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“Sometimes a couple is some kind of a chaos.” (Sandra, Anatomy of a Fall)
Anatomy is the study of the internal workings of an organism and this film, Anatomy of a Fall (Anatomie d'une chute), winner of the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2023, dissects the aftermath of a death and the internal workings of a marriage. The dead man, Samuel, is husband to Sandra and father to thirteen-year-old Daniel, who was partially blinded a few years before. Half of the film comprises a gripping court-based drama where Sandra is on trial for the murder of her husband. The jury, and the viewing audience, are presented with three options. Did Samuel jump from the chalet to meet his death on the snow-covered ground beneath, was it a tragic accident, or did his wife push him?
The family live in a remote chalet in the French Alps. The stunning setting, crispy-topped mountain peaks, snow-covered vistas, lends an initial sense of isolation, of the family being alone and cut off up there in the mountains. We learn early on that Daniel is home-schooled, often the preserve of parents of disabled children, unwilling or unable to allow their child out into the world, as much to protect themselves from shame as to avoid their child facing discrimination.
It's heart-rending that first Snoop, the dog, and then Daniel come across his father, lying prostrate on the ground outside the chalet. As realisation dawns, Daniel starts to scream for his mum but his voice is dwarfed by the blaring music emanating from above. Revealing this dead body on the frozen ground isn't a spoiler, however, for this is not the story. What steers the narrative is an anatomy of a marriage, predominantly carried out on the public stage of the French legal system. It's a brutal search for the truth that is so gripping for an audience, its poignancy in the handling of Daniel's story, a boy who has already lost his sight but comes close to losing both of his parents: first his father and now, potentially, should his m