A woman is accused of her husband’s death, and their half-blind son becomes the main witness.
Slow-paced, realistic, personal, with excellent performances. Justine Triet and Arthur Harari’s tight, story-driven script and Triet’s character-driven directing compose an excellent whodunit thriller/court drama that, until the very end, will keep you on the edge of your seats.
Anatomy of a Fall‘s strongest point is that while all evidence points out at her, as an audience, you know she probably didn’t do it. If that’s the case, then how will she prove her innocence? Another strong point is the couple’s disagreements that escalate into arguments and then into fights. Very interestingly, writer/director Justine Triet, co-writer Arthur Harrari, and editor Laurent Sénéchal… take no sides. The angles favour no one; the dialogue from both sides provides food for thought and their pace, and the way those arguments/fights are cut finds the right balance of ambiguity. Of course, the result wouldn’t have been the intended if it wasn’t for the great performances of Sandra Hüller, Milo Machado-Graner, and Messi, the dog*.
Making a great film is a collaboration among thousands of like-minded people who have poured their souls into it.
Inevitably, Anatomy of a Fall becomes the anatomy of the human soul. What happens, how we perceive those things happening, what we know, and what we think we know, bottle up one day, and avoiding the truth, or what we perceive as truth, erupts. And avoiding that eruption becomes no option anymore. But, make it to the end, see what the verdict is, and, regardless of our preconceptions, having witnessed all the evidence and testimonies, what do you think happened?
*”For his role as Snoop, border collie Messi was awarded the Palm Dog at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.” (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt17009710/trivia/?item=tr7168787&ref_=ext_shr_lnk)
P.S. That moment with the dog almost broke me (you’ll see)…
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