Cinematographer

Stéphane Fontaine

3: briefs
13:00: average
39 min: in total

On film.briefs3

The Beat That My Heart Skipped

Jacques Audiard · 2005

Jacques Audiard’s 2005 drama follows Thomas Seyr, a Parisian real estate enforcer who attempts to rebuild his life around concert piano after his mother’s death and his father’s murder. Romain Duris trained intensively for the role, playing his own piano sequences. The film reframes the 1978 American original Fingers through French social realism, emphasising physical discipline, linguistic barriers, and the uneasy continuity between violence and artistry.

13:00

A Prophet

Jacques Audiard · 2009

Jacques Audiard’s 2009 French prison drama follows Malik El Djebena, a young Maghrebi man who rises from illiterate inmate to de facto leader of the prison’s Maghrebi faction. Shot by Stéphane Fontaine and edited by Juliette Welfling, the film charts Malik’s calculated ascent through fluency, observation, and strategic violence — not redemption or revelation. Tahar Rahim’s restrained performance anchors a world defined by procedural realism, not symbolism.

13:00

Jackie

Pablo Larraín · 2016

Jackie (2016) follows Jacqueline Kennedy in the week after John F. Kennedy’s assassination, framed by a Life magazine interview at Hyannis Port. Directed by Pablo Larraín and starring Natalie Portman, it focuses on her psychological navigation of grief, legacy, and public performance — not as a biographical survey, but as a study in containment. Stéphane Fontaine’s cinematography, Mica Levi’s score, and Sebastián Sepúlveda’s editing sustain a tense, intimate atmosphere. The film received three Academy Award nominations, including Best Actress for Portman.