‘Anatomy of a Fall’ Thrillingly Perfects the Courtroom Drama Formula

It’s impossible to completely know what goes on between a couple—love, anger, jealousy, need, and resentment make for a complex stew that’s only fully understood, and felt, by the parties involved. What happens, then, when an accident befalls someone, and the sole other person present is their partner? Led by a phenomenal Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall is a courtroom thriller rooted in that intriguing question. Yet the brilliance of director Justine Triet’s drama is that it both understands our private relations as enigmas to those on the outside, as well as wields that mystery for a subtle, striking examination of the imaginative means by which we fill in personal and collective blanks.

Anatomy of a Fall, which won this year’s Palme d’Or and premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival Sept. 7, is a whodunit about the essential role of storytelling in comprehending the unknown—a process in which the film itself is also inherently engaged. Co-written with her husband, Arthur Harari, Triet’s gem is as piercing as a freshly sharpened knife, even if its early going suggests a more muted affair. Though its action is confined to a few central locations and involves a handful of characters, it proves to be an expansive study, and act, of invention. Its tale is a stark snapshot of the way that fiction and reality inform each other—often to messy and revelatory ends.

Anatomy of a Fall revolves around the death of Samuel (Samuel Theis), a teacher and writer who is found on the snowy ground outside the French Alps chalet that was his childhood home, which he now shares with his more successful author wife Sandra (Sandra Hüller) and eleven-year-old, blind-from-injury son Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner). Triet and Harari’s script doesn’t introduce us to Samuel before his demise, simply hinting at his presence in the home via the reggae-instrumental cover of 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P.” that he blares from his attic studio as Sandra attempts, unsuccessfully, to be interviewed by a visiting student (Camille Rutherford). Once that conversation ends—following Sandra’s playful (and flirty?) evasions about herself—Daniel goes for a walk with his dog. Sometime later, he returns to find his dad motionless on the ground, his head lying in a pool of blood. His cries draw Sandra to the scene, where she frantically calls the authorities.

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