"Anatomy of a Fall" Back Into Legal Dramas

Hi pals,

I recently watched Justine Triet's "Anatomy of a Fall" (2023).  Let's talk about it!

The film tells the tale of Sandra after the suspicious falling death of her husband Samuel at their chalet-style home in the French alps.  Over the course of the unfolding two and a half hours, we watch Sandra and her son Daniel navigate the brutal investigation and court proceedings that follow as Sandra is accused of Samuel's murder.

There are several things that drew me to this movie, despite its grim premise.  I love a good legal drama, and it's been quite some time since I watched one.  Oddly enough, the film's long runtime is actually part of what drew me to "Anatomy of a Fall", as that led me to suspect it would enjoy that deliberately-paced and detailed storytelling that legal dramas can utilize well and benefit richly from.  To my immense chagrin, I also have watched no foreign language movies in the past two years, and very few international movies during the same period.  On top of these other factors, watching a dialogue-intensive multilingual movie therefore felt like an immense treat.

This film rests heavily on the combined shoulders of its excellent script, written by Triet and Arthur Harari, and the at turns understated and riveting performance of Sandra Hüller.  There are so many moments during which the deft yet subtle influence of a woman's voice, through the combination of Trier's direction and words and Hüller's embodiment of the main character, is evident: in the secretly recorded argument between Sandra and Samuel the day before Samuel's death, Sandra's attempts to keep mothering Daniel despite the seemingly impossible expanse opened between them, and the raw surfacing of Sandra's subterranean emotions as she confides in Vincent, her attorney, close friend, and possible/would-be past lover.  

The investigation and testimonies allow "Anatomy of a Fall" to thoughtfully probe a surprising range of topics, including the complexities and compromises of marriage, near- and long-term responses to personal tragedy, existential dilemmas, the creative process, how to face uncertainty, and the profound unknowability of another person's mind.

Like in many legal dramas, there is some degree of ambiguity by the end of the film.  I was pleasantly surprised that "Anatomy of a Fall" tips its hand toward one explanation for Samuel's death over another without being perfectly conclusive in its evidence, leaving space for interpretation.  There are times when a truly open-ended ending seems less in the service of a film and more about the writers simply being unable to commit to an ending, and "Anatomy of a Fall" thankfully does not suffer from this problem.

Taken altogether, "Anatomy of a Fall" is such a rich and satisfying text.  I gave it a 5.

Thanks for reading, as always, friends!

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