Premiering on May 21, 2023, at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, Anatomy of a Fall went on to win the Palme d’Or, the Palm Dog Award, and was a contender for the Queer Palm. On August 23, 2023, it was released in theatres across France by Le Pacte. The film was praised by critics, grossed over 1.7 million admissions in France, and won six honours at the 49th César honours, including Best Film. In addition to two Golden Globes, a BAFTA, and an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, the picture was a huge hit around the world.
Unfolding of Anatomy of a Fall story
Samuel Maleski, a university instructor, plays loud music in the attic of Sandra Voyter’s remote mountain house outside Grenoble, forcing the novelist to delay her interview with a female student. After taking a stroll with his guide dog Snoop, their visually challenged son Daniel comes home to discover Samuel lifeless, apparently crushed by a fall from the open attic window.
According to Sandra, the fall had to have been unintentional. Vincent, an old acquaintance and lawyer of Sandra’s, brings up the idea of suicide, as Sandra remembers how her husband tried to overdose on aspirin six months before, after discontinuing medications. An audio recording of an argument between Samuel and Sandra the day before, Daniel’s contradictory versions of events leading up to his father’s murder, and the discovery that Samuel suffered a head wound before his body fell to the ground lead to Sandra’s prosecution on homicide charges.
The prosecution contends that Sandra pushed Samuel from the second-floor balcony and struck him with a blunt object, whereas Sandra’s defence team maintains that Samuel fell from the attic window and banged his head on a shed below. Sandra discloses to her therapist that she has hatred towards Samuel because he was partially to blame for the accident that left Daniel visually impaired during their courtroom battle.
Samuel and Sandra get into an angry debate that escalates into a physical altercation in the recorded fight. Samuel accuses Sandra of being unfaithful, controlling his life, and plagiarising his work. Sandra is the one who started all the violence, according to the prosecution. She argues that although she did strike Samuel, her husband was the one physically abusing himself during the incident. The prosecution claims that Samuel’s violent outburst followed Sandra’s confession of having an affair a year prior to his death, and that her flirting with the interviewer had prompted Samuel’s jealously, which in turn led to a physical altercation. The prosecutor also points out that she often incorporates her own problems into her fiction, and that the way she killed her spouse echoes the views of a minor character in her most recent work. Similarly, Sandra argues that a single recording does not capture the essence of their connection and that fictional characters’ statements do not mirror her own preferences.
Daniel, visibly distressed, is adamant about giving testimony the Monday before closing arguments. To ensure that no one may influence Daniel’s evidence, the judge appoints a court monitor named Marge and establishes stringent ground rules. Then, in order for Daniel to spend the weekend alone with Snoop and Marge, he asks Sandra to leave the house. Recalling Samuel’s overdose, he mentions that Snoop became ill as well, maybe from consuming Samuel’s vomit. Consistent with Sandra’s account, he goes on to purposefully give Snoop aspirin and discovers the same outcome. Marge listens to Daniel’s pain and tells him that he can choose his own truth if he doesn’t know the truth.
While testifying as a witness, Daniel claims he understands the concept of suicide for his father but cannot fathom the idea of murder. According to Daniel, when driving Snoop to the vet with Samuel, Samuel expressed the need to accept the inevitable death of those he cares about while simultaneously reiterating the promise that his own life will continue. Daniel now views this as a reflection of his father’s suicidal ideas.
Following Daniel’s evidence, Sandra is found not guilty. Following her return, Daniel confides in her about his fear of her homecoming, to which she responds that she, too, was terrified, and the two embrace. Sandra takes one more look at the photo of the two of them before drifting off to sleep with Snoop by her side.
How turn of events took place for Anatomy of a Fall
Anatomie d’une chute, the upcoming fourth feature film by Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, was characterised as “a Hitchcockian procedural thriller” and was reportedly co-produced by Les Films Pelléas and Les Films de Pierre (as reported by Variety on 10 July 2021) In terms of international sales, mk2 Films is in charge.in
Anatomy of a Fall was Triet’s long-awaited second trial film after 2016’s In Bed with Victoria, according to the director. She addressed the legal subject in length and dove into issues of partnerships and cohabitation in an interview with Paris Match. They used it as an excuse to examine their lives in detail. The Amanda Knox case, in which a young American lady was accused of the 2007 murder of her flatmate Meredith Kercher in Italy, was something else that Triet found fascinating.
Triet and Sandra Hüller have worked together twice before, on the 2019 comedy-drama Sibyl, and now on Anatomy of a Fall. Triet informed Hüller that the film’s central theme will revolve around language when she was cast as a German writer accused of the murder of her French husband in France. The couple did not have a common language and instead communicated through English. Triet turned down Hüller’s request that he speak French in the film. The fact that the husband and wife don’t share a first language and must rely on English as a third language to communicate was a crucial consideration. Additionally, the concept of a foreigner standing trial in France was brought up. Being tried in a foreign country can be challenging since people there assess you based on your expressions, which can be difficult when you aren’t speaking your native language and there are many barriers separating you from your actual experiences. In an interview with Deadline, Triet explained that the fact that she is German, speaks English, and attempts French adds another layer of complexity to her identity crisis.
For Anatomy of a Fall, Hüller studied French so that her character could comprehend her lines, even though the character talks largely English throughout the film. It only took Hüller three or four months to master French. Sandra has a brief exchange with a German-speaking photographer at the chalet while they pose with her son and their dog for a photoshoot set to be released in Germany. However, neither Sandra nor Hüller spoke any German in the film, and the scene was cut from the theatrical cut.
Triet refused to address Hüller’s frequent questions about her character’s guilt while they were filming. Triet told Hüller to portray her character as innocent, which Triet subsequently described as “very sneaky,” because Hüller was at a loss for words is a During a question from a journalist at the 2024 Golden Globes press room, Triet said, “I will tell you in 10 years” in response to the question of whether Sandra did in fact murder her husband.
