LE MONDE'S OPINION - A MUST-SEE
Remarkable writing, perfect acting, a well-kept secret and a poisonous atmosphere. It's all there, but there's also something extra in Anatomie d'une chute (Anatomy of a Fall), which earned director Justine Triet, 45, the Palme d'Or of the 76th edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Her fourth feature film examines the plight of a couple of writers, one of whom ends up dead. Suicide or murder? We'll never know for sure, but the path leading to this mystery is a fascinating lesson in cinema.
In front of a jury, the accused, Sandra (Sandra Hüller), reveals the twists and turns of her private life with her partner, Samuel, before he died (Samuel Theis, who remains off-camera except for a few crucial scenes). Written with her partner Arthur Harari, the director of Diamant noir (Dark Inclusion, 2016) and Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle (2021), the story packs the filmmaker's favorite themes while injecting an equally minimal and terrifying narrative: Living as a couple kills.
Triet's films – Solférino (Age of Panic, 2013), Victoria (In Bed with Victoria, 2016) and Sibyl (2019) – are roller-coasters in which actresses are challenged to play impure beings when their characters' intimate and professional lives collide with each other. And when it comes to playing trouble and impurity, Hüller excels in the role.
Anatomy of a Fall opens with an energetic and confusing discussion that will never happen. The scene takes place in a chalet on the heights of Grenoble just before the tragedy. A wooden staircase leads to the attic. The space is filled with blaring music...
Two women are talking to each other, their faces filmed in close-ups: Sandra, a writer, is meeting a student (Camille Rutherford) who has come to interview her, but the noise is so loud that the interview has to be interrupted. Upstairs, Samuel has turned up the volume, no doubt to annoy his wife. An author himself, he's running out of stories. Sandra says goodbye to the student and climbs the stairs. Cut. We won't see what happens next.
The camera takes us outside into the snow. Daniel (Milo Machado Graner), the couple's 12-year-old son, has gone for a walk with his dog. The child is visually impaired, and his icy-blue eyes give him the look of a medium. When he returns to the house, he finds his father lying inert, his blood frozen in the ice crystals. An investigation is launched and Sandra is soon indicted. An old friend (Swann Arlaud) who works as a lawyer comes to her aid and defends her in court.
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