The only downside of this brilliantly written, fascinating and gripping French film is its use of a particular song which you won’t be able to get out of your head.
The piece – a steel-band rendition of rapper 50 Cent’s P.I.M.P. – is not just a random piece of soundtrack, however. Au contraire, nothing in Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or-winning drama is done without consideration.
In the opening scene, the drums are plinking away at an obnoxiously loud volume while successful German author Sandra (Sandra Hüller) attempts to be interviewed in her chalet in the French Alps. The auditory intrusion results in words exchanged between Sandra and her husband Samuel, who is later found dead when their blind son Daniel returns from a dog walk. The ensuing investigation into whether Samuel died from a fall or foul play results in a tortured journey for Sandra whose unorthodox response to grief has us questioning her character and our own judgments.
Complete with an enthralling insight into the French legal system, it may not sound like everyone’s mug of glühwein, but Anatomy of a Fall is also superb as a twisty personal drama and a portrait of a marriage. It’s also devastatingly realistic in demonstrating the fallibility of memory and how our experiences are altered by trauma.
Following her 2019 Cannes-nominated Sibyl, Triet here produces another writing collaboration with partner Arthur Harari and recasts the excellent Hüller as her beleaguered heroine. Hüller (previously in Toni Erdmann) is a revelation. Suspicious wives are regularly played as either a one-note shrew or mentally unstable, but Sandra is neither, merely a confused (and confusing) woman grappling with losing her husband and keeping hold of her son.
For those who love a good courtroom drama, Anatomy is even more fascinating because the French inquisitorial system is so different to our common law adversarial system. At moments it’s shocking to watch the judge and prosecutor bark at witnesses and the defendant, but the breathtaking effect of their forthright interrogation is cinematic gold akin to that famous scene in A Few Good Men.
At two and a half hours long, it’s languid and often uncomfortably forensic in its matter-of-fact analysis, but Anatomy of a Fall is easily one of the most impressive films of the year.
Rating out of 5: ★★★★★
Anatomy of a Fall directed by Justine Triet is in cinemas now
