Dir: Justine Triet
Cast: Sandra Huller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado-Graner, Antoine Reinartz, Samuel Theis, Jehnny Beth, Saadia Bentaieb, Camille Rutherford, Anne Rotger, Sophie Fillieres
Sandra Huller delivers the best performance of the year in Justine Triet’s intriguing and chilly courtroom psychodrama.
Without doubt, one of my most anticipated films of the year was Justine Triet‘s Palme d’Or winning murder mystery, ‘Anatomy of a Fall’. Ever since the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival back in May, where it picked up the coveted award, it has been one of the most talked about and acclaimed films of the year. In an age of cinema dominated by superhero movies and action blockbusters, there has been a huge decline in the number of courtroom dramas hitting the big screen. Throughout cinematic history we have had the likes of – Judgement at Nuremberg, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Verdict and a whole bunch of John Grisham adaptations in the 1990’s – serving as fantastic insights into various legal systems, each with their own levels of dramatic effect.
It was not until recently with the release of another French film in Saint Omer, that I was reminded of how compelling a truly gripping courtroom drama can be, and Justine Triet’s fantastic ‘Anatomy of Fall‘ proves that there is still life in the courtroom drama yet.
‘Anatomy of a Fall‘ starts of as a traditional murder mystery, but soon becomes a much more layered analysis of a different kind of a fall than the literal one at the film’s centre. The film’s ambiguous title not only refers to the way in which a character is killed in the opening scenes but also a decline in the central couple’s relationship. Justine Triet intricately performs an autopsy of her own on a relationship that was, once upon a time, a heated romance of two young adults before compromises, a family tragedy and the resulting resentments slowly lead to a horrific end.
We are first introduced to German novelist Sandra Voyter (Sandra Huller) as she is being interviewed by a young student in her picturesque family chalet in the French Alps. As the interview goes on and gets borderline flirtatious, the interview is interrupted by Sandra’s unseen husband, Samuel (Samuel Theis), blasting an instrumental version of 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P.” on repeat, in a successful attempt to derail the interview. As the interviewer leaves, the couple’s partially blind son, Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner) takes his Border Collie, Snoop, for a walk. When he returns to the chalet, he finds Samuel motionless in the snow, a bloody wound to the head. Did he fall from the attic where he was working? Did he jump? Or was there foul play?
It is not long before questions are asked of Sandra, the only person present at the time of death, with the only witness being the visually impaired Daniel who was out of the house. What follows is a sombre, two-and-a-half hour procedural as Sandra pleas here innocence against the French criminal court with the help of her lawyer friend and potential old flame, Vincent (Swann Arlaud).
What Triet has cleverly constructed is an in depth analysis of a couple’s growingly troubled relationship, that ultimately culminates with the death of the family patriarch – whether it was intentional or not. Every decision or confrontation throughout the longevity of the marriage is scrutinised by the media and the prosecution, without these third parties really knowing the couple, or their traumatized son who is in turn swept up in the trial himself as the sole, yet unreliable, witness.
Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari have produced one of the best screenplays of the year here, as they find a perfect balance between the slow and subdued, isolated life of Sandra and her son as they wait out the days leading up to the inevitable trial, with the intense back-and-forth between the defence and relentless prosecution that comes with the trial itself. The screenplay, along with Simon Beaufils’ cinematography, manages to seamlessly shift the film’s perspective from one character to the next, a great example of this is during Daniel’s testimony. As a child who could make or break his mother life and career based on what may come out of his mouth at any moment, we see the camera swing left to right as the poor child is bombarded by questions by the increasingly intimidating prosecution and defence lawyers. There is also a low-angled tracking shot that follows Daniel’s dog Snoop as he wanders through the crime scene in the first act, indicating that even the family pet will play a key role in finding out the truth as to what may have happened in the lead up to Samuel’s untimely death.
The real standout of the film though, who really anchors it down, is Sandra Huller. She is quite simply phenomenal. Her naturally calm demeanour gives the film its substance and emotional force as we see her remain composed throughout a frenetic trial, where witnesses and the prosecution are constantly shaming her for past discretions, as well as the obligatory finger pointing as a suspect to her husbands murder. Huller manages to walk the fine line between grief and anxiety as she keeps you as the viewer forever second guessing if she is indeed capable of murder. The payoff is an explosive reveal of a recorded argument the day before Samuel’s death, where we hear an initially self-controlled Sandra snap as she lays her emotions on the table, resulting in her and Samuel get into a heated verbal and physical altercation.
While I do think the film is masterfully crafted by Triet and Harari, and passionately brought to life by Huller and the supporting cast, the film did leave me wanting more. Triet’s approach of making a by and large, ambiguous murder mystery has turned out to be a double-edged sword. On one hand, the lingering questions and the idea of the audience being left in the dark adds to the intrigue, something that is usually absent from your average on screen murder mystery. However, at the same time it had me leaving the screening unfulfilled and slightly frustrated as the film’s lengthy runtime purely focuses on the why? and not the how?
There is no doubt that ‘Anatomy of a Fall‘ is an excellently crafted and written psychodrama, with a magnificent central performance by Sandra Huller, but despite keeping me engaged throughout it ultimately left me wanting more than the lowkey procedural drama that plays out.
Anatomy of a Fall will be showing in UK Cinemas from Friday 10th November
Dan Loves Film 