Oscar Movies: Anatomy of a Fall, Winner of Major Awards (Cannes Fest, Critics Choice, Spirit Award) Oscar Nominee in Major Categories

Anatomy of a Fall–One of 2023 Best Movies

Arthur Harari, Justine Triet, “Anatomy of a Fall” (best original screenplay)

Though it revolves around a German novelist named Sandra (Sandra Hüller), accused of murdering her husband, a teacher-writer named Samuel (Samuel Theis), Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall is nominally a procedural courtroom drama.

However,

essentially, the movie is a subtle dissection of the complexities of one marriage–the love given, the harm inflicted (intentionally and unintentionally), the guilt experienced over a family accident, the professional competition (manifest and latent)–by a couple that shares deep intimacy.

The movies could have easily been called, Scenes from a Marriage, the title of Ingmar Bergman’s best works.

Anatomy of a Fall
Theatrical release poster

Pivotal Scene: Spouses Fight

Unsurprisingly, Triet’s collaborator on its script, her husband, says that a pivotal fight scene between the spouses was the toughest to write, precisely because it had to both indict and exonerate Sandra in the eyes of the audience.

“It scared us, not only because the content had to be subtle and avoid the clichés and ponderousness of this kind of ‘meaningful’ scene, but also because of its dramatic importance,” Harari says. “It needed to live up to the way it had been teased throughout and had to tip the film into a vertiginous dimension with lasting effect on everything that came after.”

Triet counted 20 or 30 versions they’d written of the scene before they got it right.

“The core of the movie’s in this scene,” she insists. Harari credits her for identifying the north star that gave them a sense of a purpose as they refined what in many moments was a knock-down, drag-out battle between husband and wife. “Justine would say, ‘we need to feel love behind it all,’” he remembers.

Ultimately, they chose to delay an explosion of violence in order to underscore the compassion shared between them rather than the act that marks a point of no return.

“They try by all means to continue to communicate, even if it’s a terrible struggle,” he says. “We felt it was important to convey the impression that they still have, or have had, a tenderness and respect that was genuinely loving.”

Triet: “all of the elements were so dense and contradictory–life itself putting you in a naturally occurring conundrum that I had to find a way to portray.”

It is impossible to imagine the tale without the magnetic German actress Sandra Hüller (Toni Erdmann), whose calm directness and gravitas renders the film its multi-nuanced texture, substance and cumulative emotional power.

Commercial Appeal:

Considering that it’s a French film (half of which in English), and made on a modest budget of $7 million, Anatomy of a Fall is a global hit, earning more than $30 million to date.

Oscar Movies: Anatomy of a Fall, Winner of Major Awards (Cannes Fest, Critics Choice, Spirit Award) Oscar Nominee in Major Categories

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