By José Alberto Hermosillo
“Anatomy of a Fall” is a sublime, thrilling, and transcendental family courtroom crime/thriller/drama. It is a modern work of art that focuses on a freak accident and the unsettled battle of the sexes - Masterfully written, directed, performed, photographed, and edited.
The 2023 Palme d’Or winner contains three familiar and robust
characters who speak in different languages - French, German, and English, as
common ground. Despite their blood ties, the three members of the family are
drawn into life-changing circumstances where death, entrapment, and murder play
a significant role in their lives. But absolutely none of them plays the victim
in this well-rounded, multi-layered story.
Up in the snowy mountains of Grenoble, France, the apparently
harmonious family composed of a successful and busy German author named Sandra Voyter
(Sandra Hüller), a frustrated French writer/teacher, Samuel Moleski (Samuel
Theis), and their son Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner).
Milo is a young actor who previously participated in other successful French movies such as “Stuck Together,” “Waiting for Bojangles.” The talented actor is extraordinary in playing the legally blind teenager who likes to hike with his dog, Messi, by the trails of the Dauphiné Alps.
Later in the film, we learn that the intellectual couple constantly fights, blaming each other for their child’s accident and how to manage their precious time to take care of their eleven-year-old.
Because of the accident, Daniel developed a high sensitivity to light exposure, which
made him partially blind. He is independent but still needs adult
supervision. Regardless of his impediment, Daniel plays the piano beautifully and
walks daily by the mountain trail with his trained dog.
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The dog Messi from “Anatomy of a Fall” at the Oscar Luncheon. |
Le chien, Messi has been
recognized as the absolute winner of the “Palm Dog” Award for his performance
in this movie during this past edition of the Cannes Film Festival - and is
making big waves on the red carpets in Hollywood during the 2024 award season.
After Samuel’s tragic death, Daniel continued his piano
lesson rehearsing “Asturias” (Leyenda), which was composed by Issac
Albéniz. The strident music played during “The Fall” and replayed during the gathering
of evidence is bringing more confusion and chaos. The music is recurrent and a
pivotal part of the narrative.
“Anatomy of a Fall” is divided into three structural parts, the day of the accident, the trial, and the unexpected resolution.
The film cleverly builds tension in some of
the scenes; in others, it lingers through the beauty of the natural
locations thanks to the gorgeous cinematography of Simon Beaufils (“My Donkey,
My Lover, and I,” “Knife + Heart”).
After the “fall,” the trial is immediate. The pace of the
film progresses rapidly, as the family has no time to grieve. Furthermore, we see the wife in the house training with her lawyer on
what to say or not to say before the trial and how she has to justify the
bruises on her arm.
After examining all the evidence and collecting the people’s
statements, the prosecutors find some discrepancies that may alter the cause of
death, whether the case can be considered an accident or murder. Even though
the film stipulates that all the legal repercussions after the “questionable death” happened
a year later.
The prosecutors found the
husband’s recordings with some of the most recent couple’s fights. That surprisingly new piece of incriminating evidence may point against the famous writer.
The struggle
between the two writers becomes the battle of the sexes, where the husband’s
frustration with his wife’s success is evident. Those recordings were done
without her consent or knowledge, an action that is considered illegal in the
United States. Still, in France, it is used as contentious proof of the
couple’s instability.
In European films, children are usually treated as adults, no
matter how difficult the situations they have to go through are, and as
disturbing as it may seem, the blind boy becomes the key witness in the case. For
a child, it is devastating to lose his father, witness his mother’s trial, listen
to the recordings of his parents’s fights in court, and give out his crucial
testimony.Testifying as an adult makes Daniel aware of the situation, and he
has to think whether he would like to save his mother or help the prosecutor to
bring her to justice.
The performance by German actress Sandra Hüller (“The Zone of
Interest,” “I’m Your Man,” “Toni Erdmann”) is impressive. She displays a wide
range of emotions. Even when she is lying, we think she is telling the truth.In “Anatomy of a Fall,” French director Justine Trier cleverly
plays with the perception of the truth according to each player’s needs,
interests, and points of view. Justine Trier graduated from the Paris School of
Fine Arts and is an Oscar nominee for Best Director; she has an extraordinary
filmmaking career with solid previous projects such as “The Age of Panic,” “Sibyl,”
and “Victoria.” In all her films, she has three recurrent topics: family,
writers, and legal matters.
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Justine Triet, Palme d'Or Winner, Cannes 2023. Photo: Par Par Francois BECKER et © 2023 AFP |
With the theory of the phenomenon of the unreliability of the
eyewitness, “Anatomy of a Fall” can be related to Akira Kurosawa’s “Rashomon.” A
few years later, in 1964, Hollywood came out with the remake of the Japanese
classic called “The Outrage” with Paul Newman. This particular Western, directed by Martin Ritt (“Hud,” “Hombre,” and “Norman Rae”), is another clear example of how the truth can be distorted according to the witnesses’ point of view, background, beliefs, and personal experiences.In 1957, Sidney Lumet’s “12 Angry
Men” rounded off the perceptions of twelve jury members who had to deliver the
conviction or acquittal of an eighteen-year-old boy accused of murder. They had
reasonable doubts and concluded that there was not enough hard evidence to
prove the boy’s guilt.
Since its premiere in Cannes, “Anatomy of a Fall” has collected numerous awards around the globe. In the US, the film has been nominated
for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress,
Best Original Screenplay, and Best Editing.
In France, the film won six César Awards, including Best Picture. In England, it won the BAFTA Award for Best Original Screenplay. In Spain, it won Best European Film at the Goya’s Ceremony, and the list of recognitions for the French/Germain join goes on.
In this legal matter, winning or losing the case in court would not bring peace to the souls of the people involved. Still, it raises more questions about what is next when they lose someone they love in a freak accident and if the accident was intentionally planned or a successful suicide attempt. It all is up to the viewer to figure out what really happened.
Regardless of any conspiracy theory, the film is open to the public interpretation. Let “Anatomy of a Fall” sit for a while to process an unforgettable film that is making big waves around the world for its enormous quality in storytelling.
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