Highlights: Anatomy of a Fall by Justine Triet is released this Friday on Chinese screens. The film sparked numerous comments on social networks following its preview. “Everything was sold in a few hours, ” confides a member of staff at reception. The crowd laughed out loud, particularly during the sequences between the dog in the film and Daniel, the blind child. ‘The dog is the reverse mirror of Daniel,’ JustineTriet would later explain during the press conference.

Anatomy of a Fall by Justine Triet is released this Friday on Chinese screens. A film which sparked numerous comments on social networks following its preview, with numerous discussions…

Cinema: in China, the release of “Anatomy of a Fall” stimulates reflection on sexism

Anatomy of a Fall

by Justine Triet is released this Friday on Chinese screens. A film which sparked numerous comments on social networks following its preview, with numerous discussions on the place of women and the female gaze in cinema.

Crowds waiting at the premiere of Justine Triet's 'Anatomy of a Fall' in Beijing, China. © Stéphane Lagarde / RFI

By: Stéphane Lagarde Follow

From our correspondent in Beijing and

Xi Xiangyuan

from the RFI office in Beijing

As in the theater or before the plenary sessions of the Congresses of the Chinese Communist Party, the bell rings before the projections on the big screen in Beida. The campus of the prestigious Beijing University has 48,000 students. In front of the entrance to the

“centenary conference room”,

a large three-dimensional cardboard box presents the setting of

Anatomy of a Fall

: the Savoyard chalet and the characters from the film, in front of which the public comes to take a selfie.

“

Of course we expect this kind of film and French films in general,”

says Jiang Fengyuhuo

. That’s where cinema was invented, right

? And then you have the Cannes Film Festival where we all dream of going,

continues this cinema graduate who knows Godard, Chabrol and Carax like the back of his hand

. I

really looking forward to seeing

Anatomy of a Fall

which won the Palme d'Or and especially to interact with the director

Full house for Anatomy of a Fall this Sunday evening at Peking University. Screening in the presence of Justine Triet. #cinemafrancais #China #AnatomieDuneFall pic.twitter.com/cbwq7iGaXy

— Stéphane Lagarde (@StephaneLagarde) March 24, 2024

Scalpel camera

The session for

Anatomy of a Fall

(translated as

Judgment of a Fall

in Mandarin, 坠落的审判) will begin soon. At the entrance, you jostle to collect your ticket and a reduced reproduction of the film poster. The ground floor and balconies of the university's huge conference room are packed. The spectators snatched up the 2,000 seats.

“Everything was sold in a few hours

”

confides a member of staff at reception.

During the screening, the room laughed out loud, particularly during the sequences between the dog in the film and Daniel, the blind child. “

The dog is the reverse mirror of Daniel,”

Justine Triet would later explain during the press conference.

He is the one who sees and does not speak, while Daniel speaks and does not see

.” “

In this film, the sound is almost as important as the image

,” notes a student who has already seen it twice in class. Long applause over the end credits, then more selfies at the entrance under a big number: “280”. The figure recalls the success of

Anatomy of a Fall

, which won 280 awards including the Palme d'Or and an Oscar.

For those who have not yet seen the film: the fall is that of Samuel, a broken down writer, dead in the snow at the foot of his chalet. And anatomy is the process that dissects the life of a couple. Is it a suicide or a murder committed by his wife Sandra, a successful writer? “

I love the way the director tells this story

”

June enthuses. After the pen camera, Justine Triet's scalpel camera: “

For me, it's like a surgical operation,”

continues this English teacher

. It's very precise, the director is like a surgeon. She uses a knife, or rather the camera is her knife with which she cuts up a family. You can see everything inside this family. This film is fabulous!

