Anatomie d'une chute (Anatomy of a Fall)
2023
****½
Director: Justine Triet
Cast: Sandra Hüller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado-Graner, Antoine Reinartz, Samuel Theis, Jehnny Beth, Saadia Bentaieb, Camille Rutherford, Anne Rotger, Sophie Fillières
When a man in Grenoble falls to his death under mysterious circumstances, his German wife is tried for murder and the couple's blind 11-year-old son is recruited as a witness. On the surface, Justine Triet's wonderfully ambiguous film is a conventional court drama. However, scratch the surface and you will find a brutal dissection of a multicultural marriage, with its joys, hopes, disappointments, resentments, and compromises. The brilliant Academy Award winning script by Triet and Arthur Harari illustrates that anyone will look like a monster when you expose all of their intimate and painful details without context. The performances are excellent throughout, but Sandra Hüller, Milo Machado-Graner, and Messi the dog are the standouts.
