The electric atmosphere at the Cannes Film Festival peaked when Anatomy of a Fall won the Palme d’Or prize. This year marks a triumphant return for filmmaker Justine Triet after her 2013 romcom, Sibyl.
The win is only the third of its kind, Triet being one of three women to win Cannes’ most prestigious award. She follows the likes of Jane Campion (The Pianist) and Julia Ducournau (Titane). Anatomy of a Fall, in French known as Anatomie d’une Chute, proves worthy of recognition with its smart, pulsing courtroom mystery.
Sandra Hüller plays exhausted writer Sandra Voyter, a woman with an isolated family life in the French Alps. In the kitchen, her son, Daniel, prepares for a walk with the family dog, Messi. Her husband works in the attic upstairs, blasting 50 Cent’s ‘P.I.M.P.’—tension bubbles in the Voyter household. The exact nature of it is unclear.
The film kicks into gear when Daniel returns to find his father on the ground below the attic window, dead. With no witnesses or a solid alibi, the prosecution pins Sandra as the prime suspect in her husband’s death. The film takes place in French courts, but each scene is more tense than the last. With affairs, arguments, and concealed truths, a layered and opaque mystery takes hold. Triet invites viewers to study every aspect of their lives.
The casting is nothing more than perfection, akin to listening to an orchestra. Each band member comes in with the right note at the right time to produce pure magic. Hüller’s performance elicits a call-and-response in the brain, a ping-ponging between the belief in her innocence and guilt. She is a brilliant teacher who gets the audience to watch her every micro-expression.
Hüller’s skill has never been more evident than in the court scenes. In one moment, she begs the judge to acknowledge the scope of her feelings for her husband. She argues that one fight is not a failed marriage, and it does not make her a murderer. It is a masterclass of passion from Hüller. She makes every word come to life and shows the earnestness of her character.
Yet moments later, shifty-eyed, she makes what seems like calculated moves – a new piece of information or an amendment. Is she playing an innocent woman, buckling under scrutiny or a murderer covering her tracks? It’s hard to think of another actor who could make the script sing like she does.
While Sandra Hüller’s performance takes centre stage, the supporting cast is no less gripping. Each member contributes to the film’s harmonious composition. Milo Machado Graner, as the son Daniel, is astounding. Graner goes toe-to-toe with Hüller in skill and keeps Daniel near the story’s core. After all, his future is the absolute risk of the trial. Despite his young age, the actor has remarkable restraint for a professional his age, with promise beyond his years. The depiction may be one of the best child performances of the last decade.
Dead husband, remote chalet, no witness; the premise sets the stage for a gripping narrative, but an intellectual heart beats underneath the film’s hook. Triet presents a truthful account of crime investigation and its ugly faults. As the name of the film would suggest, it’s a thorough study of the fall. Just as the investigation pokes and prods at the family, the film does the same to the justice system and the illusive nature of truth.
When Sandra’s lawyer friend comes to her aid, a frank discussion erupts. ‘I did not murder my husband’, she insists. The lawyer, played by Swann Arlaud, replies that this is ‘not the point’. The scene is in the trailer–a thesis of the movie that Triet wants to declare. The truth takes a backseat to a believable story in the justice system. Not being a woman capable of presenting a simplified version of herself, Sandra struggles the most with judicial reality. The methods used to squash her life and identity into that of a murderer, she must use those same tactics to assuage doubts of her innocence.
In the absence of hard facts, the court is a battle of stories and subjective perspectives. Memories have the audio of courtroom recordings or the voice of the person telling the account–a punchy editing decision by Laurent Sénéchal. Though we try to forget it, the podiums and lawyers are always towering over the truth.
In one of the defining scenes between mother and son, Hüller’s character tells Daniel, with all the parenting wisdom, that he should always tell the truth. His truth can’t hurt her. However, as Sandra finds out, the truth does not always save the day, and as the story progresses, it casts an enormous shadow of doubt over their lives. Whether Voyter is culpable or not, some truths are better undercover than others. In this sense, Anatomy of a Fall is between a mystery and a horror film.
With a brilliant blend of suspense, outstanding performances, and a thought-provoking critique of the justice system, Anatomy of a Fall solidifies its place as a must-watch, leaving audiences both thrilled and introspective.
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