Sandra and her lawyer Vincent were set to have a sex scene in the film, but producer Marie-Ange Luciani decided it was too “80s” and the scene was cut. “Why do people always feel the need to prove their love by having sexual relations?” Hüller asked in agreement, echoing Luciani’s sentiments. “It’s so boring!”
What are Critic’s verdict:
The movie won praise from critics. 96% of the 269 reviews by reviewers on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes are positive and have an average rating of 8.5 out of 10. The conclusion on the website is as follows: “A smart, solidly crafted procedural that’s anchored in family drama, Anatomy of a Fall finds star Sandra Hüller and director/co-writer Justine Triet operating at peak power.” The movie received “universal acclaim” with a weighted average of 86 out of 100 from 44 reviews on Metacritic.com. Based on 40 reviews written in French, AlloCiné gave the movie an average rating of 4.4 out of 5.
Critics complimented both Triet’s direction and Hüller’s performance, calling the movie the “most ambitious and successful film” of Triet’s career. Le Figaro concurred. “A director and actress in prime form,” commented Jon Frosch of The Hollywood Reporter. Sandra Hüller is extraordinary and intelligent. A promising development for a director who appears ready for further international acclaim.” “What gives the film its texture, substance, and emotional force is Sandra Hüller’s calm directness as an actor,” commented Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian, who scored the movie four out of five stars. According to Damon Wise of Deadline Hollywood, Sandra Hüller is exceptional. An intellectual blockbuster that could potentially earn Sandra Hüller, the film’s star, the [Cannes] Best Actress prize that she was wrongfully refused in 2016. There is no denying Hüller’s screen charisma.”
According to David Sims of The Atlantic, the movie “works largely because Hüller, a German actress probably best known for her role in Toni Erdmann, gives an extraordinary performance already being tipped for Oscar success.” The video “is straightforward in its style but sophisticated in the way Triet doesle out information,” according to Steve Pond of TheWrap. It’s delicate and gratifying, yet tense—sometimes excruciatingly so.””Both in front and behind the camera, Anatomy of a Fall is a film made by two women in particular who are simply at the top of their game, and neither Hüller nor Triet show any signs of slowing down,” wrote Alexandra Heller-Nicholas of the Alliance of Women Film Journalists.
Giving the movie four out of five stars, Financial Times’ Raphael Abraham observed, “Triet builds a taut did-she-do-it tension while also working in discomfiting questions about marital power dynamics and how much an artist’s work really reveals about their character.” Abraham continued by saying that Hüller’s performance merited a Cannes Best Actress award. HuffPost’s Candice Frederick commented, “Triet skillfully shifts our focus from possible crime-solving to the inner workings of two imperfect people and one complicated marriage through vivid flashbacks and meticulous courtroom interrogation.” It is utterly captivating.”A kind of Gone Girl in reverse, according to Variety’s Peter Debruge, the movie is “thought-provoking” and “uncommonly mature through all its layers, seeing rarely expressed truths about 21st-century relationships in its trajectory.”
According to Cahiers du Cinéma, Anatomy of a Fall came in third place among the best ten movies of 2023.
Worldwide Box Office Collection
With a total of $32.6 million as of 10 March 2024, Anatomy of a Fall has earned $5.1 million in North America and $27.5 million in other markets. Germany ($2.2 million), Spain ($2.5 million), the United States ($4.9 million), and France ($12.1 million) were its top four markets.
In France, the picture premiered in 379 theaters and grossed over $2 million from 262,698 tickets sold, putting it in second place at the box office after Barbie (288,185 tickets) and Oppenheimer (231,550 tickets). in In France, Anatomy of a Fall’s opening weekend ticket sales of 358,000 were the best for a Palme d’Or winner since 2008’s The Class. in With 608,913 admissions, the picture maintained its position as the second highest grossing film of the weekend, behind only The Equalizer 3 and Barbie. With 191,392 admissions from 738 theaters, 800,283 tickets sold, and a total of $5.7 million, the picture topped the French box office in its third weekend of release. With 921,308 admissions over its fourth weekend, the picture fell to number five in France’s box office.
Following its theatrical release on 23 September 2023, Anatomy of a Fall became the seventh Palme d’Or winner—and the third French Palme d’Or winner—to surpass 1 million admissions in France since 2000. I After 27 weeks in theaters, the film’s total admissions in France surpassed 1.7 million in March 2024.
Five theaters in the US grossed $117,000 during the film’s initial weekend. From fourteen cinemas, it earned $152,000 in its second weekend. The next weekend, it was released to 262 theaters and earned $634,000, placing it in eleventh place. Expanding to 440 theaters on its fourth weekend, the film earned $600,355, bringing its total earnings to $2 million.
Oscar Nominee
Anatomy of a Fall was one of five films chosen in advance by the French Oscar committee to represent France at the 96th Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film on September 13, 2023. Controversy ensued on September 21, 2023, when France instead submitted The Taste of Things. French insiders speculated that director Justine Triet was “punished” for criticizing the suppression of the pension reform protest movement by French President Emmanuel Macron during her acceptance speech at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
Some were concerned that Anatomy of a Fall wouldn’t qualify for the Best International Feature Film category because of how much English it utilized. The rules stipulate that at least half of a film’s dialogue have to be spoken in a language other than English. French is the language of 59% of Anatomy of a Fall, according to US distributor Neon, therefore it qualifies. There is all French dialogue in The Taste of Things, the Oscar winner selected by the French committee. Although The Taste of Things was not nominated for Best International Feature Film, Anatomy of a Fall ended up with five nominations.
Source: wikipedia
