Justine Triet (‘Anatomy of a Fall’ director) on how she cast Antoine Reinartz as the ruthless prosecutor [Exclusive Video Interview]

When director Justine Triet was trying to find a person to play the conniving prosecutor for her film “Anatomy of a Fall,” she first started looking at non-professional actors and was still searching as shooting was about to begin. “They were good but when I was back home looking at the casting footage, most of the time I was like, ‘Okay, maybe in the editing room I will cut a lot and it was not very good to think this just before we’re starting to shoot the movie,” she tells Gold Derby during our recent webchat (watch the exclusive video interview above).

All of that changed when she saw Antoine Reinartz. Not only did he bring the rhythm that she was looking for during the courtroom scenes as well as providing a strong contrasting character to Sandra (Sandra Hüller) but she also couldn’t help but notice that Reinartz seemed to be enjoying his work a lot. “He was very interesting in a way and I think he invented a lot of jokes and a little smart, really interesting thing in the courtroom.”

“Anatomy of a Fall,” which is currently available to rent on various platforms, centers on Sandra. When her husband is discovered dead from falling off a roof by their blind son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner), Sandra becomes the main suspect and gets charged for the crime. She then has to fight against a ruthless prosecutor who seeks to get her convicted of the crime which she says she is innocent of. Back in May, the film won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, making Triet only the third woman to ever win the prize. At the Golden Globes this past Sunday, Triet took home two trophies including Best Screenplay (shared with her co-writer and partner Arthur Harari) and Best Non-English Language Film.

Winning the Palme at Cannes was an other-worldly experience for Triet and she didn’t realize that her film would be receiving the top prize until a few seconds before it was announced at the Palais des Festival et des Congrès. “I don’t know exactly how to describe it because it was like it was not totally real for me. It took me a long time to really, really realize and figure out what it really means.” The win helped build a lot of buzz for the film and helped it gain an audience that it might not have gotten otherwise. This has lead to many people telling Triet how close the film feels to their lives. “People are always telling their story to me. They are always like, ‘Oh, it’s my life. It’s like you had put some microphone in my kitchen.’ There’s a lot of people who say that to me.”

PREDICT the 2024 Oscar nominations

Make your predictions at Gold Derby now. Download our free and easy app for Apple/iPhone devices or Android (Google Play) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. See our latest prediction champs. Can you top our esteemed leaderboards next? Always remember to keep your predictions updated because they impact our latest racetrack odds, which terrify Hollywood chiefs and stars. Don’t miss the fun. Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our famous forums where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. Everybody wants to know: What do you think? Who do you predict and why?