Terraria’s “Anatomy of a Fall”: Multiple Cinematic Aesthetics

The jury of the main competition at the 76th session of the “Cannes” film festival (May 16-27, 2023), headed by Swedish Robin Ostlund, presented the “Golden Palm” award to “Anatomy of a Fall”. French Justine Trier (1978), participated in the competition/festival for the second time after “Sibyl” at the 72nd session (May 14-25, 2019). With this win, Drea is the third director to receive the “Friend” award, after New Zealander Jane Campion for “The Piano” (1993) and Frenchwoman Julia Decorneau for “Titan” (2021).

Such a success, considered audacious by Ostlund and his team, would raise the usual question: Is “Anatomy of the Fall” more worthy and deserving of the “lead”? He raised the question on the one hand, and on the other hand handled the film in isolation from other awards, perhaps because they oppressed him too much. The award is mainly based on the opinion of the jury, taking into account the distribution of other prizes and achieving maximum balance. Women directors in particular should consider that one-third of competing films are participating and walking away without major awards. Has the committee considered this matter? An unanswered question.

Beyond guesses and questions, does “Anatomy of a Fall”, cinematically and artistically, deserve the highest award at the “Cannes” festival? Compared to competing films, it’s easier to answer critically when compared to the other films competing in the competition by female directors. None of them featured a new or noteworthy female director, except Italian Alessi Rohrficher in her latest and powerful film, “The Illusion,” one of the competition’s most important entries. Compared to “Anatomy of a Fall,” it’s not as easy to relate to or get across in general, but it appeals to people of all ages, tastes, and levels.

In terms of the level of competing films in general, artistic aesthetics, cinematic works, innovations, deep proposals and treatments, German Wim Wenders’ “The Wonderful Days”, British Ken Loach’s “The Old Oak Tree”, Finn Aki Kaurismäki’s “Falling Leaves” compared to others. and Part of Interest” by British Jonathan Glazer and “Dry Herbs” by Turkish Nuri Bilki Ceylan, are strong, highly intelligent, worthy and award-worthy. However, winning one of these films would have gone to male directors, except for Best Actress.

This quick critical discussion isn’t to say that “Anatomy of a Fall” isn’t award-winning, cinematically bad, or artistic. Quite the opposite. The film is crafted with remarkable craftsmanship on all its levels, especially the screenplay (Theria and Artur Arari), acting and direction. It is characterized by a huge amount of suspense, excitement and mystery, and caters to all tastes, which means that it will receive wide appreciation and acceptance when shown to the public. Also, it is difficult to limit it to the genre of crime, investigation and investigation films or to compare it with popular and popular series of this genre related to crimes and their analysis.

Sandra Votter (German Sandra Holler) is a German writer who lives with her husband, the writer Samuel Malesky (French Samuel Thies), and their son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner), who is blind (11 years old). A mountain cabin in the French Alps. One day, after she is “accused” of killing her husband after he falls from the upper window of his room, suspicions surround her. Did Sandra really kill him? How? Why? The questions are confusing and trying to be answered between interesting events, precise and detailed investigations, re-enactment of the crime and long heated trials, which reveal Sandra’s life, her past and secrets, her homosexuality, her complicated and ambiguous relationship. With her late husband, she had recently suffered from difficulties in writing, his intense jealousy of her and his literary success, and the question of who was to blame for the accident that revealed their son, who had lost her half. vision

The nature of these interwoven issues is gradually revealed in a long trial, which is determined by the son’s testimony, after the discovery of an audio recording of a heated argument between Sandra and her husband, recorded by the deceased without his knowledge, a few days before his death. Despite this, the difficulty in solving the problem is due to the multi-layered and very precise facts that do not help to solve the mystery of the fall or whether or not a crime was committed. All these are police films, without slipping into the category of crime or investigation, with its lightness, repetition and uniformity in facts, situations and events.

Until the end of the trial, although Sandra has her courageous personality, toughness and psychological balance, it is very difficult to distance herself from what happened and protect her life, her art and her love for her son. degree. A very difficult female composition, Sandra Holler performed with conviction, honesty and mastery, for which she deserved a best actress award, or for her role, Glazer’s “passionate part”. However, the rules of awarding the “Golden Palm” prevented him from receiving the award, which was won by Turkish Marvi Deştash for his role as Norey in Gilan’s masterpiece “On Dry Herbs”.

“Anatomy of a Fall” never ceases to be intense, powerful and honest in dealing with the dynamics of couples and married life and its deep, messy complexities, along with the social, psychological and human; As it delves further into the lives of spouses, it raises many questions about the relationship between a man and a woman and what the concept of family is.

If its original idea and title was an attempt to find out how to fall, to dissect whether the fall is a crime or not, Driya’s film deals with the emotional, physical and psychological fall between spouses more deeply and on multiple levels. , essentially. One of the most important and precise things is technically related to the relationship with the spouses, who do not speak the same language, because they communicate in the third language, English, in an attempt to create a platform. In it they meet. This explains why Sandra doesn’t always speak French. It also raises what it means to be a foreigner who is being interrogated in a language other than your mother tongue in France, i.e. in a country that is not your own. Sandra is German, speaks English, and tries to speak French, which she is not fluent in, which creates conflict and ambiguity regarding the way she expresses herself and her feelings, leading to confusion and confusion about her personality and identity. And first of all her honesty.