Director Justine Triet during a preview of her film Anatomy of a Fall in Beijing, China. © Stéphane Lagarde / RFI

Reinventing the codes

We don't know what June and the others saw in this Franco-German couple who spoke to each other in English. The characteristic of the thriller is also to let the spectators take ownership of the story and its interpretation. “

I am very happy to be here,”

said the director, who is making her first visit to China and wonders how the Chinese public will interpret her film, into the microphone.

The French think Sandra is innocent, the Americans believe she is guilty, and you?

» she says to the spectators. “

It’s the first film that touches people so much. Some tell me they feel like I put cameras in their living room, in their kitchen, in their bedroom. It's therefore very intimate and in all the countries where the film has been shown, there is a very strong positioning around the character of Sandra

Enthusiasm for the work, but disappointment during the debate which followed the screening. On stage, the host and a professor invited to debate launch into long tirades far from the subject, or try to hide gender differences under the guise of harmony, Buddhism and “Asian values”. Due to lack of time, there are few questions in the room, but the hands that spring up come back precisely to what is not always harmonious: couples' relationships, family life, in a country where

the cost of living and education

, as well as

the weight of certain

family traditions, has caused the number of births and marriages to fall.

“

All generations have reinvented the codes of the couple and the family

,” says the director.

Today, young women in their 20s have a different way of behaving. I'm surrounded by lots of people in France who tell me, I'm not sure I want to have a family. In any case, it is impossible today to accept the codes without questioning them.

Network Discussions

Smiles in the eyes of many spectators, then the director answers a question about language in a film where English serves as a bridge for the Franco-German couple. Justine Triet evokes language as a “

mask

” or as a “

filter

” for the character of Sandra. “

More generally, the language embodies the subject of the film and the difficulty in communicating and understanding each other,”

insists the director. »

On several occasions during the exchange, spectators insulted the host, asking him to shut up to let the guest and the other debater of the evening, a female professor renowned for her feminist commitments, speak. This frustration will immediately be found on social networks. The preview of Anatomy of a Fall appeared the next day in the top of the most commented topics on the Weibo network. The debate on sexism then resumed in a more virulent manner.

“

Last night we saw a vivid illustration of the way in which men strategically undermine feminist issues

,” wrote an Internet user whose post was liked more than 35,000 times.

First, they use sophisticated language to circumvent the gender issue. Then, they oppose hollow values blocking the discussion. The objective being to prevent any feminist reflection and to make women invisible.

A reaction probably exaggerated, but a cry from the heart appreciated in particular by young spectators in a China where feminists have little right to speak and where the leaders of the MeToo movement are mostly in exile.

Roles for women by women

To put an end to the controversy, the following conferences in which Justine Triet participates are much more feminine. In particular this

very shared meeting

with the documentary filmmaker Lina Yang and the actress Qi Xi, who campaigns for more

women's roles written by women

in theater and cinema.

Anatomy of a release: this Friday, Justine Triet's film ranked third at the box office. The controversy boosted pre-sales, explains this feminist who wished to remain anonymous: “

There was this incident at the premiere which continued to intensify and people who were not necessarily interested in the film at the start , became curious. They also wanted to see the film. Of course, all these gender comments are exaggerated. Actually, we didn't need such a chaotic situation, but it's a very good film. It reminds me of

Scenes from Married Life

by Ingmar Bergman or

Bergman Island

by

Mia Hansen

Løve which attempt

to deepen the complexity of intimate relationships and

imbalances, including among the filmmakers themselves. On this level,

Anatomy of a Fall

offers some advances and

I hope that it will make those who see it think. It's important for men and women to have serious discussions about family issues and intimate relationships. It's very important in China. »

A film that opens up to debate and reflection.

Anatomy of a Fall

is also the first Palme d'Or projected on Chinese screens in six years, since "Family Affair" by Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-Eda.

Cinema: in China, the release of “Anatomy of a Fall” stimulates reflection on sexism

Cinema: in China, the release of “Anatomy of a Fall” stimulates reflection on sexism

Scalpel camera

Reinventing the codes

Network Discussions

Roles for women by women

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