Anatomy of a fall (2023)

The new work of French filmmaker Justine Triet is an intense dramatic thriller, where its 150 minutes pass in a breath.

The starting point is that of a family formed by Sandra, her husband Daniel, their son Samuel and a dog, who live in a house in the Alps.

In the prologue, an unfortunate event takes place, which will mark the film, because as the title says, the causes of this “supposed accident” will be analyzed, and who is the possible person responsible.

The French filmmaker manages to print a great rhythm to the plot, without moving away from an auteur film tone, in that she does not abuse the use of music (it is almost nonexistent, except for some theme that we hear many times because it is essential in the development of the judicial plot) and does not overdo it when it comes to show the drama of the characters.

The work of Justine Triet, whose three previous works had not seemed to me anything special, but at least in those films she tried to do something different.

But it also has a very balanced script, which without being the strongest point of the film, does manage to make credible the development of the central plot and the different secondary subplots, leaving almost everything very well resolved.

Another highlight is the editing, with an outstanding treatment of the insertion of ellipses, which are generally necessary, and help to better understand the story.

I leave for the end the performances, in a very well selected cast, where everyone is good, among which stands out above the rest a Sandra Hüller, who is excellent, in what is the best performance of her career.

Hüller is intense and believable as Sandra Voyter, in a character with a great dramatic charge behind her. Rounding out the cast are Swann Arlaud, as the protagonist's lawyer, Samuel Theis, as Sandra's husband, and the discovery of Milo Machado Graner, who plays the child protagonist, who has a couple of scenes where it is difficult for him not to move the viewer.