By Sandra Hall
ANATOMY OF A FALL ★★★★
(MA15+) 152 minutes
A marriage between two writers can be tricky to say the least. To mention a couple of particularly juicy examples, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald became fiercely territorial over the literary rights to their shared experiences and Ernest Hemingway and his third wife, Martha Gellhorn, turned into squabbling rivals while working as correspondents during World War II.
Sandra Hüller plays writer Sandra Voyter, on trial for murdering her husband in Anatomy of a Fall.
A similar brew of envy and frustration is bubbling away in Anatomy of a Fall, an intensely introspective French portrait of a doomed marriage that won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year. Sandra Voyter (German actor Sandra Hüller) is an admired and prolific novelist while her husband, Samuel (Samuel Theis), is swamped by an acute case of writer’s block. We become acquainted with this volatile combination when it has boiled up to the point where the couple’s young son, Daniel (Milo Machado Graner), makes sure he’s out of the house once the shouting begins. This means he’s walking the dog when his father fatally falls – or is pushed – from the balcony of the family’s isolated chalet in the French Alps.
The director, Justine Triet, and her co-writer, Arthur Harari, pick apart the story behind this mystery with a diligent attention to detail matched by a refusal to be rushed into the revelations they have to impart. Triet has an obsession with close-ups, together with a flair for using music as a counterpoint to the prevailing mood. It’s such a leisurely and deliberate approach it could seem like a very boring affectation. Instead, it’s mesmerising because of the diversions Triet comes up with along the way.
Sandra Hüller plays Sandra Voyter, who is accused of murdering her husband Samuel (Samuel Theis).
Hüller’s performance is the key element. Initially, Sandra comes across as an amiable, outgoing character with a strong grain of common sense underpinning her view of the world. But as more clues emerge, you begin to wonder how much is camouflage.
When the film opens, she’s being interviewed about her work by a young woman who turns out to be a student researching a thesis. And while she seems happy to talk, the student is having trouble. Rather than come out with a straight answer to anything, Sandra is making a playful show of turning the tables and asking her interviewer questions of her own. But it’s Samuel’s unseen presence that sabotages the interview. In his room upstairs, he’s playing music so loud the student eventually gives up and leaves.
The police investigation of his death results in Sandra’s arrest and trial for murder. After all, she’s been alone in the house with him and there is ample evidence of their quarrels. She hires a lawyer, Vincent Renzi (Swann Arlaud), an old friend whose gentle charm adds another layer to the plot’s psychological complexities, and the action moves to the courtroom.
In a sense, the question of her guilt or innocence is beside the point. The story is really about the moral compromises and ambiguities that cloud the truth of the case, and it’s fascinating.
Anatomy of a Fall is released in cinemas on January 25.
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