M6 is broadcasting the film “Stillwater” this Tuesday, April 23, 2024. Carried by Matt Damon and Camille Cottin, it is freely inspired by a resounding news story with multiple twists and turns.
There is a good chance that viewers will vaguely recognize the plot of Stillwater, broadcast on M6 this Tuesday April 23 at 9:10 p.m. This thriller presented at the Cannes Film Festival in 2021 follows Bill Baker, a former American driller, whose daughter is sentenced to nine years in prison for a crime she claims not to have committed. He then goes to Marseille, to the scene of the tragedy, to prove the young woman's innocence, helped by an actress he met by chance.
Directed by Tom McCarthy (Spotlight), Stillwater brings together a cast of cinema stars, namely Matt Damon in the leading role, who plays opposite Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) and Frenchwoman Camille Cottin (Ten Percent). To write the script for this film which questions cultural differences, he drew inspiration very freely from a real news item which hit the headlines in 2007: the Amanda Knox affair.
At that time, the 20-year-old American student was accused of killing her roommate, Meredith Kercher, who was found dead in the bathroom of the apartment they shared in Perugia, Italy. Amanda Knox continues to proclaim her innocence, but she is still found guilty at first instance and sentenced to 25 years in prison. But four years later, in 2011, she was finally acquitted on appeal, due to lack of sufficient evidence.
In 2015, she was definitively acquitted by the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation, recognizing “significant failures” in the investigation. Subsequently, a burglar, Rudy Guede, was arrested and found guilty of the murder. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison, and released permanently on November 23, 2021. However, he suggested at that time that Amanda Knox may have been involved in the murder.
Tom McCarthy has made no secret of being inspired by the Amanda Knox affair to write the screenplay for Stillwater. The main interested party did not appreciate the film, to which the director responded in an interview with Variety "having a lot of empathy for Amanda and what she experienced [...] but, according to what she says about it, she has not seen the film. Stillwater is fiction, and does not tell about her personal experience,” including the overall plot and “invented” characters.
