Making Cannes winner Anatomy Of A Fall a marriage drama would be ‘annoying’, says director

SINGAPORE – In the French film Anatomy Of A Fall, a woman is accused of killing her husband. During cross-examination, details of their stormy marriage emerge.

French director Justine Triet’s feature won the 2023 Cannes Film Festival’s highest award of the Palme d’Or for, among other things, its observations about the struggle for dominance in a relationship and over issues such as money and parenting. It opens exclusively at The Projector on Nov 23.

Triet – who wrote the screenplay with her partner, French film-maker Arthur Harari – believes that if the story had just been a straightforward portrait of a marriage rather than a courtroom drama, it would have been robbed of its central idea: That a woman must defend the choices she makes in a relationship and be judged for it.

“I could have brought the audience in and said, okay, let’s go into this house and see this couple. It might have been, in a way, annoying. The form of the courtroom drama forces her to justify everything she has done,” says the 45-year-old film-maker, who spoke to The Straits Times in an online interview in a mix of French and English, with the help of a translator.

As the prosecution chips away at her story, the audience must choose whom to believe.

Anatomy Of A Fall never shows an objective point of view when it deals with the past; the viewers, like the judges, must create a reality from the testimony of witnesses.

“We think that the courtroom is the place where truth emerges. But it’s also a place where fiction can emerge. It’s a huge paradox. It was important to focus on that, so the story is not a simple whodunnit,” she says.

French director Justine Triet’s feature won the 2023 Cannes Film Festival’s highest award of the Palme d’Or. PHOTO: THE PROJECTOR

Sandra, a novelist played by German actress Sandra Huller, is on trial after her husband Samuel (French actor Samuel Theis), also a writer, is found dead, presumably because he fell from an upstairs room at their chalet, located close to the French Alps.

Prosecutors say Sandra had a part in his death, while she claims otherwise. Their blind son Daniel (French actor Milo Machado Graner) becomes a key witness.

Sandra’s novels are pored over by prosecutors, who treat them as windows into her psyche.

During filming, Huller was kept in the dark about whether her character was guilty or innocent. Huller, who is fluent in French, speaks English for much of the film, which Triet reportedly wanted her character to do because it made her look more isolated in France.

Courtroom drama Anatomy Of A Fall stars Sandra Huller as a woman who is alleged to have killed her husband. PHOTO: THE PROJECTOR

“I told her to play the character as if she was innocent,” she says.

Triet’s instructions to the actress, who first worked with the director on the drama Sibyl (2019), was to be emotionally closed-off and difficult to read.

There was the risk that such a portrayal could backfire, turning her character into the stereotype of the mysterious main character seen in psychological thrillers.

Huller’s humanity shone through, despite her cool demeanour, says Triet. “She played the role in a transparent, accessible manner.”

Huller is now tipped to be in the running for a Best Actress nomination in the 2024 Oscars race, along with Lily Gladstone (Killers Of The Flower Moon), Margot Robbie (Barbie) and Emma Stone (Poor Things). The film is also predicted to be a Best Picture contender at the Golden Globes and Academy Awards.

Now on the awards campaign trail, the hoopla over the film is a novel experience, says Triet, who has two children with Harari. Anatomy Of A Fall has grossed US$16.6 million (S$22.3 million) internationally, on a production budget of €6.2 million (S$9 million).

French director Justine Triet walks on the red carpet ahead of the screening of Anatomy Of A Fall, at the 71st San Sebastian Film Festival on Sept 24. PHOTO: AFP

“It’s all very new to me. It’s been a fairy tale. Because even if it doesn’t win anything, the box office has been a huge success, in the United States and United Kingdom. I just learnt about it before meeting you.

“It’s been amazing to get to meet a lot of famous people whom I admire. I’m not young and it’s crazy that all this is happening now.”

• Anatomy Of A Fall opens exclusively at The Projector on Nov 23.