Turning true stories into TV or movie dramas is a process fraught with danger.
Get it wrong and there will be no shortage of real life figures portrayed onscreen ready to tell you how you failed them.
Even if you get much of it right, someone will find a dramatic liberty taken and fume.
HBO's 'The Staircase' is a good example.
Filmmaker Jean Xavier de Lestrade, whose documentary inspired HBO's miniseries, has declared he feels betrayed by the way storylines had been altered by the showrunner and director Antonio Campos after opening up his archive to him.
The original documentary series' editor Sophie Brunet, who is portrayed by Juliette Binoche in the drama, has also been angered by her depiction in the miniseries - claiming it has undermined her professional credibility.
Petersen, the suspected murderer portrayed by Colin Firth, has blamed de Lestrade for the unhappiness around HBO's adaptation, accusing him of pimping his family's story out to Campos and paving the way for "egregious distortions" of his life and those of his family.
As a result, 'The Staircase' feels like a textbook example of why visual storytellers need to tread very carefully when dramatising sensitive real life stories.
And as the storm rages, it will be fascinating to see if the brouhaha will ultimately undermine the show's awards hopes.
As a piece of drama, though, Campos' series is unquestionably gripping to watch.
For those of you not familiar with the 2004 documentary series, Firth's Michael Petersen was married to Nortel executive, Toni Collette's Kathleen Petersen for four years - living comfortably in Durham, North Carolina.
An author, he wrote opinion columns for the Durham Herald Sun where he acquired a reputation for articles that were highly critical of the local police.
He also ran unsuccessfully for Mayor.
However all that spectacularly combusted when Kathleen died at the foot of a staircase in the family home.
Campos' series begins with audio of Petersen's distressed calls to the emergency services during which he claims Kathleen has fallen down the stairs and is dying from the head trauma.
Returning to the family home from a Christmas party with his girlfriend, Michael's youngest son from his first marriage Patrick Schwarzenegger's Todd is stunned to see police and ambulances there.
Given permission to enter by a police officer, he finds his dad in an inconsolable state of grief.
Michael is so overcome with emotion at her passing, he even starts hugging his wife's corpse while police forensics try to prize him away.
As his other son Dane DeHaan's Clayton, adopted daughters Sophie Turner's Margaret Ratliff and Odessa Young's Martha Ratliff and Kathleen's daughter from her first marriage, Olivia DeJonge's Caitlin Atwater rally round Michael, it soon becomes clear the police suspect foul play.
And when the autopsy results surface, Cullen Moss's Durham County prosecutor Jim Hardin and his colleague, Parker Posey's Freda Black are convinced Kathleen was the victim of a vicious assault.
Their investigators go in search of a motive and the family home is thoroughly searched with computer hard drives seized.
The searches yield gay pornography on his computer, with the prosecutors starting to dive into Michael's bisexuality and the extent to which Kathleen might have been aware - believing this might provide a motive.
Using the autopsy photos, Hardin and Black also persuade Kathleen's sisters Rosemarie DeWitt's Candace Hunt and Maria Dizzia's Lori Campbell that their brother-in-law murdered her.
Soon, pressure mounts on Todd, Clayton, Margaret, Martha and particularly Caitlin to break rank.
However with no murder weapon and a theory from Candace that he attacked Kathleen with a poker, it is a tough sell.
On the advice of his brother Tim Guinee's Bill Petersen, Michael hires Michael Stuhlbarg's attorney David Rudolf to defend him.
After Michael is charged with murder, Rudolf and his team fend a request from a French documentary team who want to follow the trial.
Vincent Vermingnon's director Jean Xavier and Frank Feys' producer Denis Poncet bring a camera crew with them whose presence Michael seems to enjoy.
Back in Paris, Juliette Binoche's Sophie Brunet edits the show but becomes so emotionally invested, she starts writing sympathetic letters to Michael as he battles the authorities.
