The true-crime genre gets a sharp, nuanced and decidedly feminist update in The Anatomy of a Fall, the new feature from French director Justine Triet, which wowed critics and audiences alike in its world premiere in Cannes competition on Monday.
The film stars German actress Sandra Hüller — famed for her performance in the 2016 Oscar-nominated Toni Erdmann and who had a supporting role in Triet’s 2019’s drama Sibyl — as Sandra Voyter, a successful German novelist put on trial in France for the murder of her French, much-less-successful writer husband Samuel (Samuel Theis). The only witness to the death was the couple’s 11-year-old blind son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner).
The setup would seem to point to a “did she or didn’t she” mystery thriller, akin to Basic Instinct or HBO’s The Staircase, but Triet is less interested in a whodunit than in interrogating the legal system for its use of narrative fictions — when there are no facts, the prosecution spins fantasies about motives — and the conservative, often sexist assumptions that form the basis of those stories.
Neon picked up the film for North America shortly after its Cannes premiere.
Triet spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about her fascination with true crime stories, how she created the film’s central role for Hüller and the thin line between reality and fiction both onscreen and in the courtroom.
Sandra Hüller is amazing in this film. Did you create the role with her in mind?
Yes. I met Sandra 10 years ago, when she gave me an award at a festival. And, of course, like almost everyone, I saw Toni Erdmann. I was so impressed by that film and by her as an actress. I love the director (Maren Ade) and found it very inspiring. So, I sort of had her in my mind. That’s why I gave her the role in Sibyl. It was a small role for her, but I immediately connected to the relationship that she has to her acting. She has a very artistic…
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