Jacques Audiard

Directing style

Audiard grounds his tense, lonely dramas in intimate, eye-level medium shots and closeups, utilizing a shallow depth of field to isolate characters within their environments. His lighting relies on naturalistic, motivated sources—primarily daylight from the sun and windows, alongside interior practicals and harsh fluorescents—to illuminate scenes split almost evenly between day and night, interior and exterior settings. Visually, he favors high-contrast, moody textures, alternating between stark black-and-white and a cool, desaturated color grade dominated by a heavy, dark palette of slate blues, charcoal grays, and deep, earthy shadows.