Jacques Richard was born in Angers in 1954. He has worked in television, written on the cinema for French magazines, and worked beside Henri Langlois at the Cinematheque Française, organizing a series on young French cinema. Richard was an assistant editor for Jean Eustache's Mes Petites Amoureuses, and assistant director for Benoit Jacquot's L'Assassin Musicien. He directed his first feature film, Né, in 1975. Le Rouge de Chine is his second feature film.