Weekend movie - Anatomy of A Fall
A death occurred in a seemingly-happy family reveals the dark side of a marriage.
This weekend, I decided to tick in my movie list. It's been a long time since I last enjoyed a movie by myself, and this time, is Anatomy Of A Fall.
And it quickly becomes one of my favourite movies of all time.
The movie has won several awards, including Palme d'Or (Golden Palm) in Cannes Film Festival 2023 for the film director Justine Triet, and an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
To fully understand a relationship, you need to be part of it - to go through all the ups and downs, the dark side of this weirdly formed connection between two people, which, for out standers, seems like they are speaking another language, acting like they are each other’s enemy - screaming, cursing each other and wishing each other dead, but at the same time can love this person till the last breath.
An Outstanding and Creative Plot
A death suddenly took place in a seemingly-happy family of a successful writer Sandra -- the death by falling down from the roof. of her husband. Although it seems to be a suicide, there is no exception that he has been murdered, and Sandra becomes the number one suspect. When there are not enough proofs to prove that Sandra kills Samuel, the prosecution lawyer then turns the attention to their marriage, in order to find a motivation for the murder. And through that, the marriage life of him and Sandra is mercilessly exposed in the courthouse, and is examined piece by piece in public eyes.
Usually, the joy of watching a detective movie is to collect all the hints and clues scattering throughout the movie, and then we build up our theory. Finally, the killer is reviewed, and the curiosity of us is satisfied with the conclusion (or filled with rage when the script is full of plot-holes, I don't know, depends :D).
Here, with Anatomy Of The Fall, it's not the case.
We will never know what truly has happened. Did Samuel framed his wife with all the evidence he intentionally collected, so that after his suicide, his wife will become the suspect and destroy her writing career; or he taped his final moments in his life out of fear that someday, his wife is going to kill him and she actually did...
We never know, and after watching the movie, I think most will agree that it's not important any more.
Because, although we will never know the truth, but one thing that we can sure, is the consequence of an unhappy marriage that is suffered by every single member of the family, especially the children, here, Daniel.
Living with all the conflicts of the parents and an instable father, Daniel has soon learnt to live independently of his parents, and can control his emotions so good, so good that it hurts. Even when the camera shoots directly in his face, we still don't know what Daniel is thinking. A plain emotionless face which is not suitable for a child who is only 11 years old at that time.
He has a habit of crying in the blanket, and this shows his helplessness in the situation. He, as is perceived in the movie, is the reason why the relationship between Sandra and Samuel becomes strained, he is the burden for the parents. He knows that, and although his parents have done everything that they think is good for him -- moving to this isolated place to live, homeschooling him. But the pain has already done, and however we do, there will always be a scar.
The film also challenges the norm of our society - when a woman becomes more dominant in the relationship than the male counterpart. Wendy Ide has written a wonderful article on Guardian regarding the movie, and the aspect of feminism of it:
The fact that Sandra prioritises her career over her share of the childcare, cannibalises her own life and those of others for her writing (a theme that links back to Triet’s previous film, Sibyl) and unashamedly admits to having bisexual relationships during her marriage doesn’t make her guilty of murder. But neither does it conform to the role of victimhood that the accused woman is expected to play. Triet further supports this perception by frequently placing the camera slightly below Sandra – subliminally suggesting that she is a powerful, dominating, even threatening presence – rather than above her, looking down.
Samuel, Sanda's husband, was a prominent professor, who decided to leave everything to pursue his dream: Writing. However, his writing career isn't as thrived as he has thought. Instead, his wife becomes a famous writer and soon becomes the breadwinner of the family. We can see that upon witnessing the success of his wife, the achievements that he has always wanted, but never reached, he becomes uncomfortable and blames everything on his wife -- He blames her for taking all his time to write, blames her for using his script, although he has previously accepted her to use it...
But Sandra also sacrifices a lot for her husband. After Daniel's accident, they left London to go back to Samuel's hometown, Grenoble in France. Sandra, a companionable German woman who loves talking and meeting new people, now imprisioned herself in this small town where she knows no one, cannot speak her mother tongue (German). She sacrifices her life for Samuel, so that he can write.
So who is right, who is wrong?
I guess you have to decide it yourself after watching the movie.
The Wonderful Performance
There is one scene that is so iconic of the movie that I think you have seen it on social media. It's the fight between Sandra and Samuel the day before the death. It's also one of my most favorite scene of all the movies:
As the cameraman of The Anatomy of A Fall DP Simon Beaufils said,
Behind the camera, you’re the first viewer of the film, and the emotions were strong. When Sandra Hüller unleashes her fury, I took it all in: it was upsetting, hard, moving and beautiful, all at once. To be overwhelmed by what you’re filming, to feel all these contradictory feelings and succeed in capturing them, was truly a unique feeling.
Apart from that, there is a long shot of crying in the car late at night, Sandra’s face is disfigured by the mourning of her life - How can she end up in this situation, the bitterness of life, and whether there are any hopes in her future… This scene is truly so emotional and heart-breaking that I also shed some tears watching it.
Not only Sandra Hüller's top-peaked performance that captures the audience, all the other actors and actress also did a really good job in conveying the emotions of the movie, especially the young actor Milo Machado-Graner, in the role of Daniel.
Those final moments of the movie by Daniel really takes my breath away. Daniel is a rich and complex characters, unfolding his emotions not usually directly, but once he does, it's explosive, intense and heart-breaking. And Milo Machado-Graner did a wonderful job with it.
Conclusion
These 150 minutes is one of the best time I have ever spent. The stifling atmosphere of the two settings in the movie creates a straining feeling, the script is wonderful, with the ending is satisfying for me. Not to mention the performance of all the actors and actresses involved, especially from Sandra and Milo Machado-Graner, which have contributed to the success of the movie. They are the key figures, and without their top-notch performance, the movie will never turn out this good.
I'm totally in love with Anatomy of A Fall and would definitely watch it again!
Anatomy of A Fall is available on Netflix, Amazon Prime and other streaming platforms.
Reference
https://www.cinematography.world/simon-beaufils-afc-anatomy-of-a-fall/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgDTfYNGux4&t=824s&ab_channel=Ph%C3%AAPhim