Accident, Suicide, or Murder?
Reviews and Comments by Ken Burke
I invite you to join me on a regular basis to see how my responses to current cinematic offerings compare to the critical establishment, which I’ll refer to as either the CCAL (Collective Critics at Large) if they’re supportive or the OCCU (Often Cranky Critics Universe) when they go negative. However, due to COVID concerns I’m mostly addressing streaming options with limited visits to theaters, where I don’t think I’ve missed much anyway, but better options are on the horizon. (Note: Anything in bold blue below [some may look near purple] is a link to something more in the review.)
My reviews’ premise: “You can’t please everyone, so you got to please yourself.”
(from "Garden Party" by Rick Nelson and the Stone Canyon Band, 1972 album of the same name)
Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet) rated R 152 min.
Here’s the trailer:
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If you can abide plot spoilers read on, but this blog’s intended for those who’ve seen the film or want to save some $ (as well as recognizing those readers like me who just aren’t that tech-savvy). To help any of you who want to learn more details yet avoid these all-important plot-reveals I’ll identify any give-away sentences/sentence-clusters with colors plus arrows:
⇒The first and last words will be noted with arrows and red.⇐ OK, now continue on if you prefer.
What Happens: (For the sake of concise presentation, I’m going to recount these contents in chronological order rather than how they’re revealed individually in various scenes throughout the story. It’s be quicker to read this way, but the original structure is much more interesting to watch. [Sorry I didn’t catch the names of a few characters, thus no actor credits for them.]) Successful German novelist Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller)—who’s bisexual, a situation with a bearing on events as they play out in this plot—some time ago in London met French novelist Samuel Maleski (Samuel Theis), they married, now have 11-year-old-Daniel (Milo Machado Graner), and live in a 3-story-chalet near Grenoble in the French Alps, a hometown area for Samuel who wanted to return there so Sandra begrudgingly-agreed (she doesn’t command French all that well, so English is often spoken at home). At some point in the past, Samuel was late in picking up his son, which ultimately resulted in an accident leaving the boy almost blind, a source of anguish for Samuel who’s taken antidepressants to ease his constant guilt, stopped the meds 6 months ago but tried suicide with an aspirin overdose, hasn’t been able to write much since the accident (although the idea for one of his unrealized books was borrowed, made into a success by his wife), often plays music very loud as he’s trying to drown out the world, lose himself in mostly-unrealized-concepts for his stagnant career.
Sandra’s been consistently successful in her work but has antagonized Samuel by having had an affair with a woman, as well as often disagreeing with him. All this leads to a vicious argument between them on the day before Samuel’s death, a conflict which he secretly recorded on his smart phone, as he often did to capture material he might be able to use for his writing. As we get into the actual flow of the film, Sandra’s being interviewed by a graduate student (seen in effective shot/ countershot-closeups), although they can barely hear each other because on the next floor above Samuel’s blasting a steel-drum-version of 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P.,” which finally leads to the interview being postponed (though Sandra’s OK with the noise, as she’s become used to Samuel doing such).
We see the young interviewer drive away, following soon after by Daniel going for a walk in the snow with his guide dog, Snoop. When the boy returns he’s horrified to find his father laying in the snow in front of their home, blood around his head and feet (seems he crawled a bit after the fall). Horrified Sandra calls the police and an old-friend-lawyer, Vincent Renzi (Swann Arlaud); a re-creation of the death by the authorities along with autopsy results show a head wound occurred before Samuel hit the ground, but it’s unclear whether it came from him first bouncing off of a first-story-shed. Given the conflicting circumstances, Sandra’s indicted, put on trial with the claim she hit her husband with a blunt object, pushed him out the window, while she claims innocence, insisting at first it was an accident, then that he committed suicide, even though during the trial his psychiatrist claims Samuel had no suicidal intentions. Things get even worse for Sandra when the recording of their day-before-death-accusatory-argument is played in court (we get to see it in action through a long flashback scene), with sounds of violence after the verbal confrontations; the prosecutor then claims the loud music was because of Samuel’s anger over assumed-flirting with the interviewer, resulting in a confrontation between the spouses after she left (by this point Sandra’s convinced the judge to let her speak in English rather than her halting French, so we don’t have to read as much).
