Film Review - Anatomy of a Fall
Images courtesy of Madman Films.
Enter scene: esteemed author Sandra Voyter (played by Zone of Interest’s Sandra Hüller) sits down for an interview at her cosy chalet in the French Alps. She and the interviewer exchange polite conversation, albeit perhaps too polite, veering into light flirtation. Sandra seems relaxed, although not particularly interested in the inquiry she signed up for. Her husband cuts the exchange short with the cacophonous playing of a gloriously corny, steel drum instrumental rendition of 50 Cent’s early 2000s club banger “P.I.M.P.”. The interviewer leaves, and moments later, the couple’s son returns from a dog walk to find his father face down in the snow, dead.
What really happened on that fateful day? Was it the outcome of a tragic accident, suicide, or a cold-blooded murder? These are the questions that encircle the first act of Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or (and Palm Dog) winning Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d’une Chute), as the widowed writer faces a trial that will expose the secrets of her troubled marriage. Using the initial setup of a tense and gripping courtroom drama, the film slowly but surely unfolds into a nuanced and ambiguous portrayal of a woman whose fate is left in the hands of her blind son, a hostile jury, and the court of public opinion.
Despite how this starting point could lead viewers to expect a more analytical narrative that might lead towards a definitive “yes or no” outcome, it soon becomes apparent that this lens would be antithetical to the film's true goals. As the title would suggest, dissection is the game here, breaking down each and every component of the family’s life, scrutinising over what is merely symptomatic of the flawed humans we all are, and what might be considered the basis for probable cause. There comes a point where the audience is invited to reckon with how they could be perceived through the eyes of the judicial system - if you came home to find your family member, lover, or housemate dead, could you prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that you weren't guilty? Could you withstand the immense attention directed at every single detail of your personal life, whether intimate or innocuous?
Even as Anatomy of a Fall depicts the court's official and final verdict, many questions are left lingering. Developments in the trial that seemed pivotal (or at least, were treated with much gravitas by the prosecution) are discarded as inane coincidence, and not all of the evidence adds up one way or another. But such is life, and the experience is all the better for it. Painting a portrait of a marriage in decline, a child irrevocably changed, and a woman in freefall, Anatomy vivisects the ripple effect of its victim’s demise, familial wounds spilling open to reveal grisly entrails for all to see.
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Anatomy of a Fall is screening in cinemas from Thursday 25th January. For tickets and more info, click here.