From her office, Sionann O’Neill looks out over the coming spring. The daffodils are blooming. The clearings come through the old woodwork and illuminate the room, where the American spends long days working, in the shadows, behind her small computer. She does not participate in filming, nor does she put a toe in the editing room and yet, it is also thanks to her that French cinema is exported. Based in Cerisy-la-Forêt (Manche), a village of a thousand inhabitants in the Normandy countryside, Sionann O’Neill translates scripts and subtitles for French films and series into English.
Retranscribing the misogyny of the prosecutor
As Anatomy of a fall, awarded the Palme d’Or, six Césars and the Oscar for best screenplay in the United States. It wasn’t the final version yet, but when she saw it for the first time, a few months before the Cannes Film Festival, Sionann felt it. “I thought quite naturally: it’s the Palme! I told Justine (Triet, the director, Editor’s note): I wouldn’t want to jinx you but I’ll give you my first reaction…”, she remembers.
With Thanks to God by François Ozon, Anatomy of a fall is undoubtedly the most “balèze” of his three decades of career. “It’s a big file! Anatomy is very talkative, with long trial scenes. The prosecutor talks fast, pushes like a pit bull, says things that are a bit misogynistic. Generally speaking, we feel that men are not comfortable with this…
