Anatomy of a Fall

The 2023 French legal drama, Anatomy of a Fall, did very well when it premiered at multiple film festivals, yet earned true public adoration when it was nominated for several big Oscars at the year’s Academy Awards, even managing to win Best Original Screenplay. The story of a woman being put on trial for the murder on her husband sounds like an all-too-familiar story that could result in a dull experience, yet as a truly effective unravelling mystery should do, it does its duty at producing a thoughtful, tense and beautifully conducted movie from beginning to end.

Set in the city of Grenoble, novelist Sandra Voyter (played by Sandra Hüller) has been forced to cancel an interview with a female college student due to her husband, Samuel (played by Samuel Theis) playing loud music whilst working in the attic. While their visually impaired son, Daniel (played by Milo Machado-Graner) takes a walk with his guide dog, he returns home to find his father dead in the snow outside the house. With authorities being called in, Sandra is offered help from an old lawyer friend, Vincent (played by Swann Arlaud), who believes that in spite of her pleas of innocence, she will be accused of murder. Once the trial gets going, various accusations are thrown at Sandra, with the prosecutor (played by Antoine Reinartz) exposing the messy nature of their family life, including the accident that caused Daniel’s blindness, how their marriage was fractured due to Sandra’s infidelity, how she supposedly stole one of his book ideas for her own novel, and coming to the conclusion that her seemingly cold exterior, bisexuality, and documented accounts of Samuel’s supposed mental breakdown spurned by feelings of emasculation, are the reasons that attributed to his death. With Daniel being at a loss of who to believe, and with Sandra needing to juggle against a jury and witnesses that clearly want her convicted, it’s a court battle that’s more about image than facts.

With gripping performances, wonderfully unpolished visuals, and truly stunning directing and writing from Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall portrays a complicated family tragedy in a way that is insightful and engaging, but also undetermined, professional, and sly in the best way possible.

A good procedural drama knows how to entice and hook its audience through a gritty yet deductive atmosphere, alluring performances, and a steady pace that keeps its audience invested in a narrative that is usually driven by a solo event or conflict. This is how Anatomy of a Fall works, not really relying on supporting characters, side-plots or even backstory to flour up the mystery and instead trusting that the murder itself and the way the characters react to the situation will be enough to keep them entertained, and it really does. For a two-and-a-half hour-long running time, the movie never loses the audience’s attention, wonderfully drip-feeding information in a believable and properly paced-out manner and delivering this relatively simple mystery in a way that isn’t easy to properly figure out. It smartly decides to keep the truth of the death vague, leaving it up to the audience to decide whether they think it was a coincidental accident or a purposeful kill which creates an ambiguous scenario that doesn’t give any direct answers but also doesn’t feel like a coup out as no threads are really left loose.

This interpretative angle works seamlessly within a murder trial (especially one about a familial death) and upon seeing how this woman’s innocence is being judged by a clearly biased jury within a vacuum of past events rather than what the evidence and alibis dictate, this gracefully flows into the film’s theme of perception, the media’s influence in shaping how a tragedy is viewed, and how the truth can sometimes be interpretative and some have to willingly choose which angle they believe in more in order to reach an answer that will benefit a majority. All of this comes from a beautifully written script handled by director, Justine Triet, and her husband, Arthur Harari, who both do a great job escalating the tension yet never climaxing to a point that feels overly cinematic or tropey, always keeping a grounded element that makes the unfolding events feel more genuine. It’s paced phenomenally, the dialogue is crisp and has a provocative underbelly without feeling preachy, the actors all feel like real people yet have a shadiness to their body movements and facial expressions that makes you watch their every move, and come the end of the film, while it might not have a definitive answer, you won’t feel cheated and instead appreciate the film’s subdued nature and how it allowed the characters and backstory to inform the situation rather than the other way round.

