ANATOMY OF A FALL : Tuesday 30th January 2024.

I saw the MA15+ Rated 'ANATOMY OF A FALL' this week and this French court room drama film is Co-Written and Directed by Justine Triet whose prior feature film credits take in her debut in 2013 with 'Age of Panic' which she followed up with 'In Bed with Victoria' in 2016, and 'Sibyl' in 2019. This film saw its World Premiere showcasing at the Cannes Film Festival towards the end of May last year where it won the Palme d'Or and the Palm Dog Award and also competed for the Queer Palm. It continued to win awards, including the National Board of Review Award for Best International Film and two Golden Globes Awards, for Best Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film among its total haul of sixty-four award wins and a further 178 nominations from around the awards and festival circuit. So far the film has generated US$24M at the Box Office from a production budget of close to US$7M and has garnered widespread critical acclaim.

For the past two years or so Sandra Voyter (Sandra Huller), her husband Samuel Maleski (Samuel Theis), and their eleven-year-old son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner) have lived a secluded life in a remote town in the French Alps, near Grenoble. Sandra is German, Samuel is French and they lived a happy contented life in London, England up to two years ago when they moved into the chalet even though it needed some renovating, and because it was markedly cheaper than remaining in London. Sandra is a writer of several novels and also does translations to maintain her cash flow. Samuel used to work in marketing but is now a failed writer, and spends his time maintaining and upgrading their house. Daniel is almost completely blind having suffered a car accident at four years of age which nearly severed his optic nerve. Sandra is attempting to be interviewed by a student, but Samuel is playing music at such a loud volume while working on the house in the room above, that Sandra is forced to reschedule the interview to another date. 

Daniel takes his guide dog, Snoop, out for a walk in the snow, and when he returns he finds his father lying dead in the snow directly below his attic window - three story's below, having seemingly suffered from a blunt instrument blow to the head. He screams out for his mother who initially doesn't hear him because her husbands loud music is still playing on a loop through the speakers. 

After the Police and Ambulance have removed the body and asked all the initial questions of Sandra, while talking with an old friend, lawyer Vincent Renzi (Swann Arlaud), she says the fall must have been accidental. Vincent says that the court will not believe that, and she tells him about Samuel's attempt to overdose on aspirin six months earlier, after having come off antidepressants suddenly. Vincent notes a bruise on her arm, which she tells him resulted from bumping into their kitchen countertop, which she had a habit of doing quite regularly. 

Daniel tells the Police investigation that his parents were having a calm talk when he left the house but gives conflicting accounts of exactly where he was standing, and this is deemed important because of the very loud music that Samuel was playing at the time he left to walk Snoop. This, combined with an autopsy revealing Samuel's head wound occurring before his body hit the ground, three blood spatter marks on the side wall of the shed below, and an audio recording Samuel made of a fight he and Sandra had the day before he died, all leads to an indictment.

During the trial, Sandra's defence team states that Samuel fell from the attic window and hit his head on a shed below before falling to the ground, while the prosecution's (Antoine Reinartz) theory is that Sandra hit him with a blunt instrument and pushed him from the third-floor balcony. During a courtroom argument with Samuel's psychiatrist, who insists Samuel had no suicidal intent, she speaks of her bitterness towards her husband.

The jury and the courtroom then hears the full recorded fight which lasts about ten minutes, in which Samuel accuses her of plagiarism, infidelity, and exercising way to much control over his life. The lengthy argument turns physically violent, but it remains unclear as to who is hitting whom. The prosecution claims that all the violence was coming from Sandra. She says that she had thrown a glass at a wall and slapped Samuel's face, and that the bruises on her arms were due to Samuel grabbing her, and that the rest of the violence heard was Samuel slapping his own face repeatedly. 

Sandra afterwards admits to having had a brief affair with a woman the year before Samuel's death. The prosecution states that Samuel's playing loud music suggested jealousy over Sandra's flirting with the interviewer, leading to a physical altercation where the prosecution claims Sandra killed him. The prosecutor also notes her pattern of writing her personal conflicts into her books and how murdering Samuel could mirror a character's thoughts from her most recent story. Sandra replies sternly that one audio recording does not remotely represent the nature of their marriage, nor do the words of a character in one of her novels reflect her own impulses.

Daniel, who has been present in the courtroom throughout the whole trial, is growing increasingly disturbed by the testimonies that have unfolded. Whilst the trial was due to close on Friday, Daniel insists on testifying once more before closing arguments the following Monday, and the judge lays strict ground rules to prevent anyone, including his mother, from influencing Daniel's testimony over the weekend, including bringing in a court monitor, Marge (Jehnny Beth), and demanding that all conversations must be held in French, despite Sandra's difficulties with the language.

Later that evening as Sandra is preparing a meal for the three of them, Daniel asks Marge to tell his mother to leave their house for the weekend so there will only be Marge to watch over him and Snoop. After hearing Sandra's testimony about Samuel's aspirin overdose, Daniel has remembered that Snoop became sick at that time and now suspects that Snoop had eaten some of Samuel's vomit, so that weekend he deliberately feeds Snoop eight or ten aspirin and finds it has the same effect, which lines up with his mothers testimony. On Monday morning on the witness stand in front of the jury but an empty courtroom, Daniel says that if his mother did this, he cannot understand it, but if his father did it, he can. He testifies that when he and Samuel were driving Snoop to the vet, his father spoke to him about the need to be prepared that those he loves will die and to know that his life will go on, which Daniel now sees as his fathers own suicidal tendencies.

Sandra is acquitted following Daniel's testimony. When she comes home later that evening after a celebration dinner with her defence team and Vincent, Daniel tells her he was afraid of her homecoming and she says that she was too, which leads to a warm embrace. As Sandra heads off to bed, she lingers at a photo of her and Samuel before falling asleep with Snoop by her side.

'Anatomy of a Fall' is all at once a whodunnit (did he fall or was he pushed?), a character study into the dynamics of family relationships, and a court room drama all wrapped up in a complex and emotional tale that keeps the viewer gripped and enthralled from the get go. Sandra Huller gives a performance that is worthy of all the accolades she has thus far won for her role and those for which she has been nominated, and Director Justine Triet here weaves a story that is believable, relatable, naturalistic and nuanced that will keep you guessing right up until the end credits role, and still keep you questioning when the lights go up. The deliberate ambiguous nature of this film are all left open for interpretation, and that serves for a compelling story masterfully realised and well worth the price of your ticket . . . and don't be put off by the 150 minute run time, because it flies by. My only criticism of the film is in the performance of young Milo Machado Graner whose role as Daniel seems forced at times and a little beyond his reach.

'Anatomy of a Fall' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-