Before getting ready for bed last night,I decided to have a look at what was screening this week at my local multiplex. Going down the list of titles,I was excited to find,that as part of a BFI season, the cinema was doing a one-off screening tomorrow night of the submission from France for the Oscar's this year, this led to me quickly getting ready to attend the trial.
View on the film:
Placing the audience in one of the jury seats, co-writer (with Marie N'Diaye, Zoe Galeron and Amrita David - who was also the editor) / director Alice Diop & Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019-also reviewed) cinematographer Claire Mathon present a portrait of Coly ( played with an outstanding eloquent quality by Guslagie Malanda) painted in long brushstrokes.
Diop and Mathon hold the camera in long-take mid-shots placed right next to the stand, which along with giving the excellent cast space to build their performances, also allows the viewer to fully absorb the testimony taking place in the case, against the plain, fading colours of the courthouse.
Coming from a background in documentary film making, the screenplay by Diop (who recently said that "I make films from the margins because that's my territory, my history") and co-writers David, N'Diaye and Galeron seamlessly thread real life court testimony from the trial of Fabienne Kabou,( (a trial Diop attended) Kabou got 20 years in prison for leaving her baby to drown,with the court deeming she suffered from impaired judgement ) into the grounded realism of Coly.
The writers skillfully shave away from any hint of courtroom Melodrama, thanks to the naturalistic dialogue exploring the background to the case, and Coly's life in the margins, which offer no easy, comforting answers to the audience on the verdict of the trial.
View on the film:
Placing the audience in one of the jury seats, co-writer (with Marie N'Diaye, Zoe Galeron and Amrita David - who was also the editor) / director Alice Diop & Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019-also reviewed) cinematographer Claire Mathon present a portrait of Coly ( played with an outstanding eloquent quality by Guslagie Malanda) painted in long brushstrokes.
Diop and Mathon hold the camera in long-take mid-shots placed right next to the stand, which along with giving the excellent cast space to build their performances, also allows the viewer to fully absorb the testimony taking place in the case, against the plain, fading colours of the courthouse.
Coming from a background in documentary film making, the screenplay by Diop (who recently said that "I make films from the margins because that's my territory, my history") and co-writers David, N'Diaye and Galeron seamlessly thread real life court testimony from the trial of Fabienne Kabou,( (a trial Diop attended) Kabou got 20 years in prison for leaving her baby to drown,with the court deeming she suffered from impaired judgement ) into the grounded realism of Coly.
The writers skillfully shave away from any hint of courtroom Melodrama, thanks to the naturalistic dialogue exploring the background to the case, and Coly's life in the margins, which offer no easy, comforting answers to the audience on the verdict of the trial.