ANATOMY OF A FALL…what a journey! The film’s strength lies not in its mystery, but its innovation and complex characters.
ANATOMY OF A FALL meditates on the degenerated relationship between two writer intellectuals: Sandra (Sandra Hüller), who is forthright and successful, and Samuel (Samuel Theis), who feels himself fading into the obscurity of being a present father and nothing else. The film is triggered by Samuel literally plummeting to his death from the attic window. What follows is an onerous investigation into Sandra’s potential culpability and the questionable memory of their brilliant son, Daniel (played impeccably by Milo Machado-Graner).
The film is not so concerned with judicial truth. That is, we don’t need to know or see exactly how Samuel fell. What director Justine Triet embroils us in is the complex love that Sandra and Samuel shared. I admit “complex” is an easy and overused word to describe relationships, but it is most fitting here. Sandra adores Samuel for his intellect. Nevertheless, she cheats on him with younger women. Samuel allegedly volunteers his professional time to forge a meaningful relationship with his son. Nevertheless, he resents Sandra for her blithe pursuit of writing in the face of his sacrifice. He keeps count of her transgressions, and she notes his pathetic loneliness. She accuses his cowardice of paralyzing his work. She is right. He knows this. Their relationship is so real, you feel you want to leave the room in the presence of their fight.
Triet’s camerawork is innovative, in my humble opinion. She uses the camera movements of a documentary, reminiscent of Laurent Cantet ENTRE LES MURS. The “innovation” here is the pairing of the cinematography with the subject matter, and the consistent meandering between narrative and real; we’re intimate with Sandra in a narrative way, we understand she is a fictional character. She is sometimes framed in artistic shots, and sometimes she is the subject of shaky realism. Her in-court struggle is intensely real, the camera grapples with overlapping voices and potential, penal doom. It makes for an ever-engaging piece, one where emotions are not perfectly laid out or easily understood.
Sandra’s character is extraordinarily fascinating. She is terse like a literary critic, but devotional like a doting wife. She is distant like a prototypical, work-obsessed father, but nurturing like a storybook mother. She cheats, but she’s honest about it. She hits Samuel, but she doesn’t want to reveal he’s medicated in court so as to protect his posthumous image. When her lawyer suggests Samuel was jealous of Sandra, she shakes her head when he approaches his seat, “That was not Samuel.” Even in court protecting herself, Sandra chooses to protect Samuel. She is a captivating character to witness.
Justine Triet created something superbly French in that we never see that final nugget of truth–what really happened to Samuel? But, we forgive her for this perceived transgression due to the flesh of her characters. By the end of the film, we understand that Samuel is gone for reasons one court may not be able to parse through. What we’re left with is the abounding love of a complicated mother left with her clever, compassionate son.
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