Anatomy of a fall: what if it was a crime?

French director Justine Triet and German actress Sandra Hüller are experiencing the best moment of their professional lives. Anatomy of a fall won the Palme d’Or in CannesAnd now it is Oscar nominee for best film. It is not competing in an international film, because France has decided to send another film (The taste of thingswith Juliette Binoche), who was not among the nominees.

Triet is running for the Oscar for best director and best original screenplay, and Hüller, for best leading actress for this film and best supporting actress for The area of ​​interest.

Anatomy of a fall is a film that spends a good part of its two and a half hours in a courtroom, where the guilt or otherwise of Sandra (Sandra Hüller, of the excellent Tony Erdman), the wife of the Frenchman Samuel (Samuel Theis), who apparently committed suicide by throwing himself from a window of their beautiful chalet in the French Alps. Samuel is a former academic and aspiring writer, and is going through a professional crisis, a creative block. He ultimately hopes to save the family fortune by putting the chalet, with a splendid view, on Airbnb.

Anatomy of a fall has a scene that mobilizes and arouses strong interest: an argument that the couple had a day before Samuel’s death, very revealing of the pain, feelings, fears and resentments of the couple, whose little son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner ), who injured his optic nerves in an accident, are to testify.

The film really captures and tests the nerves of that scene, because everything you thought was true, may not be. In other words: we are faced with a suspicious death, of which the only witness is a blind man.

So it’s a courtroom drama, a mystery.

But long before they reach the courthouse, another scene testifies to how the couple was doing: she gives an interview in the chalet, while he hammers away at full volume upstairs. Conclusion: the interview is postponed. They have reached this extreme: not agreeing on a minimum level of coexistence.

Sandra tries to take a nap, while the couple’s son, Daniel, takes his dog Snoop for a walk. The boy is in for a terrible surprise when his father’s body is found in the snow outside the chalet. Samuel has a head injury.

Questions that add up

And the questions add up. Did he fall from the upstairs window? Did someone hit him?

Daniel’s blindness was also the subject of a dispute between his parents, as Sandra understands that what happened to her son is a consequence of the negligence of his father, who should have been taking care of Daniel at the time. Samuel ends up hating his wife and even believes that he plagiarized an idea that belonged to him.

In any case, the main suspect in Samuel’s death is Sandra, who hires a friend (who may be in love with her) as a defense lawyer. The problem is that the only witness is Daniel, who although he cannot see, can contribute to the case. And help or defenestrate his mother with her testimony. His memories of what he heard that day are uncertain, but who knows his parents more than a child?

What really happened?

French director Justine Triet tells her story with distance and coldness, so the viewer can wonder until the last moment whether Sandra is guilty or not. The film strikes us precisely because of the humanity of all the people involved, Sandra, her traumatized son, the medical examiner. The performances are subtle, natural, simple, in this intelligent and subtly perverse film, which deals with the profound relationships of a family.

“Anatomy of a Fall”

Drama/Suspense. France, 2023. Original title: “Anatomy of a shot”. 151′, SAM 13 R. From: Justine Triet. With: Sandra Hüller, Samuel Theis, Swann Arlaud, Miilo Machado Graner. Rooms: Hoyts Abasto and Unicenter, Cinemark Palermo, Cinépolis Recoleta and Pilar, Showcase Belgrano.