Cannes 2023: Anatomy of a Fall Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Cannes International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

Within recent years, the Palme D’or (the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival), has almost always gone to a filmmaker with a pre-established reputation within the world of international and arthouse cinema. Jonathan Glazer’s daring WWII drama, The Zone of Interest, was widely predicted to win the illusive filmmaker the coveted accolade. However, this year the jury blindsided pundits by selecting up-and-coming French filmmaker Justine Triet’s courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall, which was bought by NEON a mere few days before the awards ceremony (the distribution company’s fourth consecutive Palme D’or winner). Not quite a household name outside of France, Triet is not unfamiliar with Cannes and has had films premiere in the past. Her latest effort is bound to get her widespread recognition and make her a mainstay within the festival circuit.

Anatomy of a Fall stars Sandra Hüller as Sandra Voyter, a semi-successful German writer living in an isolated village in France with her husband and son. When her husband suddenly suffers a fall from the top story of their house, she is immediately accused of murdering him and must prove herself innocent in court. What seems like a misunderstanding, becomes far more complicated when recorded audio-tapes revel certain disturbing details about their tumultuous relationship.

From the prologue, a brilliantly chilling makes it clear that Triet is evoking the spirit of Alfred Hitchcock. Fans of the master of suspense will be pleased at how she effortlessly weaves together a dialogue-driven courtroom procedural with twists and turns that frequently shift audiences’ perception of its characters. Unlike most films that center around a murder trial, Anatomy of a Fall is less interested in who committed the crime. Instead, Triet uses the trial as an opportunity to place flawed characters at the podium and analyze morally questionable relationships. Meanwhile, she also explores how artists hide their secrets and personal demons within their work, often so blatantly in plain site that it blends in and becomes fiction.

While Triet’s clever script and slick direction certainly make the film stand out within its genre, it wouldn’t be nearly as riveting without Hüller’s fierce central performance. While she’s enjoyed moderate success within Germany since the mid-2000s, Hüller rose to international prominence with Maren Ade’s acclaimed dramedy, Toni Erdman. Between this film and The Zone of Interest, Hüller is having an exceptional year and proving herself to be one of today’s most captivating talents. She’s revelatory in the former especially, delivering a chilling a performance that makes it hard for audiences to look away. Hüller is required to be constantly one step ahead of the audience, as her character shifts frequently as more details are revealed over the course of the trial and the veneer is slowly stripped away.

Despite a strong start, Anatomy of a Fall often struggles to maintain the tension built during its opening moments. The trial is mostly captivating, especially when the camera focuses on Hüller and the subtle physicality she brings to the role as her character undergoes a transformation. However, the constant switching between French and English ruins the flow of the rhythmic dialogue. The film also reaches a lull whenever it cuts away from the trial, as the film is so hyper-focused on central conflict and Hüller’s relationship with her husband, that there’s not much else to cushion the story when it strays away.

In the end, Anatomy of a Fall unfortunately fails to stick its landing, with a conclusion to an explosive trial that is far more underwhelming than thought-provoking as intended. Nevertheless, it is a well written, extremely well acted and consistently entertaining courtroom drama inspired by classics from several genres, while also bringing enough personality to the table to feel fresh.

still courtesy of MK2 Films

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Tristan French