Ok, we need to talk about Justine Triet. ANATOMY OF A FALL, her fourth feature film, is legitimately her crowning glory after copping both Palme d'or and an Oscar for its sparklingly thought-provoking screenplay (out of a total 5 nominations including Best Picture and Best Director, the very first French female French director nominated in the latter category). Curiously, after watching her second feature VICTORIA and third feature SIBYL, both starring Virginie Efira as their eponymous protagonists, a viewer can suss out Triet's stock-in-trade, her unequivocal, unapologetic approach of defining and portraying womanhood on her own feminist terms.
VICTORIA and SIBYL could be seen as a twin project (both Victoria and Sibyl's two kids are played by Jeane Arra-Bellanger and Liv Harari, the latter is the daughter of Triet and her partner Arthur Harari, who is also a filmmaker and contributes to the scripts of both SIBYL and ANATOMY OF A FALL). Victoria is a nymphomaniac lawyer whose life goes off the rail after she reluctantly accept to be the defense attorney of her close friend Vincent (Poupaud, caricaturing a self-centered douchebag to a T), who may or may not stab his lover Eve (Daquet). Taking Samuel (a puppyish Lacoste, buzzing with sensitivities), a former pusher who volunteers to be her lived-in assistant/babysitter, for granted, Victoria belatedly realizes her true love is just around the corner, albeit a cradle-snatching one.
Whereas Sibyl is a psychotherapist with an alcoholic past who tries to resume her real ambition as a writer. Fascinated by her latest patient Margot (Exarchopoulos), a young actress devastated by her entanglement with a fellow actor Igor (the late Ulliel), Sibyl makes an unethical decision that eventually compels her into self-examining her self-concept, in particular, the lingering Freudian attachment with her ex-boyfriend Gabriel (Schneider, also Efira's real-life partner).
In a way, Sibyl is Victoria's continuation, who finally learns to settle down with Étienne (Hamy), a decent if not ideal man in her conception, and move on from her psychosexual yearnings. Her attempt to re-experience that indelible carnal passion through Igor (a surrogate of Gabriel) is her last resort and such an impulsive, against-one's-better-judgement act is rarely beneficent. However, SIBYL runs out of steam after the movie-shooting scenes in Stromboli, where Hüller's German film director Mika, Igor's current girlfriend, has a madcap nervous breakdown. Evidenced by the higgledy-piggledy editing, Triet strains to clarify Sibyl's emotional baggage, her breakdown during the film's premier and the total bibulous abandon in the afterparty are imagineered only for the sake of a grandstanding climax. Is that her conscience finally catches up with her? It is a tad too late considering her novel has already been published and Margot is too air-headed to feel violated.
Efira's brilliance in modulating her affective expression is attested by both films. In VICTORIA, she magnifies Victoria's immaturity with a crispy innocence, otherwise how on earth she could be pally with a character like Vincent? In SIBYL, the script purveys more room for her to characterize Sibyl's self-spiderwebbed scrape, and she goes to the deep end with both élan and emotional rawness, not to mention the daring, graphic but not gratuitous sex scenes between her and Schneider, their desire is devouring each other.
ANATOMY OF A FALL, a courtroom drama putting German novelist Sandra (Hüller) on the defendant stand for the murder of his husband Samuel (Theis), encompasses sundry elements from both VICTORIA and SIBYL: a trial (that goes without saying), plagiarism (one of Sandra's books borrows ideas from Samuel's aborted novel), the lopsided power balance between a couple (Gabriel's accusation of Sibyl echoes Samuel and Sandra's dissonance), an unscrupulous psychotherapist (glaringly discarding the doctor-patient confidentiality in the courtroom), secretive recordings (Samuel's actions may suggest something more sinister, could it be his willful incrimination of Sandra?), even the key function of a dog (here, Messi the Border collie is a veritable canine star, not least for that complex overdosing performance!). But what conduces to a quantitive leap in the final film is a felicitous combo of directorial bravura, a sterling cast and a gripping courtroom procedural that hits the mark of its cardinal gender politics, i.e. the putrid dynamism between a high-flying wife and an unsuccessful, presumably suicidal husband. A gender switch that debunks the misogyny that is still insidiously prevalent in a model society.
