Direction: Justine Triet
Country: France
Cannes Film Festival’s Palme D’Or winner, Anatomy of a Fall, is a dense courtroom drama filled with intriguing and revelatory developments. The film, brilliantly directed by Justine Triet (Age of Panic, 2013; Sybil, 2019) and co-written with close collaborator Arthur Harari (Onoda: 10,000 in the Jungle, 2021), stars Sandra Hüller as Sandra Voyter, a German writer living in a secluded chalet in the mountains of France. She becomes the prime suspect in her writer husband’s mysterious death, despite persisting doubts about whether it was an accident, suicide, or murder. To complicate matters, Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner), the couple's visually impaired 11-year-old son and the sole witness to the case, changes his testimony.
With a fine-tuned script that materializes in an impeccable staging, this cooly absorbing, nonchalantly cynical family drama presents three-dimensional characters who hold our attention throughout. Its real masterstroke is the shroud of ambiguity that erupts as the narrative dissects the fragile marital relationship between the couple. Many details and discrepancies must be considered during the investigation: a past accident involving their son caused guilt and resentment; the literary couple has disparate professional successes; and Sandra, being bisexual, had a few flings with women that motivated jealousy.
Hüller, who first gained notoriety in Mare Ade’s Toni Erdmann (2016), exudes dazzling charisma and oozes class with her performance, while Triet is at the top of her game, creating a precise, intelligent portrait of a free woman whose confidence and composure never seem shaken. The close-ups are penetratingly sharp, and the dialogues are absorbing, allowing the film to breeze through its two-hour-and-thirty-minute running time despite the weightiness of a psychological drama woven with incredible richness. Anatomy of a Fall is easily the most attractive and entertaining courtroom drama in recent years and represents Triet’s best work.
