Anatomy of a Fall
Director: Justine Triet
18 June 2023
See
Him: Sandra (Sandra Hüller) a German writer living with her academic husband in a French chalet is suspected of his murder. Their blind son’s testimony is key evidence, but there’s much else about their relationship that he didn’t see.
Her: Anatomy of a Fall is a 2.5 hour long courtroom drama directed by French female director Justine Triet. Winning the Palme D’Or at this years Cannes made Justine the third woman in history of the film festival to win this most prestigious award.
Think
Him: Seeing a French courtroom drama is reinvigorating for a tired genre. I was triggered bty all the red herring along the way because of my experience with true crime. I thought the comedy series Search Party had subverted the schadenfreude at the suffering of others through comedy. But drama hits higher and lower and harder than any other. Sandra’s advocat Vincent (Swaann Arlaud) has a feline intellect in navigating complex proceedings and perceptions. But it’s Sandra and her husband Samuel (Samuel Theis) that are a revelation in the scenes as evidence reconstructing a fight the had before he died that he recorded the audio of. Their boy Daniel (Milo Machado Graner) is remarkable handling the weight of heavy subject matter, as is his acting with his dog.
Her: Despite the captivsating story premise, this film wouldn’t be as great without Triet’s amazing direction and work with actors. It’s usually hard for me to seperatethe two: where does the director’s input end and the actor’s skill start? When I watched the film for the second time, a few days after the first viewing, it was even more interesting to watch all the actors play their parts and pay close attention to their performance.
Feel
Him: Titane was visceral, and Triangle of Sadness tapped into the zeitgeist, but Anatomy of a Fall is the best Palme D’Or winner I’ve seen at the Sydney Film Festival. The interview at the start, the writer struggling to create, crime and K9 all rang true to me. I didn’t even have a chance to focus on the stunning setting or earworm repetition of a fun song with Bacao Rhythm Steel Band’s cover of P.I.M.P. even if the lyrics are sexist, at least it’s an instrumental.
Her: The devil is in the details. This could be the tagline to this film but also what made it so good. Given the popularity of the genre, it could have been just another murder mystery but because of how masterfully it was made, I don’t really care if she killed him or not.
