In his film Anatomy of a fallIn her masterful legal drama, which won the Palme d’Or at the recent Cannes Film Festival, French director Justine Triet explores the balance of power and domination within a couple by staging the trial of a writer accused of killing her husband to have. The newspaper spoke to her.
The plot of Anatomy of a Fall is based on a news story: Sandra (Sandra Hülser), a German author, lives in a chalet with her husband Samuel (Samuel Theis) and their visually impaired son (Milo Machado-Grane). lost in the middle of the Alps. One day, a day after an argument with Sandra, Samuel is found dead in the snow after falling from the second floor.
Is it an accident? Suicide? A murder? An investigation is launched and Sandra quickly becomes the main suspect. With the help of a lawyer friend (Swann Arlaud), she has to prove her innocence in a trial in which all her relationship problems come to the surface again.
“I liked the idea of going through the justice system to analyze, observe and scrutinize a couple’s relationship,” summarizes Justine Triet (Sybil, Victoria) in an interview via video conference earlier this week.
“I found it more interesting and less laborious to approach this subject in a test film than to do it in a naturalistic way by entering a couple’s house to observe how it works. »
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balance of power
By turning her camera on this couple, Justine Triet takes a critical look at society, analyzing the way men look at women, but also how women look at men.
“What inspired me is that there are many things where we are making very slow progress [dans notre société]“This particularly includes the idea of seeing a woman who was more successful socially and is not perceived as a perfect victim, who doesn’t cry enough and who seems a little too solid,” explains the 45-year-old filmmaker.
“In people’s eyes, Sandra’s character doesn’t cry enough and seems a little too strong and in control. This ultimately makes her appear more suspicious than a woman who would be more submissive to her husband. »
AFP
Justine Triet, a trained documentary filmmaker, says she did research to create the script for “Anatomy of a Fall,” which she co-wrote with her partner, French actor and director Arthur Harari. Like any good legal drama, the film doesn’t reveal everything and leaves some questions unanswered, particularly the question of Sandra’s guilt.
“The question of whether she is guilty or not is important because it keeps the viewer in suspense until the end,” says the director.
“On the other hand, like in real life, when we watch a documentary series, we want to know everything, but we don’t always succeed. From the beginning I knew the film would be based on doubt. I was hesitant to adapt a news story, but I knew if I did, it would be a story for which I had no solution. Because for me personally, these are the cases in real life that fascinate me the most. »
Anatomy of a Fall hits theaters in Quebec on October 27th.