“I have to understand.” Daniel (Milo Machado Graner)
Understanding that life offers few certainties and many ambiguities is a lesson young blind Daniel must learn as he is around the home at his father’s fall from a roof and a witness at the trial of his mother, Sandra (Sandra Voyter), for the murder of his father, Samuel (Samuel Theis).
The moral pull on the son, whose mother, a German-born, France-based bisexual novelist, is accused of pushing his father over the railing, is much like the pull on us as we and the judges decide Sandra’s guilt.
Anatomy of a Fall, winner of this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes, is an intelligent and fascinating drama, part convoluted trial and part troubled-marriage deconstruction, along with a coming of age for Daniel. The fact that this murder scenario is told also in one of her novels adds mystery and motive to the proceedings. Director Justine Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari will not help us in our conclusion.
Throughout we are faced with the uncertainty about the fall and the marital arguments that precipitated the fall. It’s apparent early on the lack of witnesses and common marital struggles (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf comes to mind) will muddy the waters of justice. The film is not so much a celebration of trial as theater as it is the struggle between empiricism, in all its accuracy, and the vagaries of emotion as proof.
Having just enjoyed the relatively simple trial film, The Burial, starring Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones, I was pleased at the intricacy of Anatomy, which relied on the ambiguities of the death and marriage to prove culpability. The universal appeal of the trial is that most passionate partnerships like Sandra and Sam’s has such a complex menu that The Burial is light and easy by contrast.
Anatomy of a Fall is cerebral cinema at its best.
Anatomy of a Fall
Director: Justine Triet (Toni Erdmann)
Screenplay: Triet and Arthur Hirari (Onoda)
Cast: Sandra Hiller (Toni Erdmann)
Run Time: 2h 32m
Rating: NR
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and hosts Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take out of WCBE 90.5 FM. Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com
