In Justine Triet’s cerebral thriller Anatomy of a Fall, the calamity arrives without ceremony. It seems like just another day for a family up in the Alps, filled with work and home renovations. The child goes for a walk, leading the dog through fresh snow. As he arrives back home, there’s the faintest hint of a turn: the dog begins to whine, agitated. We see a man’s body lying on the snow, dark crimson blood pooling around the head. There is panic, confusion, and the inevitable question: was he pushed?
The only other person in the house at the time was the victim’s wife, the novelist Sandra Voyter, played expertly by Sandra Hüller (who previously made a star turn as Toni Erdmann’s frazzled consultant). When the investigation uncovers details that don’t add up, Sandra turns from witness to prime suspect. She insists she’s innocent. What follows is a taut, unsentimental courtroom drama in which the couple’s longstanding grievances and secrets are aired in the name of justice, and increasingly a source of public titillation. You can hear a hint of glee when the prosecutor pulls out a novel of Voyter’s and reads a passage in which the protagonist imagines her partner’s lifeless body. Her lawyers insist that fiction is not real life. They also know that such protestations can seem trivial if what is on trial is no longer the supposed crime at hand, but Sandra’s character.
