret in Their Eyes from Juan José Campanella at the 2009 Academy Awards arguably made Audiard’s gripping prison drama all the more famous as the sensible money was on the French director taking home the gold statue.

It made a star of Tahar Rahim and brought the director’s keen eye for detail and the ritualistic, almost cabal-esque, sensibility of prison subculture to an even wider audience than was managed four years previously.

It’s a tough watch, with the emergence of Rahim’s Malik from a wary, almost invisible prison inmate to a cold-blooded assassin told in brutal detail. Yet we care through every moral misstep, holding our fingers in front of our eyes as the inevitability of the story unfolds.


rust and bone

Rust and Bone (2012)

Cast: Marion Cotillard, Matthias Schoenaerts, Armand Verdure

Audiard’s Rust and Bone made great waves across the world, delivering a stellar performance from Marion Cotillard and bringing the brooding presence of Matthias Schoenaerts to an international audience.

Ostensibly a love story between two unlikely people following a tragic accident this film makes great hay with the difficulties of rebuilding of lives and the ruin of responsibility.  There is Audiard’s trademark clarity of detail and he makes much of the physicality of the two actors as their relationship develops in the film.

It, like most of the other films noted here, does not shy away from the harsh realities of life, yet manages to ground what is an unlikely tale with a wash of humanity. It shares many themes with Dheepan, something we’ll explore later on this week.

Below you can see our interviews with the director and two leads of Rust and Bone from the 2012 London Film Festival.

Dheepan is out in UK cinemas on the 8th of April.