However, Daniel wants to testify on the following Monday, yet he doesn’t want Mom to be with him at home over the weekend so she leaves him in the care of a court-appointed-overseer, Marge Berger (Jehnny Beth). ⇒During the 2-day-break, Daniel remembers Snoop once getting sick from licking up some of Samuel’s vomit so the kid purposely feeds the dog aspirin which again makes him sick until Marge makes the dog vomit, then recover, so Daniel now believes Sandra’s Samuel-aspirin-suicide-testimony. In court Daniel testifies Samuel once told him he has to be prepared for when tragedies happen, including the eventual death of Snoop or Dad’s own death, so he further supports Sandra’s suicide explanation for Samuel. We don’t actually see the trial's end, but later scenes tell us Sandra's found not guilty, celebrates a bit with Vincent and his colleagues, goes home to Daniel, says goodbye to Marge, carries asleep Daniel up to bed, settles on a couch with Snoop.⇐
So What? This film has already piled up a hefty collections of wins and nominations (some of which might lead to more wins when decisions are announced), including Oscar noms for Best Picture, Director, Actress in a Leading Role (Hüller), Original Screenplay (Triet, Arthur Harari), Editing (Laurent Sénéchel)—full Oscar noms list is the first entry in the Related Links segment of this posting farther below. (You’ll find Oppenheimer [Christopher Nolan; review in our August 17, 2023 posting] leads the way with 13, followed by Poor Things [Yorgos Lanthimos; haven’t seen it yet, could impact a lot of my 2023 Top lists] with 11, Killers of the Flower Moon [Martin Scorsese; review in our November 9, 2023 posting—still my Best Picture of last year] with 10, Barbie [Greta Gerwig; review in our August 17, 2023 posting] with 8, Maestro [Bradley Cooper; review in our January 4, 2024 posting] with 7; also, 3 of the 2024 Best Picture nominations were directed by women: Anatomy of a Fall, Barbie, Past Lives [Celine Song; review in our August 31, 2023 posting], yet only Triet made the 5 Best Director finalists; no People of Color are Best Director nominees, but there’s at least 1 in all 4 of the acting categories, with 3 vying for Actress in a Supporting Role: Danielle Brooks [The Color Purple {2023}, Blitz Bazawule; no Two Guys review yet], America Ferrera [Barbie], Da’ Vine Joy Randolph [The Holdovers, Alexander Payne; reviewed in our December 13, 2023 posting]).
OK, enough Oscar distraction for now (well, almost enough; hard to break away from these fresh announcements), back to Anatomy …, which would seem at this point to be a strong contender for my 2023 Top 10 list (once I get streaming options for American Fiction [Cord Jefferson], the new version of The Color Purple, Nyad [Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi], Poor Things, and The Zone of Interest [Jonathan Glazer] to see what they all look/feel like), but I can already say that for whatever flaws others might find with Anatomy of a Fall, they were smoothed over for me by the magnificent performance of Hüller, whose impact alone in this story easily pulled this film into 4 stars-territory for me, in the same way that Kate Blanchett so-successfully-dominated Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen, 2013 [review in our August 16, 2013 posting]), making up more than enough for any shortcomings that film might have had (including, for some, the fact it was directed by Allen). Oscar voters agreed as Blanchett won the award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Yes, yes Anatomy … !
Hüller’s steadily-building-presence in the courtroom scenes along with her dynamic conflict with Theis on the day before Samuel’s death show a grand escalation of emotional force, building upon her calm, near-ethereal demeanor in that opening scene of the attempted interview. She flawlessly-reverts to this calm again at the end of the film, sleeping comfortably (so it seems) with Snoop on a couch, not even occupying a bed she previously would have shared with her husband. I’ve read that she’s equally-impactful as the wife of the commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp in The Zone of Interest, which might further enhance her Oscar odds for Anatomy … even as she wasn’t nominated for that other film (which did pick up 5 noms anyway for Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay [Glazer], International Feature Film [where it may be the favorite, although I know nothing at this time about the other 4 nominees], and Sound [Tarn Willers, Johnnie Burn]), although the Actress in a Leading Role race would seem to be between Lily Gladstone (my favorite so far, Killers of the Flower Moon), Carey Mulligan (Maestro), and Emma Stone (Poor Things), but I think it will a tight race among Oscar voters in this category with many strong contenders for the big triumph.
