Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes in May, is an austere, methodical courtroom drama built with stunning precision. A woman, novelist Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller), is placed on trial after her husband is found dead, outside in the snow, by their visually impaired son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner). Investigators conclude two possibilities: murder or suicide. Yet, Triet selectively weaponises the sensationalist language of true crime to question whether our hunger for truth may, in fact, be a hunger for closure.
If you’ve watched even a handful of true crime documentaries, you’ll know the techniques often used. There are the lingering shots of significant locations, left unpopulated like crime scenes: a lone staircase, perhaps, or a desk suddenly abandoned, books flung open and coffee half-drunk. There is the montage of family photos, a blissful picture of the past now poisoned by death. And, typically, the candid, off-camera voices – interviewer and interviewee, caught moments before the cry of “action”.
