This Sunday, January 7, 2024, Justine Triet is in the spotlight in the United States. The filmmaker, who has already received numerous awards for her film Anatomy of a fall, including the prestigious Palme d’Or at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, is nominated in four categories: best dramatic film, best foreign language film, best screenplay, and best actress in a dramatic film for Sandra Hüller. But as revealed Release And Telerama, the film finds itself marred by a new controversy, a few hours away from possible distinctions. In fact, the actor Samuel Theiswho played one of the main roles in Anatomy of a Fall, playing the character of Samuel Maleski, is accused by a technician of his latest film, I swear, of having raped him, while he was “in a daze”.
The filming of I swear, which took place last summer, appears to have been chaotic. In the casting of this drama, spectators will find well-known names, such as Louise Bourgoin, Marina Foïs and Micha Lescot. This drama tells the story of a man, an employee of a recycling plant in Lorraine, an alcoholic, who overnight finds himself on the Assisi jury. Incapable of discernment for himself, the hero must decide the fate of a young man, accused of pyromania and involuntary manslaughter. But the filming turned out to be disastrous, and the filmmaker, faced with accusations of rape brought by a young technician, had to continue the production of his film remotely, “confined to his home”.
He filed a complaint for “rape” and left the set
According to Release And Telerama, the facts that the young man attributes to the filmmaker would have taken place in an apartment, which Samuel Theis would have rented to organize a party. The young man, a stagehand for the film, drinks excessively, and is unable to return home. He sleeps with locals. In the early morning, the young man discovers that he has had a sexual relationship with the filmmaker. The latter assures that the latter was perfectly consented, but the stagehand asserts the opposite: in a daze, totally drunk, he claims to have been unable to give her consent. According to our colleagues at Teleramathe young man has since filed a complaint for “rape”.
On the set, the young man, haggard, panicked, anxious, is forced to leave his post: “His behavior worries some members of the team, because he can no longer bear to work on the set even though his role requires him to do so. He ends up admitting that since the evening, he has felt the need to leave the set , and to find his partner.”Production accepts, and the technician is released from his duties. The end of a controversy? Not really. The production company launched an internal investigation and forced Samuel Theis to continue making his film from his home. Confined, reduced to a very strict protocol, the filmmaker proclaims his innocence, and finds the sentence unfair and unjustified.
A new controversy for the film Anatomy of a falla few hours before receiving possible new awards, and while the film has also been pre-selected for the 2024 Oscars ceremony. It should logically be nominated several times for the 2024 Césars… It remains to be seen whether Samuel Theis will be appointed in the Best Act or Best Supporting Act category, or if his name will ultimately be excluded…