Justine Triet’s detective drama about a writer’s family. The film received the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival (2023).
Successful writer Sandra lives in deepest France with her husband, a less successful emerging writer, and her blind son. After yet another argument between the couple, Sandra’s husband mysteriously dies, and she is the prime suspect not only for the court but also for her own son. Eleven-year-old Daniel, who lost his sight in an accident, is the main witness in the case.
This fourth feature by Justine Triet, who was previously known for her comedies, explores a family tragedy and the trauma caused by the restrictions of habitual social roles.
Sandra Hüller, the star of the main tragicomedy of the Berlin school, Toni Erdmann, embodies on screen the image of a mysterious writer whose identity is constructed around her professional achievements rather than her family or personal life. She is incredibly cold and calculating, as if trying out patterns of behavior that are traditionally the domain of men. Her husband and her former lover, now her lawyer, who are emotional and vulnerable, are secondary in this story. They are cut off from her by cold-bloodedness and egoism, which is rarely forgiven in female characters. In one interview, Triet mentioned Henri-Georges Cluzot’s La verité as inspiration. This film was released in 1960, and in it, Brigitte Bardot’s character is judged for her sexuality and liberated lifestyle. Over sixty years later, the story is repeated and, regardless of shifts in views of equal rights, prejudices and stereotypes are still ruining lives. The harshness and moral weakness of the justice system, earlier revealed by director Alice Diop in Saint Omer, here have the character of a puritan court of conscience. The court, which must establish who is guilty of murder, turns into a dissection of the personal life of the characters and Sandra’s success as a wife and mother.
The film will be shown in French and English with Russian subtitles.
Anatomy of a Fall
Director Justine Triet
France, 2023, 150 min. 18+