If the whole indictment feels rickety - in default of any concrete evidence, one might wonder whether Sandra could even be trialed for homicide in the first place - Triet's intention is fixed upon searching for truth rather than the truth itself (which is never revealed). The whole process is propelled by a stunning momentum as the gendered clash baring its nasty teeth through various witnesses and most egregiously, the prosecutor (a ferociously shrill Reinartz), who even cites excerpts from fictional works to color Sandra's innocence, whereas Arlaud's defense lawyer Vincent is a hard-nosed friend in need, stupendously sweeps Sandra off her feet with his salt-and-pepper pelt and a soulmate communion.
Tellingly, Hüller is as electrifying as the hype boasts, a commanding presence that is incredibly humane, resilient and feels real to us because, like everyone else, Sandra is both strong and vulnerable. Assertive and emotionally competent to fight for her truth, yet as a mother, she can be confounded or even inept in front of her vision-impaired son Daniel (Machado-Graner). During the money shots, a re-enactment of the row between her and Samuel a day before the accident, Hüller knocks audience dead stock-still with her impassioned retorts. Each sentence is as excoriating as a sharp twisted knife, that can leave a dejected man riddled with wounds.
Also the 14-year-old Machado-Graner is a godsend discovery. Although his initial testimony discloses the unreliable nature of a child's judgment, Daniel soon emerges as a key witness in the trial. More so, in his critical recollections of a prior incident whose importance looms large after the fact, Daniel acquits himself as a conscientious decision-maker, to come to terms with a most probable causation of a shocking tragedy, a faculty with which everyone should equip themselves in preparation for the checkered life as we all know it. Machado-Graner exhibits an uncanny pretense of maturity and self-deprecation that totally befits the context and the character arc.
Nonetheless, Yours Truly cannot help but wish Triet could've been a "bigger" filmmaker than a tit-for-tat avenger of the wronged, prejudiced or victimized members of the fairer sex. Supposing that a depressed Samuel is truly hipped on the suicidal ideation, during their heated argument, Sandra, his wife and companion for all these years, shows not an inkling of consideration for his fragile mental state. Laying on thick with accusations (however veridical they are), all she wants to prove is that she is guilty-free in his own fix, not realizing that he is on the precipice of giving up himself entirely, perhaps, that is the last straw if Samuel indeed commits suicide. From that angle, Triet's punitive insensitivity towards the sterner sex (especially those who are lesser than her capable heroines) also unfortunately, betrays her own pettiness and mean spirit in her crusade of equality and gender justice. If women are indeed better than men, magnanimity may not be the exact phenotype one can easily observe from them.
referential entries: Albert Dupontel's BYE BYE MORONS (2020, 6.6/10); Xavier Dolan's HEARTBEATS (2010, 5.2/10); Christophe Honoré's SORRY ANGEL (2018, 8.1/10); François Ozon's BY THE GRACE OF GOD (2018, 7.2/10). Title: VictoriaYear: 2016Country: FranceLanguage: French, EnglishGenre: Comedy, Romance, DramaDirector: Justine TrietScreenwriters: Justine Triet, Thomas Lévy-LasneCinematography: Simon BeaufilsEditor: Laurent SénéchalCast:Virginie EfiraVincent LacosteMelvil PoupaudLaurent PoitrenauxLaure CalamyAlice DaquetSophie FillièresJeane Arra-BellangerLiv HarariJulie MoulierArthur HarariClaire BurgerRating: 7.0/10
Title: SibylYear: 2019Country: France, BelgiumLanguage: French, English, ItalianGenre: DramaDirector: Justine TrietScreenwriters: Justine Triet, Arthur Harari Cinematography: Simon BeaufilsEditor: Laurent SénéchalCast:Virginie EfiraAdèle ExarchopoulosGaspard UllielSandra HüllerNiels SchneiderPaul HamyLaure CalamyArthur HarariJeane Arra-BellangerLiv HarariLorenzo LefebvreAdrien BellemareRating: 6.8/10
English Title: Anatomy of a FallOriginal Title: Anatomie d’une chuteYear: 2023Country: FranceLanguage: French, EnglishGenre: Drama, CrimeDirector: Justine TrietScreenwriters: Justine Triet, Arthur Harari Cinematography: Simon BeaufilsEditor: Laurent SénéchalCast:Sandra HüllerSwann ArlaudMilo Machado-GranerAntoine ReinartzSamuel TheisJehnny BethSaadia BentaïebCamille RutherfordAnne RotgerSophie FillièresAntoine BuénoAnne-Lise HeimburgerWajdi MouawadSacha WolffVincent Courcelle-LabrousseRating: 8.2/10
