“Hello, I'm Justine Triet, co-writer and director of 'Anatomy of a Fall.'” “You took the best idea in the book. How am I supposed to get back to that? Do you realize how cynical you are? “You can publish your own version. Say it inspired me. I admit it”. “So this scene comes very late in the movie. And it's the sound of a recorded argument playing in court near the end of the trial, trying to elucidate the death of the man we finally get to see on screen. His wife is the accused and this is the only time we see or hear them interact.” “I live with you and you impose everything. You impose your rhythm, your use of time. You even impose your language. Even when it comes to language, I'm the one who finds you on your territory. “We speak English at home.” “I'm not in my territory. “I don't speak my native language.” “So the characters named Sandra and Samuel are played by actors of the same name: Sandra Hüller and Samuel Theis.” “—create a middle ground so that no one has to meet the other on their territory. That's what English is for. It is a meeting point. “You can’t blame me for that.” “But we live in France.” “There was a lot at stake. We had to live up to the mockery of the scene. We needed to deliver a certain amount of information and know the character of the dead husband. The jury and the public listened to the recording. The employee shows the French transcript of the discussion on the computer screen and Sandra is confronted with her own voice, with the intimacy of her marriage. And at this point, we enter the scene. We see it. For a long time we wondered if the scene should not continue to be only sound. But since sound has the power to give the perfect illusion of the present of reality, we decided to immerse ourselves in it. And if you close your eyes, you can really believe that people are there. You could almost say that it is the inner vision of the visually impaired child at the moment when he hears the voice of his parents. For me it's not a flashback. It is an illustration of a sound, so it is present. I wanted the viewer to have the strong feeling of being projected into this intimacy. So we are in these people's kitchens, and they are talking about very specific things, their daily lives, the way they organize their lives and how they divide responsibilities. They are professionals at balancing their frustrations. And the idea of the scene is simple: to show the reasons for the conflict and then the violence between two people, a battle of arguments and ideas within a couple. So we filmed with two cameras so as not to waste any energy. We had to film his words, the words that come out of his mouth. It's about the actors, the truth with which they say it. And then there is the language. They speak in English, which is not their language. He is French, she is German and English is where they meet. And even that becomes one of the issues of the conflict: the language question. I wanted to shoot this scene in daylight, with bright light and the sun shining. Very dramatic intimate scenes are often filmed at night, as if intimacy were separated from the rest of life. And here I choose the opposite. And the contrast between light and violence is even stronger for me.” “I have nothing to do with it. You're not sacrificing yourself, as you say! You choose to stay on the sidelines because you're afraid, because your pride makes your head explode before you can even have the small germ of an idea! And now You wake up, you're 40 years old, and you need someone to blame. And you're the one to blame! “They are never filmed in the same frame, except briefly at the beginning.” “This is the truth. You're smart. I know you know I'm right. And Daniel has nothing to do with it! Stop!” “You're a monster.” “And just as this violence erupts and becomes physical, the image is snatched from the viewer and we return to the courtroom. We find ourselves in the position of the jury, and especially of the boy Daniel , in a state of total uncertainty, not knowing who hits who. Suddenly we realize that we didn't see anything because we weren't there. We will never know.” [SOUNDS OF STRUGGLE] [GLASS BREAKING] [MAN AND WOMAN FIGHTING] [BLOWS LANDING] [THUD]
