Justine Triet, best-known for Oscar and Palme d’Or-winning courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall,” says she could have become a lawyer, if she had not veered into filmmaking, to dissect reality by using a forensic approach.
In a conversation held Saturday by Triet at the Marrakech Film Fest, she noted that she comes from the documentaries milieu and uses fiction to “reach a catharsis about something I want to confront.”
With “Anatomy” – which at its core is about a warring husband and wife – the film’s inception had to do with the complexities of female empowerment, even though, “It would be horrible to start writing a film by saying I want to make a film about MeToo,” she pointed out. “But of course that’s something that was with me.
For Triet, “filmmaking always starts with sound,” both in writing and in directing actors. Triet’s rapport with sound extends beyond the movie set. “My producer was annoyed by the fact that I would record our conversations,” she revealed.
Triet says that “Anatomy” is not that much of a departure from her other films such as 2019 Cannes Competition entry Sibyl, that blurred fiction and reality mixing psychoanalysis, moviemaking, and eroticism.
“Anatomy” revolves around the question of whether the film’s protagonist, Sandra, killed her husband Samuel. “But at the same time, what’s more important is what lies underneath. What’s wonderful about filmmaking is that you can organize the chaos of life.”
