Anatomy of a Fall (2023, Justine Triet) (Patreon)

68/100

As in Sibyl, the opening scene is flawless, quietly electrifying...especially in the moment, before it became clear that each element of bizarre discord would become a legal puzzle piece. (I knew nothing about the narrative in advance.) Whoever decided upon an instrumental remix or cover or whatever that is of "P.I.M.P." deserves some sort of special award for near-divine inspiration—any number of songs would have done the job, but there's something about those steel drums, stripped of 50 Cent's bluster and playing on a loop, that's uniquely, maddeningly aggressive, and watching Sandra attempt to ignore and shout her way through it had me ready to follow the film almost anywhere. So 'twas a bit disappointing, relative to my hopes (see also: Palme d'Or, this year's recipient of), when that destination turned out to be an exceptionally strong super-size Law & Order episode. Right now, at least, I'm not seeing the thematic/psychological/formal depth needed to transcend such faint-praise damnation; Triet and co-screenwriter Arthur Harari (Onoda) pointedly make both the deceased and the defendant fiction writers who plunder their own lives for material, which is suggestive, but I found the connections muddy, e.g. Daniel's climactic anecdote (which is set up so hard as the trial's key piece of evidence that we even get some classic misdirection about his intentions) is much more likely to have been invented from whole cloth than strategically tweaked from a conversation that actually took place. Likewise, in terms of muddiness, the tape that gets played, prompting a flashback that clearly seems omniscient/objective rather than anyone's interpretation of what they're hearing—that scene constitutes one of the finest, most exacting marital blowups I've ever witnessed, gradually escalating in steps that always feel credible, but even cutting back to the courtroom before shit literally starts flying doesn't quite serve an exploration of stark reality vs. crafted autobiography. (Kept trying to perceive that in the prosecutor's hypothetical scenario—minus "auto," of course—and I think we are meant to understand, along with Daniel, that Sandra's in big trouble with the jury because his story "plays better" than hers does.) While Anatomy of a Fall doesn't conclude with someone typing "He is innocen[spoiler for a 38-year-old movie]," or any such twist, it always feels more or less as if it could be that sort of conventional did-she-or-didn't-she? thriller, with procedural elements recounted even more methodically than usual. I was engrossed start to finish, and Hüller's predictably terrific (loved Swann Arlaud, too, as Sandra's pragmatic attorney), and Triet continues to look potentially major. Didn't get any chills, though.