As the drama unfolds over eight episodes, Campos and his fellow writers Maggie Cohn, Emily Kaczmarek and Craig Shilowich build a complex story where various theories about how Kathleen died are gruesomely recreated and tested.
From the facts portrayed onscreen, the audience are asked to make up their own minds on whether they think Michael Petersen was guilty or framed.
Like a lot of justice dramas about real life or fictional cases, the US legal system is presented as a game.
In this battle of wits, the prosecutors and defence score points off each other and manipulate family members, witnesses, the media and the public.
It is easy to understand why audiences of the original documentary series were gripped, as questions surface about Michael's trustworthiness and the credibility of the forensic evidence presented by prosecutors in court.
Confidently directed by Campos and Leigh Janiak - including a magnificent sequence where the cameras swoop around the Petersens' cars as Michael presents himself for police questioning - one of the miniseries' strongest cards is its casting.
Firth is excellent as Michael - portraying him at times as pompous, vain, mendacious and vulnerable.
The audience is kept guessing throughout as to whether Petersen is guilty or not as more facts emerge about his lying about his military record, a staggering coincidence in Germany and his dalliances with men.
Collette is as reliable as ever, as we get a peek throughout the show into various episodes in Kathleen's life.
Schwarzenegger, DeHaan, Turner and Young impress as the adult children and stepchildren whose lives are turned upside down by the fallout from Kathleen's death.
Throughout the miniseries, some of the family members' confidence in Michael gets chipped away, as the Petersens' fortune is bled dry by an expensive legal system.
DeJonge catches the eye too as the half sibling whose faith in Michael is especially rocked early on, while DeWitt and Dizzia convince as Kathleen's grieving and angry sisters.
Trini Alvarado pops up as Michael's kooky ex-wife and mother of Clayton and Todd who relocates from Germany to support their father, while Guinee is sturdy in the role of Michael's loyal brother.
In a drama where nothing is straightforward, though, Moss and Posey are good value as prosecutors whose handling of the original trial raises legitimate questions.
Stuhlbarg is excellent too as the defence attorney.
And Binoche turns in a compelling performance as Sophie.
Vermingnon and Feys are also very effective capturing the creative tensions between the French documentary director and his producer.
However it is the way these characters are portrayed that is undoubtedly the Achilles Heel of 'The Staircase'.
It's hard not to feel some sympathy for the real life Brunet who did have a 13 year relationship with Petersen but feels wounded by the suggestion in the drama that she edited things out of the original documentary to support him.
Similarly, de Lestrade and Poncet are right to feel angry at the suggestion that they would let Brunet edit the entire Peabody winning docuseries when it was clear she was romantically involved with Petersen.
That is a bit of a slap to their credibility and to suggest this seems a massive breach of trust on the part of Campos, given de Lestrade's cooperation - although the French filmmaker's claim that he never read the scripts seems a little naive.
Not only this, Michael Petersen's attorney David Rudolf has also taken issue with the suggestion that the Petersens had to sell the family house and possession to fund his legal bills.
In later episodes, it is easy to see why people could infer that Michael may have murdered Kathleen for money - something that no doubt will rankle with some in the family.
All of these are not insignificant issues for the real life players in the murder trial and they raise important questions about the need for the programme makers to be more sensitive.
With its mix of the gruesome details, lurid sex and wacky theories about owls, Campos has undoubtedly created a gripping drama that will be talked about for some time.
It is impressively directed by him and Janiak and Lyle Vincent and Michael Svitak's cinematography should be particularly applauded.
However for all these achievements, 'The Staircase' may not be talked about for the right reasons.
The show should serve as a cautionary tale for anyone turning true stories into TV dramas or movies.
No matter how strong a series or film is, directors and writers dramatising true stories need to tread carefully.
Otherwise they end up corking a great piece of drama.
('The Staircase' was broadcast on Sky Atlantic from May 5-June 9, 2022)
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