Highlights: "Anatomy of a Fall", film directed by Justine Triet, in the running for the Palme d'Or at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Triet on the notions of the fall and reality, the relationship between man and woman, and the controversy around Adèle Haenel. "From the beginning, I was obsessed with the idea of a man falling," says Triet. "In a trial, our lives no longer belong to us, it is a place where we delirious about people's lives"

"This is the film where I was the freest." Brilliant, his new work, Anatomy of a Fall, is well underway for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Born in 1978, in Fécamp, the French director...

Cannes 2023

Cannes 2023: "Anatomy of a fall", Justine Triet is "obsessed" with the man who falls

"Anatomy of a Fall", film directed by Justine Triet, with Sandra Hüller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado Graner, in the running for the Palme d'Or at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. © Cannes Film Festival 2023

Text by: Siegfried Forster Follow

9 min

It was the film where I was the freest. His brilliant new work, Anatomy of a Fall, is well underway for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Born in 1978 in Fécamp, the French director of Victoria and Sybil continues to show herself as a committed feminist who loves to populate her films with electric, explosive, powerful women. Interview with Justine Triet on the notions of the fall and reality, the relationship between man and woman, and the controversy around Adèle Haenel.

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RFI: Anatomy of a fall is the story of a couple, with an almost blind son, who lives far from everything in the mountains. One day, the husband is found dead. Your film is not only about the probable fall of this man from the first floor, but about the fall of a couple and the fall of a lifetime. At what point in the project did this idea of the metaphor of the fall appear?

Justine Triet: At the very beginning. From the beginning, I was obsessed with the idea of a man falling. At the very beginning came the idea of taking pleasure in telling as much the fall of the body, in a technical way, as to tell the fall of the couple. This image was at the heart of the very beginning of the script work.

Very quickly doubt settles around the death: accident, suicide, murder? Throughout the film, you question the existence of reality through the restitution of the mortal event, the autopsy of the body, experts of all kinds. Can we say that in this investigation everything is construction and that fiction chases away all reality?

I don't know if fiction totally chases reality, but the film shows how you are writing a screenplay, a new fiction, to be able to seize the story in court. Two truths emerge, that of the defense of the accused, Sandra [disturbing role and tailor-made for the German actress Sandra Hüller, Editor's note], and that of the defense of the deceased, Samuel [played bySwann Arlaud, Editor's note]. These two areas are imprecise, inaccurate, they are magnified like a magnifying glass that would magnify reality. So, yes, it's fiction. That's why I love trials, because they are places where we reinvent our lives. In a trial, our lives no longer belong to us, it is a place where we delirious about people's lives.

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The 11-year-old son's blindness is at the heart of the film. At the same time, this pervasive blindness concerns not only the son, but in one way or another all the protagonists. Everyone must admit at one time or another that he does not perceive reality, but that he constructs his reality. This becomes evident when several people interpret the sound recording of an argument of the couple in a totally opposite way. Is the issue of your film more auditory than visual?

At the very beginning of the writing, the idea was really that sound would have a very strong importance in the film. By definition, sound is a lack. And when there is a lack, there is necessarily a fantasy. This makes the viewer's imagination work much more. Me, in a very intimate way, I know that sounds are something very important in my life, much more than images. In my daily life, I listen to movies a lot more than I watch them. With sound, there is a relationship to the emotional, to the emotional, to the confidence, to the proof, to the truth, which I find much stronger. From the beginning, there was a very strong formal search to inscribe the story in a film that would not be just a film of words... but where sound would have a central place in the trial.

The film also tells the story of a love that goes wrong, the story of a couple who venture to do everything differently: the division of tasks, sexuality, language. The German Sandra and the Frenchman Samuel met in England and want to create in their life together by France a new common ground by communicating in a foreign language, English. And it is in this language that they raise their son Daniel, played by Milo Machado Graner. Is your film also the quest for a New World, a new relationship between man and woman?

When I write and when I work, I can't tell myself that at all before, it's impossible. I have a much more plastic and instinctive relationship with things. On the other hand, I do not live in a very conventional way and I am obviously inspired by my way of life. But, I don't feel like I want to change the world. I don't want my film to be a plea to live like this or like that. On the other hand, I cannot deny that the main character, Sandra, imposes her way of life that is not standardized, that is free and that tries to assume a freedom. And it's bound to be a struggle. Even at trial, she is judged for her way of life. It's an atypical couple, but I can't say it's a driving force when I write to tell myself that I'm going to show a new way of life.

The notion of the top and the bottom is omnipresent in your film: between the mountain and the valley, between the attic and the kitchen, between the judge sitting at the top and the accused standing at the bottom. Is your way of filming, often diving and counter-diving, based on the principle of verticality?

I go back to what I said at the beginning, with the image of the body falling, gravity... I was very inspired by the credits of Mad Men that have haunted me for ten years. We really tried to stylize the film. The film is composed as a long interrogation. From the house to the court, it is a succession of scenes where the characters are questioned. At times, they are questioned equally, but often in hierarchical relationships. Indeed, this notion of the top and the bottom, this obsession to try to understand how the fall of the man, but also that of the couple, was also formally embodied by this way of filming. We had a lot of fun finding the shape of the film. It was the film where I was the freest. I detached myself from wanting to make beautiful images, I was in a much more experimental relationship with images.

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You are a member of the 50/50 collective that fights for the equality of women and men in cinema. Actress Adèle Haenel has announced that she is leaving the world of cinema, because she no longer believes in it. She denounced the complacency of the film industry vis-à-vis sexual abusers and the collaboration of the film world with the "racist ecocide death order". Do you still believe that it is possible to change things from within?

Yes, I have that belief. Compared to Adèle Haenel, I find her attitude very beautiful. I landed lynching on the networks during his appearances. I find this incredibly violent. Adèle Haenel's political commitment is very precious and beautiful. After that, I think it's very interesting to be able to work from the inside. To be able to deconstruct things from within. I am necessarily thinking of Godard. Jean-Luc Godard has had very violent phases of ruptures in his cinema. At one point, it became much more politicized. And he inscribed it in his work. I want Adèle Haenel to take a camera and film her commitment. I want it to continue to be in the landscape, because, for me, cinema is not a [closed] place... Obviously, there is an obvious bourgeois fouling in a large part of this industry. But, there are other people too. I am surrounded by people, many of whom cannot make their film and they fight for cinema to continue and resist. So, I think we have to resist. You have to produce political images, inscribe your cinema, and exist in cinema. Afterwards, I am extremely touched by Adèle Haenel's words and I think they reflect many people in society and not only in cinema. People who can no longer of this world and who want to change this world. It is very strong that it takes this place. And I hope she will continue to express her commitments also through the camera.

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