Jacques Audiard was born in Paris in 1952, the son of the prolific screenwriter and director Michel Audiard. He began writing films in the mid-1970s and made his directorial debut in 1994 with . He won Baftas for (2005) and (2010) and the Cannes Palme d’Or with in 2015.
’s latest film, , a trans-empowerment musical set among Mexican drug cartels, won the Jury prize at Cannes and was described by as “dazzling and instantly divisive”. It’s in cinemas now and will stream globally on Netflix from 13 November. Audiard lives in Paris.
In 1750, Bruno Lenoir and Jean Diot were strangled and burned to death in Place de Grève, Paris – the last people to be sentenced to death for homosexuality in France. Delving into the legal documents that led to the execution allows Pauline Valade to reconstruct Paris in the 1750s and its secret homosexual milieu. I’m a big fan of historical literature and I was impressed by Valade’s archival research.
The novel gives life and substance to these two men whose tragic story reflects both the judicial errors of a complex society and the timeless fight for tolerance. When I’m working I have Apple Music on my computer set on random, and whenever I hear tracks that I like, I go over and look at the names: quite often they’re by [the Chilean-American composer and musician] Nicolas Jaar. He puts out music under his own name and also in a band called Darkside; one of my favourite tracks of theirs is The Only Shrine I’ve Seen.
Jaar also.
