Given the many award nominations and critical acclaim Anatomy of a Fall has received since its release last year, its many enthusiasts might argue that the suspenseful drama’s 150-minute run time is perfect. But writer-director Justine Triet might have other ideas, whether her editor Laurent Sénéchal’s agrees or not.
“I think I would adore to do a version [that is] three hours and 10 minutes, maybe something like this. But Laurent has not the same feeling,” Triet says with a laugh, with Sénéchal playfully objecting beside her. “He’s totally traumatized by me in this room because [post-production] was very long.”
Sénéchal, who has known and worked with Triet for roughly 15 years, jokes that he would prefer to avoid that scenario. “Please don’t let her come back in the editing room!” he protests.
Triet and Sénéchal’s film, which centers around a woman (Sandra Hüller) who comes under suspicion for her husband’s mysterious death, made its auspicious debut at Cannes all the way back in May, where it took home the festival’s coveted Palme d’Or. The momentum and support behind it has continued to build, resulting in five Oscar nominations, seven BAFTA noms, and 11 César Award nominations.
Here, the Oscar nominees—who are used to speaking French with each other, but switched to English for our sake—talk about the joy of their decade-plus collaboration thus far, how they pulled off the courtroom drama’s crucial and compelling ambiguity, alternate endings, and their reactions to new awards season star Messi the dog.
Vanity Fair: When did you first meet and what were your impressions?
Laurent Sénéchal: I think it was around 2010, because we edited your documentary.
Justine Triet: Yeah, Shadows in the House [Des ombres dans la maison]. I did a movie in Sao Paulo in Brazil, and Laurent edited it in my house because we had no money.
Sénéchal: I knew [Triet’s partner] Arthur Harari first. I edited short films for him, we were friends from the university and then this is the way I met Justine, and it was already around editing. But since the very beginning it was really interesting because Justine was already breaking all the rules of what we were supposed to do in a documentary. It was like another school for me to work with her and it’s still the case.
On that first project, was there instant chemistry or a sense of fruitful collaboration?
Triet: We worked [well together] really, really quickly. I think there is a famous sentence by Joanne Woodward about acting that I read just a few days ago. “It’s like sex. You don’t have to you talk about but just do it.” And I think it’s the same for editing. You can speak and be the best friend of the world if you don’t put your hand in the crap you don’t know. I think you can know. I really discovered Laurent in the process of editing the work.
When did you tell Laurent about Anatomy of a Fall?
Triet: On this film, I asked him to read the script very early. It was the first time in our collaboration that I asked for his advice before the shoot, and he gave us a lot of advice. And we worked differently from before, because we asked him to not start working until I finished the shoot.
Sénéchal: I didn’t make any assembly or rough cut, because it was not working very well for us previously. Justine [is skilled with directing] acting and editing, and before editing she needs to be choosing really precisely all the takes, the good takes. And it was really hard for her not to have [selected] all the takes yet.
Triet: It could make me nervous sometimes, when I’m not in the mood to choose a take with him. And sometimes I could be very, very desperate in the editing room, but it’s also really interesting. It’s the only place that you cannot cheat. You have to be humble. You might [think or hope], “Oh, my movie will be so incredible. It’ll be massive…” but not in the editing room. In this place, it’s the truth moment. We are in front of what we’ve done and it’s not a fantasy.
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