(Paris) From the Palme d’Or to the Golden Globes, through public success… and some controversies: the French film Anatomy of a Fall now has the hope of making Oscar history in the spring, like The Artist a decade ago.
A dissection of the balance of power within a couple of artists, this drama allowed Justine Triet to become, at 45, the third director in history to win the Palme d’Or.
In 2 hours 32 minutes, it recounts the trial of a woman accused of killing her husband, with the couple’s visually impaired boy and their dog as the only witnesses. Icy and fallible at the same time, the German actress Sandra Hüller is unforgettable as the accused, as is the child with the inscrutable face, the young actor Milo Machado-Graner.
Initially designed for a series, its screenplay, co-written by the filmmaker and her partner Arthur Harari, explores family neuroses, the clash of ambitions and the judicial machine.
Sunday evening, this fourth feature film by Justine Triet won the prize for best screenplay and best foreign language film at the Golden Globes in Los Angeles.
The film now awaits the Oscars on March 11, eleven years after the triumph of The Artist by Michel Hazanavicius (including the Best Film and Best Actor awards for Jean Dujardin).
After Marion Cotillard (best actress in 2008 for La vie en rose), Juliette Binoche (best supporting actress in 1997 for The English Patient), will Justine Triet be one of these few French people distinguished at the Oscars?
First hurdle to cross on January 23, with the announcement of the nominees. Its warm-up turn at the Golden Globes allows Anatomy of a Fall to dream of a nomination for the Oscar for best actress, best original screenplay, or even to create a surprise in the best film category, generally monopolized by productions American.
These nominations would have a taste of revenge for a film snubbed by France, which preferred to present The Passion of Dodin-Bouffant by Tran Anh Hung for the Oscar for best foreign film. This costume film on gastronomy with Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel only had 200,000 admissions in theaters in France, but won the directing prize at Cannes.
“What idiots they are! », had launched the producer of Anatomy of a Fall after this choice made by an independent commission of professionals, brought together by the National Cinema Center.
It must be said that between Justine Triet and the French government, the rag has been burning for a long time.
As soon as the Palme d’Or was announced, the director took advantage of the Cannes platform to cross swords with the government, in the midst of pension reform. And defend independent cinema against liberalism. Without the cultural exception, “I wouldn’t be here today,” she said while receiving the most coveted prize in the 7th art.
“Ungrateful and unfair”, replies the Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak, like other leaders marked on the right, while the left defends the filmmaker, Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI) even seeing in it the symbol of a “left resistant”.
At the time, French President Emmanuel Macron did not send him a congratulatory message. What he ended up doing on Monday, after the Golden Globes, saying he was “proud to see French cinema rewarded at the Golden Globes”, in a message on X.
The spectators’ verdict is clear: the film works well upon its release in France in August. It has accumulated 1.3 million admissions in theaters.
It’s better than the last tricolor Palmes d’Or, like Titane by Julia Ducournau (2021) La vie d’Adèle by Abdellatif Kechiche (2013) or Dheepan by Jacques Audiard (2015). But not as good as Between the Walls by Laurent Cantet (1.6 million admissions in 2008).
The film had 1.6 million admissions outside France: in the United States, it was released in more than 500 theaters and grossed four million dollars. It was also released in the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
And former US President Barack Obama cited it in his favorite films of 2023.
