A father lies in the snow motionless. He is bleeding from the head and not breathing. That’s how his blind son discovers him, and when the panicked boy calls to his mother for help, she peeks out from the second-story balcony. Above her is another story with an even higher balcony. The scene writes itself.

Or does it? Did the man fall? Did he jump? Was he pushed? Those are the questions Anatomy of a Fall tries to answer for the remainder of its runtime. Directed by Justine Triet, Anatomy is a gripping courtroom drama that works magnificently when the camera remains in the courtroom, and one level below magnificent when out. 

Indications on the body (Samuel Theis) lead investigators to suspect foul play. Not a lot of indications, mind you, but enough that an overly cautious and suspicious prosecution (Antoine Reinartz) has something to work with. It’s interesting to consider the death in this movie in relation to another in Killers of the Flower Moon. In that movie, a melancholic man is shot in the back of the head and the gun is nowhere to be found and everyone still tries to pass it off as suicide. Here, a man with an unstable mental history and prior attempts dies, and people point the finger at his wife (Sandra Hüller).

Hüller is phenomenal in the role of a wife, grieving the loss of her husband but also weary from years of trying to coddle his fragile ego. Sandra and Samuel are writers, though she is published and more successful. He blames her for borrowing too many of his ideas, forcing him into the role of parent and caretaker to their home—distractions from the writing he feels he needs to do. But he’s the one who wanted the house and wanted the roles he assigned to himself.

These scenes, told in flashback while Sandra recounts them on the stand, are presented as objective. They can’t be because they are told from Sandra’s side, not Samuel’s. She is the speaker for the dead, which is probably why the prosecutor is so hot under the collar to expose the unsavory aspects of their marriage. Sandra’s representation, Maître Vincent Renzi (Swann Arlaud), believes her, but still seems reserved and cautious. His job is to defend her, not believe her. That’s up to the Présidente du tribunal (Anne Rotger), and you can see a good deal of conflict on her face.

Anatomy of a Fall—which won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival this past May—keeps viewers on uneven ground. A few quick shots glimpse what might have happened on that balcony, but they are possibilities, not realities. When son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner) has his own realization, it’s probably as close to the truth as anyone will find. But Triet refrains from visualizing it, leaving the audience in the same state as the players. There’s only so much that science and narrative can tell us before we just have to make up our minds and live with it.

Anatomy of a Fall (2023)
Directed by Justine Triet
Written by Justine Triet, Arthur Harari
Produced by Marie-Ange Luciani, David Thion
Starring: Sandra Hüller, Swann Arlaud, Antoine Reinartz, Anne Rotger, Samuel Theis, Milo Machado Graner
Neon, Rated R, Running time 152 minutes, Opens Oct. 27, 2023 

---