DWe have seen many films in courts. But it often does not happen that a process and the elements of mystery linked to it become an instrument for The psychological analysis of a man, a woman, and how society considers them, To discover it anchored to inacalfiable beliefs. This is what happens in the film Anatomy of a fall by Justine Triet broadcast tonight on Heaven at 9.20 pm. The film was the cinematographic case of the 2023-24 season, Oscar 2024 at the original script e Palma d’oro in Cannes 2023.
Anatomy of a fall, The plot of Justine Triet’s film
A isolated mountain chalet in Grenoble, full winter. A couple in crisis: She, Sandra (Sandra Huller), is a successful writer; he, Samuel (Samuel Theis), an unsatisfied teacher struggling with a novel he cannot finish. They have an 11 -year -old son, visually impaired. Suddenly, the tragedy: The man is found found dead at the foot of the houseprobably precipitated from the balcony. The dynamics are not clear (suicide? Accidental death? Murder?) As well as the responsibilities of the womanwhich becomes first suspected and then accused in a long trial.
The explanation of the film
The film represents an anatomical exploration, That is, of a scientific, rigorous and relentless study of the crisis of a wedding. But also of a cinematographic genre, the judicial one.
Investigations on the incident, the “detective story” are staged, but above all the story of the process, with its consolidated codeswhich occupies two thirds of the duration of the film. Triet gives room for testimonies and classroom interventions, so much so that it seems to be witnessing real time to what is happening. Anatomy of a fall It therefore dries the narrative at the extreme, avoids swelling and spectacularization, demonstrating how an acute characterization of the characters and a solid narrative structure is enough to create tension and involvement.
“Anatomy of a fall”. (Les Films Pelléas / Les Films De Pierre).
The fulcrum of the story are in fact The psychologies of the protagonist and husband: The investigation into their marriage in crisis is always partial. It is observed through the stories of her or the audio of their quarrels that the man had secretly recorded. But both, e Above all Sandra, they retain a gray and unexplodable area, that who is around does not accept.
The judicial machine, the media that follow the process, the accusation and the defense want to get to the truth, dividing the world into rigid categories: just/wrong, guilty/innocent, victim/executioner. Not so does the film that, not showing the key passages (like the murder at the beginning of the story), suspends the judgment on the fact and on the womanwho could (how not) have committed the crime: The human soul retains unfathomable depths.
The golden palm in Cannes and the Oscar in 2024 for the script
After winning the Palma d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival 2023, Anatomy of a fall he also contributed to Oscar 2024with 5 nominations. He got a statuette, the one for the Best original screenplay. But the film He was unable to compete in the best international film category, where he would triumph with low hands: in that category France had chosen another film, The taste of thingswhich then did not even enter the shortlist for the category. The Commission had considered this most attractive film for the Oscar voters but in the decision he had also weighed the fame of the director.
The trial in Sandra (Huller) in a scene of “Anatomy of a fall” (Les Films Pelléas / Les Films de Pierre).
At home, Triet is considered an intellectual without filterswho likes young generations but irritates the older ones. In the delivery ceremony of the Palma d’Or, she had lashed out against the “neoliberal” government which was “destroying the cultural exception of the French model”. His words had triggered a controversy lasting weeks.
In France, the run of Oscar often turns into a matter of public order. The country can count on one of the most prosperous film industry in the world, yet He hasn’t won the statuette for best international film for decades (precisely from Indochinewho got it 31 years ago).
Just this year it seemed the right time, with Emilia Pérez. Until the scandal that hit the leading actress, Karla Sofía Gascón, just before the ceremony, did not undermine the chances of victory of the film by Jacques Audiard and, once again, the hopes of an entire nation.
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