Anatomy of a Fall
In Justine Triet's Palme d'Or winner, a moment in time transforms the status quo of a family in the French Alps.
Cold cuts: Sandra Hüller and Swann Arlaudn
A single moment in any given situation can take on a multitude of interpretations depending on the context, perspective or even a false memory. Near Grenoble, in the French Alps, a prominent German novelist is being interviewed in her beautifully appointed chalet, surrounded by snow. It is the perfect setting for a bourgeois interaction, when without warning loud instrumental music starts playing from upstairs. Suddenly, it’s hard to hear exactly what Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller) is saying, or indeed the questions posed by the journalist Zoé (Camille Rutherford). It’s an uncomfortable moment, both for Zoé and for us, particularly as Sandra Voyter makes no attempt to resolve the situation by halting the music (50 Cent’s ‘P.I.M.P.’). She suggests that Zoé leave and that maybe they continue their interview at another time. In the minutes that follow, after Zoé has left, a tragedy unfolds, an event that could be a terrible accident, a suicide or even a murder…
Marking the fourth feature of the French filmmaker Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes festival and is a strong contender for securing Sandra Hüller an Oscar nomination, which would make her the first German actress to do so since Marlene Dietrich (in 1931). Although the film failed to be put forward as France’s candidate for the Oscar for best international feature (that honour fell to Trần Anh Hùng's The Taste of Things), it is a grown-up, meticulously researched and exquisitely executed piece of cinema, ripe with ambiguity and possibility. Multiple viewpoints are advanced as the film develops into a courtroom drama and matters further exacerbated by a collision of language: Sandra is German, her husband is French and they communicate with their 11-year-old son Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner) in English. Furthermore, Daniel is all but blind and confesses his own confusion regarding the exact order of events (“he sees things we can’t”).
As more evidence emerges and new layers are unpicked – and lies exposed – the film continues to engage due partly to the naturalism of the performances and partly due to Triet’s masterful camerawork and editing. However, at over two-and-a-half hours, the film is in danger of over-stretching the patience, particularly as it fails to offer anything outstandingly new or revelatory. As such, it remains a consummate piece of filmmaking albeit with not enough substance to astonish or amaze. It is the prospect of what might emerge that proves more absorbing than what we actually get. A tighter running time would have produced a more compelling watch, although it’s hard to blot out the performance of Sandra Hüller, and of Milo Machado-Graner (who isn’t really blind) as her preternaturally brave, disoriented child.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Sandra Hüller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado-Graner, Antoine Reinartz, Samuel Theis, Jehnny Beth, Saadia Bentaieb, Camille Rutherford, Anne Rotger, Sophie Fillières.
Dir Justine Triet, Pro Marie-Ange Luciani and David Thion, Screenplay Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, Ph Simon Beaufils, Pro Des Emmanuelle Duplay, Ed Laurent Sénéchal, Costumes Isabelle Pannetier, Sound Fanny Martin.
Les Films Pelléas/Les Films de Pierre/Canal+-Lionsgate UK.
151 mins. France. 2023. US Rel: 13 October 2023. UK Rel: 10 November 2023. Cert. 15.