For those loath to read subtitles, Anatomy of a Fall may present a problem as some dialogue—from a French film, after all—is in French (translated at the bottom of the screen for monolinguists like me), but much of it's in English—Sandra’s preference—so I hope you’d find the subtitle-distractions, if any, to eventually be a minor enough situation to dismiss, allowing you to fully immerse yourself in a provocative, mesmerizing film I’m emphatic in recommending that you seek out. If you’re still hesitant, at least consider trading 2½ hours of viewing for an 8:33 video which summarizes the plot, offers a clear conclusion to the mystery (so, obviously, Spoilers; keep that in mind if you do choose watching Anatomy of a Fall, because you don’t want to spoil this ending for yourself in the process).
Bottom Line Final Comments: Anatomy of a Fall began its domestic (U.S.-Canada) release on October 13, 2023, made only about $4 million at the box-office, although it also debuted in many other countries around the globe during last year, continuing into this one—beginning with France on August 23, 2023—for a worldwide total of $23.4 million, but to see it now you’ll need to turn to streaming where for a $5.99 rental you can access it on Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, Vudu, and other platforms. The CCAL would certainly erergeticaly-encourage you to do so, with the Rotten Tomatoes positive reviews at a whopping 96% (no fluke, based on 239 reactions), with the Metacritic average score at a quite high (for them) 86%. Oh, did I mention that this film won the prestigious Palme d’Or (top prize) at France’s 2023 Cannes Film Festival, along with the silly Palm Dog Award for Snoop (played by Messi, apparently), presented by international critics for the best performance by a dog (or dogs), live or animated, so with all of those reasons (including marvelous Snoop) to spend some time with Anatomy …, I hope I’ve convinced you to go seek it out.
In the meantime you can occupy yourself with my usual review-wrap-up-device of a Musical Metaphor, with my choice this time likely to seem a bit odd, given this is an upbeat song (with positive intentions) being paired with a decidedly-serious-film using some harsh negativity, but after you’ve spent 152 min. with a gruesome death, those intense legal attempts to find a wife guilty of murdering her husband, and some crucial testimony from a conflicted child, you might be ready for something of a lighter nature so I’ll offer The Beatles’ “I’ve Just Seen a Face” (from their 1965 albums, Help! In the U.K., Rubber Soul in the U.S. [due to greedy Capitol Records]) at https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=m8LbJfC0SYM where I contend this song, originally intended to celebrate an exuberant-case of love at first sight, can be (twistingly?) applied to Anatomy of a Fall (a title that could easily conjure up a connection to the classic Anatomy of a Murder [Otto Preminger, 1959], thereby indicating an answer [accurate or not] to the crucial question of what happened to Samuel?).
Following the structure of this song, years ago before marital problems became constant Samuel's response to meeting this intriguing German author could easily have been: “I’ve just seen a face, I can’t forget the time or place / Where we just met, she’s just the girl for / And I want all the world to see we’ve met / Had it been another day I might have looked the other way / And I’d have never been aware,” which is a positive scenario in the original intention of the song, but, I wonder, had Samuel never “been aware” of Sandra would his life taken another, healthier course? Yet, as it is, his situation is Fallin’, yes, I am fallin’ / And she keeps callin’ me back again,” because I never believed Sandra wanted him dead—except, maybe in the spur of an angry moment she might have acted beyond her true deep feelings and … well, I can’t get into Spoiler territory, now can I? Or have you already peeked into the blue text at the end of the What Happens segment? If you haven’t already learned more than you should if you want to keep the ending of Anatomy … available to be fully experienced, I encourage you to stay strong, leave this review behind for now, and go watch the film. However, if you need something else to help distract you there’s always what Samuel was using (?) to drive Sandra crazy, the steel drum instrumental version of “"P.I.M.P." (the Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band, 2016 55 album) or you might want to explore the full 50 Cent original version (from his 2003 Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ album), but do be aware of some of his R-rated lyrics.
SHORT TAKES
Related Links Which You Might Find Interesting:
Some options regarding this year's Oscar awards: (1) 2024 Oscar nominations for 2023 releases; (2) 25 films snubbed by the Oscars (I haven’t seen some of them, others not likely in my 2023 Top 10 list); (3) Oscar snubs and surprises; (4) Where to stream many of the 2024 Oscar nominees.
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