Biography

[press conference for Sibyl (2019) at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival] It's a film which talks about fiction and creation as a way of reinventing oneself. The character played by Virginie Efira is in a state of denial in terms of her past and all sorts of things she can't contend with - the ghosts of her past. Indeed, fiction is a way for her to escape daily life.

[press conference for Anatomy of a Fall (2023) at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival, asked about having written the female lead specifically for Sandra Hüller] I've written for other actors as well. When you're inhabited by someone's presence in terms of writing.......she has something about her - she's opaque, she's complex and that nourished the actual writing of the script. I talked about it a lot with Arthur [Arthur Harari], we hoped she would accept the role, it wasn't already in place. She has something about her - she plays and acts with her body.....there's something about her body, I don't know how to put it, it's very special indeed, her body doesn't totally belong to her. There's something very strange; when we turned up on the set in the morning she just depicted the person she was - it was very mystical in a way.

[Cannes press conference for Anatomy of a Fall (2023)] The film moves towards this point, where it's the child who becomes the centrepiece of the trial. What does the film talk about? It talks about a child - he carries around a very heavy weight. He's very close to his mother, he trusts her and then there are cracks that appear and he effectively finds himself in the position of the jury; in other words having to decide whether his mother is guilty or not. We'll never know. We'll never know whether his testimony is true or not. I was deeply touched to see this kind of situation and it's particularly moving as a child. I think this is the first film where I've really given the floor to a child. The whole of the film moves towards this point.

[Cannes press conference for Anatomy of a Fall (2023)] When we started working on this film, it was like a genre film. We have so many thrillers on all the platforms and I wanted to do something different. The original idea was to have a film where there was a lack of visual elements and images, unlike films which depict a trial where there are all sorts of flashbacks and you see the life of the couple - that might have been easier - I could have shown their lives in that manner. But everything is based on absence. The child doesn't see very well and there aren't many images, yet you have this loud, loud music which is a focal point for the film. Whence the idea of placing the spectator in a position like the child or the jurors where there's a lack of facts and evidence - everything is interlinked. This delirium springs from the fact that there's so much that's missing.

[on working with Arthur Harari on Anatomie d'une chute (2023)] The question of being a couple does not arise when we work together, it is another part of our lives. He's a work partner. It's very stimulating. That is to say, he is someone who, even when we write together, I don't see him as a screenwriter. He's a director. He has a strong point of view. Sometimes we don't agree, and it's interesting, and I find it joyful to be able to work together, which doesn't happen often for us in reality.