While Triet gained a lot of attention from this feature as it elevated her from a niche foreign director into one that was now in Hollywood’s spotlight, Sandra Hüller also became the talk of the town, with her leading performance being praised to such a degree that she was nominated for Best Actress at the Oscar. That along with a similarly applauded performance in The Zone of Interest (another highly acclaimed and Award-friendly 2023 film that earned her a Golden Globe nomination), gained her a much wider audience who realized that she was a talent worth keeping an eye on. Being asked to handle a lot of heavy scenes and dramatic monologues in a way that still feels believable, Hüller is fantastic at effectively portraying this woman who on the surface seems genuinely innocent, yet her rehearsed manner of speaking, overly blunt and un-phased demeanor, and her uncertain expressions and mannerisms, make her a mysterious figure who you can never quite pin down. Was she a frustrated somewhat cold-hearted person that eventually boiled over into a final snapping point, or was she just a woman who has been through some tragedies, dealt with them in a hurtful manner and is trying to do better in the present? It’s left unclear and the audience is given the option of whether to root for her or side against her, either one is believable, and it’s a very well-handled character led by a very capable actress.

The remainder of the cast is also quite strong, adding to the tense atmosphere of the picture with everybody seemingly being on daggers and wanting answers, but are never sure exactly what questions to ask. Swann Arlaud acts as a friendly support for Sandra, but his uncertainty surrounding the case makes him feel more like a real person and not just a tool for the story, Antoine Reinartz is effectively frustrating as the prosecutor and feels like a person who is clearly taking this more personally than he should (which can also be said for the rest of the people involved in the trial), and Samuel Theis as the recently deceased husband uses his brief time usefully by constructing a man who is also hard to pin down and could be either sympathetic or just pathetic. Milo Machado-Graner is really good as Daniel, feeling like one of the only people without a secondary agenda and is conflicted on how to perceive both his parents, but still reacts and breaks down like a regular kid, it’s a performance that is equally as powerful as his adult co-stars and shows a real strong young talent. Even the dog in this is incredibly well acted, getting across a lot of emotion and even effectively portrays dying to an almost shocking degree (no wonder they allowed him to the Oscar’s after party), it’s an all-around fantastic cast.

Given the film’s limited theatrical release and its very small budget of only €6.2 million ($6.7 million dollars-worth of U.S currency), Anatomy of a Fall doesn’t feature a lot of flashy visuals or high-tech cinematic qualities. Given its down-to-earth nature, it doesn’t need or would even benefit from an increased budget, but other trial-based movies have been enhanced through cleaner camera tricks and sharp editing, which really helps to increase the pace and mood of relatively stagnant scenes. This film does still manage to pull this off with very little money, and even though it doesn’t feature anything noticeably large-scale, it still knows how to use its technicals well. The camera work by Simon Beaufils only on occasions has some truly striking imagery (the shot that was used for the poster is fittingly its greatest visual), but the more grounded nature of the story comes through in how it’s filmed. The camera quality has a very naturalistic feel to it; it can be a little shaky and almost ‘’hand-held’’ in moments like it’s mimicking a news reporter following a target, the lighting is portrayed very realistically which results in some strikingly bright moments in the daytime and strikingly dark moments in the night time, there’s not a lot of motion in any of the shots which allows the scenes to sink and sit as they are, and the editing by Laurent Sénéchal during the dialogue sequences and especially the trial scenes is very punchy and quick, never losing its pacing and keeping the frantic and often rabid nature of the moments at full percent, which in turn puts the audience on high alert. It doesn’t look the most polished or fancy, yet it conveys truthful imagery in a way that can still look pretty. The film’s lack of a score outside of some choice piano melodies and some usage of diegetic music also adds to the uncomfortable nature of many scenes, leaving the actors to disrupt the silence in often dramatic ways which can be even more meaningful than any music could’ve provided.

Despite the genre being frequently utilized in cinema (especially within the higher echelons), it’s always nice to see a courtroom drama handled effectively, because they can be some of the most tense, engaging, and thrilling experiences in film that doesn’t involve action or large-scale conflict. Anatomy of a Fall is another fine example of this, managing to do so in a way that still feels fresh and is even trying to inject something more into a genre that could’ve just played things safe without issue. While not groundbreaking material to focus on, it is well constructed, told and fitting for the kind of narrative and situation that’s been presented, and alongside the nicely handled visuals, engaging performances, and truly great writing and directing, it results in a pretty amazing package. In spite of its minuscule release window and small public awareness, this film is worthy of searching out so that you too can inject your own beliefs and piece together who you think did what.