Director Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall (originally titled Anatomie d’une Chute in its native French) received critical acclaim after its release. The film explores the French legal justice system through a woman who becomes the suspect in her husband’s murder. It also received five nominations at the upcoming 96th Academy Awards.
While discussing her work on the film, Justine Triet spoke about some of the challenges she faced. Triet revealed she was unable to gain the rights to use a Dolly Parton song for one of the film’s most pivotal scenes. As a result, she had to find a creative solution to the problem. Here is what Triet said about not getting the approval to use one of Dolly Parton’s most famous songs in Anatomy of a Fall.
Justine Triet Wanted To Use Dolly Parton’s 1974 Song Jolene in Anatomy of a Fall
Justine Triet directed the 2023 French legal drama film Anatomy of a Fall. The film received critical acclaim and several accolades including two Golden Globe awards. In an interview with Screen Daily, Triet discussed her work on the film in great detail and broke down the challenges behind several important scenes.
During the conversation, Triet spoke about the film’s interview scene, which leads to a big reveal during the opening sequence. Triet stated that she initially wanted to use a famous Dolly Parton song for the scene.
She asked for the rights to Parton’s 1974 hit song Jolene, as she had already conceived a later scene to work with specific lyrics from the song.
“It was meant to be Dolly Parton’s Jolene, but her team wouldn’t give us the rights. We’d even written specific dialogue for the later courtroom scenes that analyzed the lyrics of that song.”
Triet made the above statement explaining why she wanted to use Jolene for some of the film’s most important scenes.
“I was very furious because I was, like, in the, in the courtroom, we have many, many things about the, the lines of the song.”
Triet stated the above during a press event expressing her disappointment with not getting the song’s rights. The original song explores the confrontation between the narrator and the titular woman, whom the former feels will steal her husband/lover. As a result, Triet felt the song would be an ideal fit for the movie exploring a couple’s relationship and the ensuing courtroom drama.
Justine Triet Talks Redoing the Scene With an Instrumental Cover of a 50 Cent Song
During the same interview, Triet also spoke about how she dealt with the setback of not getting the rights to use Parton’s Jolene in Anatomy of a Fall. Triet revealed that after she was denied her first choice, she settled on a different song.
The final version of the film used an instrumental cover of the hip-hop song P.I.M.P. by rapper 50 Cent. The cover was performed by Germany’s Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band. Triet made the following statement explaining how she settled on the cover song to replace her first choice:
“I had this lyric-free version of P.I.M.P. on my computer. It’s so displaced in terms of what’s happening in the scene itself. It’s very playful.”
In a separate interview with GQ, Triet revealed that she felt the song represented Samuel, who appears in the film through flashbacks and is the victim at the center of the murder case that drives the story. Triet added that she used the song because she felt it was aggressive and funny at the same time.
Anatomy of a Fall is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video and other PVOD platforms.
