Justine Triet became only the third woman to win the top prize at Cannes, the Palme d’Or, for this engrossing psychological mystery thriller. In Anatomy of a Fall, when Samuel is found dead outside his alpine cabin it’s clear he plunged from the attic window. But did he jump, or was he pushed? The physical evidence is inconclusive, but the widow, Sandra looks eminently suspicious to the French authorities: she’s a prickly German novelist, and there is a recording of a violent argument she had with Samuel just the day before his death. The only other witness who might shed some light on the case is the couple’s visually impaired ten-year-old son. But as the trial proceeds, his faith in his mom’s innocence is shaken. Triet (who cowrote the screenplay with her life partner, Arthur Harari) proves there is still life in the courtroom drama. The film follows twin tracks: the nitty gritty interpretation of the evidence (which as the title suggests, hinges on the fall itself), and concurrently an anatomy of Sandra and Samuel’s marriage, which, in his absence, largely becomes an interrogation of her moral character. Layered and complex, this is compelling drama with a knockout performance from Sandra Hüller (Toni Erdmann).
Palme d’Or, Cannes 2023
Presented by
Community Partner
Sandra Hüller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado Graner, Antoine Reinartz, Samuel Theis
France
2023
Special Presentations
In French with English subtitles
Animal Cruelty, Domestic Violence
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
Marie-Ange Luciani, David Thion
Screenwriter
Justine Triet, Arthur Harari
Cinematography
Simon Beaufils
Editor
Laurent Sénéchal
Production Design
Emmanuelle Duplay
Director
Photo by Yann_Rabanier
Justine Triet
Justine Triet is a graduate of the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. In 2009, she directed Des Ombres dans la Maison in a township of Saõ Paulo. Her debut feature La Bataille de Solférino was selected for ACID at Cannes 2013. Victoria, her second feature, opened the Critics’ Week in Cannes in 2016. Starring Virginie Efira, the film was nominated for five Césars, including Best Film and Best Actress. Sibyl, her third feature, was selected to compete for the Palme d’Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. Anatomy of a Fall is her fourth feature and premiered in Competition in the Official Selection of Cannes 2023.
Filmography: Age of Panic (2013); Victoria (2016); Sibyl (2019)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
All the Lovers in the Night
A lonely proofreader's isolated world begins to open through an unlikely friendship with a gentle physics teacher. Based on Mieko Kawakami's acclaimed novel, this luminous drama is a delicate meditation on loneliness, intimacy, and self-discovery.
Clarissa
Arie and Chuko Esiri’s Clarissa brings Mrs. Dalloway to present-day Lagos, with Sophie Okonedo playing the titular society hostess opposite David Oyelowo, Ayo Edebiri, and India Amarteifio in a Nigerian vision of class, privilege, and past lives.
Image: © Courtesy of Elevation Pictures
Opening Gala: The Debut
VIFF is honoured to open the festival with this special by-invitation screening of Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut. When meek Mona (Julianne Moore) lands a part in a musical, she fully inhabits her character, but grows increasingly untethered from reality.
Árru
Set against the mountains and fjords of northern Norway, Árru follows reindeer herder Maia as a proposed copper mine threatens her Sámi community, forcing her to fight to protect both her community and the land that sustains it.
The Beloved
When Esteban Martínez, an acclaimed director with violent tendences, invites his estranged daughter to star in his latest project, the stage is set for a familial reconnection. But as tensions flare, questions about his intentions rise to the surface.
MODES 1
Archive and the land reveal other ways of seeing, ensuring that what is meant to endure cannot be erased.