TONATOMY OF A FALL
Type: existential-judicial investigation
Direction: Justine Triet. With Sandra Hüller, Arthur Harari, Swann Arlaud, Antoine Reinartz, Milo Machado Graner, Samuel Theis, Jehnny Beth
To form the backbone of the film that won the Palme d’Or at the last Cannes Film Festival are the questions and the answers: in fact, the two and a half hours that follow the short prologue are largely dedicated to the process that sees a successful writer (the excellent Sandra Hüller) accused of killing her husband by throwing him from the balcony of their house (hence the title of the film which analyzes in every possible variation the mechanics that led to man’s death).
Leading the game, perhaps with an excessive hint of sadistic persecutory satisfaction, the prosecution lawyer who does everything – including low blows – to prove his guilt which naturally the woman’s defender tries to dismantle.
Sandra Hüller and Arthur Harari in the film “Anatomy of a Fall”, winner of the Palme d’Or (© Les Films Pelléas / Les Films De Pierre).
More than the yellow mechanism though, here What counts is the excavation in the couple’s relationship, in the feelings of guilt towards each other, in the presence of a son who has lost his sight due to the “fault” of his father: a laying bare of the many knots that hide behind cohabitation and that Triet (who has wrote the screenplay with Arthur Harari) knows how to illuminate above all with excellent direction of actors. Together with the not hidden desire to dismantle certain anti-feminist clichés.
For those who love digging into people’s motivations.
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