Behind the success of Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall”, a montage by Laurent Sénéchal in the running for the Oscars

The beautiful adventure of Justine Triet’s film is also that of a technician, the editor Laurent Sénéchal, whose work has already been rewarded with a César. He is also in the running for the Oscar.

He has already won a César and is nominated for an Oscar for his work on Anatomy of a fall by Justine Triet, editor Laurent Sénéchal tells AFP the other side of the making of the film with an extraordinary destiny. In a good place for the Oscars (on the evening of March 10 in Los Angeles, broadcast on the night of March 11 in France), with five nominations, the film has already won three Césars (directing, editing and best actress for actress Sandra Hüller ), the Bafta for best screenplay and two Golden Globes in January.

The success of the film honors a profession less known than that of directing, but essential, to which the producers ofAnatomy of a fall agreed to dedicate 38 weeks. An exceptionally long time by industry standards. “It’s a luxury to be able to make a film where editing is so important”recognizes Laurent Sénéchal, who thanked the film’s producers Marie-Ange Luciani and David Thion when receiving his César.

“Justine is completely obsessive”

The opportunity also to recall the leitmotif that Justine Triet shared with him on the first day of editing. “I’m not going to let any asshole come into this room and tell me what to do.”declared the filmmaker, confiding in him that she “(wanted) to take (her) time” For Anatomy of a fallhis fourth film.

“Justine is completely obsessive, editing is one of the most essential places for directing”, remarked Laurent Sénéchal before the César ceremony. Eight months of filming and a little more for editing during which the director and her editor, both aged 45, exchange ideas, work together, complement each other. This time notably allowed the duo to refine the sound-image desynchronization, essential for the ambiguity of the fiction.

More than a hundred hours of rushes

Artisans of cinema, editors are recognized for their know-how, without developing a particular touch, because the vision of the filmmaker takes precedence. Laurent Sénéchal believes that the editor must not let “his signature” on the film: “It’s a job of adaptation, we are story tellers, birth attendants who accompany” filmmaker.

From the 130 hours of rushes of a project initially conceived as a series, what will ultimately remain is a feature film lasting 2h32, cleverly constructed around a trial and flashbacks of the life of a couple who explode. “With Justine, this is the third film (fiction) that we do together. The more we practice, the more we know ourselves, the more certain things become obvious.”tells AFP Laurent Sénéchal, who also worked on all the films of the director’s companion and co-writer, Arthur Harari.

Guided by the play of the actors

Mounting, “some directors work with a first draft”, a sort of rough draft that allows you to get an initial idea. At Justine Triet, on the contrary, “everything goes through acting. She starts from the shots, and the material, to see where it takes her. And to add: “It completely derails her when she sees something played wrong,” he jokes. “So we go all the way together, which takes a lot of time” disassembly. During the César ceremony, Laurent Sénéchal assured that he had “a golden basket” by evoking the performance of the German actress Sandra Hüller, whose trial we witness after the fatal fall of her husband.

“We go to the market to watch the rushes and we cook from this market”, he illustrates. “It was a lot of work, a lot of action, but we were never lost. It was joyful.” As complex as it is fine, the film examines the relationships of domination within the couple, gender issues, the workings of justice, the view of society, that of children… But to realize is also to give up , explains Laurent Sénéchal. “We had a lot of extra material,” he confides, for example, on the role of the media. It was planned that “the press is like an additional character, with journalists who are filming”. “We really reduced that, because it was becoming too complex”.

Foolproof complicity

Editors play a vital role in bringing a film to life, which is crucial in the race for the Oscars. “There can’t be a good film with bad editing, explains Kevin Tent to AFP. The editor worked with Alexander Payne on his comedy Winter Breaka Christmas tale about the loneliness of three souls forced to spend New Year’s Eve together in a posh American high school in the 1970s. The film is nominated five times, likeAnatomy of a fall. And both are nominated in the best editing category, just like the favorite Oppenheimer for the Oscar for best film where both films are also in the running. Because the “best film” and “best editing” awards are very correlated in Hollywood.

For almost a century, 40% of winners of the supreme award have also won the technical trophy. Only eleven feature films have won the statuette for best film without being nominated for best editing. Numbers which underline the extent to which editing constitutes the very essence of cinema. More than the script or the filming, great directors like Stanley Kubrick or Orson Welles held this technical stage as the key to making a film.

This work requires great complicity between director and editor: many filmmakers have an assigned technician, whom they keep from film to film. Queen of the profession with three Oscars, editor Thelma Schoonmaker has followed Martin Scorsese since the start of his career, more than 50 years ago. Nominated for Killers of the Flower Moon – which also competes for best film – she regularly highlights their symbiosis. “He taught me everything I know about editing”she told the site CineMontage in February. “We have the same sensitivity.”

For Justine Triet and Laurent Sénéchal, this is their fourth collaboration (The Shadows of the House, Sybil, Victoria And Anatomy of a fall). Is he afraid of being replaced one day by artificial intelligence? He admits to having been amazed by the small sequences automatically generated by his smartphone from his videos and thinks that the tool will be used as an assistant within ten years without us being “more surprised”. But nothing will replace humans, he hopes: “If we entrust the rushes ofAnatomy to a computer, we won’t have the same film!”