France excludes Anatomy of a Fall from the Oscar race: a political choice?

Not seeing it as a purely political decision seems difficult. A true success with critics and the public having won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, the sublime Anatomy of a fall by French director Justine Triet has been excluded from the 2024 Oscar race.

But where is Anatomy of a Fall?

Until now, Justine Triet’s film was in the running Drop of goldFrom The animal kingdomFrom On the black paths and of The passion of Dodin Bouffant. This latest film has finally been chosen for the American competition scheduled for next March.

Directed by Frenchman of Vietnamese origin Trần Anh Hùng, this historical drama set in bourgeois France in 1885 recounts the preparation of dishes by a cook named Eugénie (Juliette Binoche) and Dodin (Benoît Magimel), a famous gastronome whom she admires and with whom he begins a romantic relationship. At Cannes the film was released with the price of staging.

A movie old-fashioned and reactionary“, “a two-hour spot for the stew”: an incomprehensible choice

Many online are wondering about this decision taken on September 21st by a commission made up of “producers, international salespeople and US distributors of each selected film” (FranceInfo).

This choice is all the more questionable given that, during its screening at the Cannes festival, Trần Anh Hùng’s film received the first returns were rather coldcritics regret a film whose the theme is dark and academic like its setting.

From the part of Teleramawe qualify the film as “Two-hour commercial for stew”. As for Jean-Marc Lalanne, editor-in-chief of InrockShe even expressed his surprise at seeing the presence in competition at Cannes of a film that he himself describes as:

old-fashioned and reactionary (which) is awkwardly inspired by the French myth of haute cuisine.

A director who is too feminist and committed against the government?

Many suspect a political decision. In fact, during the platform offered by her Palme d’Or, Justine Triet paid tribute to “powerful and unanimous protest against the pension reform”regretting having done so “it was denied, shockingly repressed”of a “the increasingly uninhibited dominant power ». She also gave a cry of alarm “the commodification of culture […] break the French cultural exception » who she confided she was “Really the product ».

Furthermore, Justine Triet’s mobilization is also embodied in a film with strong feminist tones. In the columns of Huffington Post last August the director explained it clearly:

I also show a moral point of viewa society that judges this woman for taking up space without asking permission. (…) I think she is a little more mistreated because she is free. Unfortunately it is in my opinion quite representative of our society.

Justine Triet

The 95th Academy Awards will be held on March 10, 2024 in Los Angeles. In December 2023 the Academy will reveal the title of 15 international films chosen in pre-selectionbefore announcing the five finalist films on January 23, 2024. Let us remember that the last Oscar won by France at the Oscars dates back to 31 years old : he was inside 1993with the film Indochina by Régis Wargnier.