Richmond Film Society - Screening of 'Anatomy of A Fall' (France)

About

We are not giving anything away by telling you the film concerns the enigma: "Did he fall or was he pushed?" This multi-award winning international drama concerns a family with a sensory impaired partially-sighted son, Daniel, on a holiday in a skiing chalet. The husband is found dead having fallen from the top floor. Did the wife do it? What ensues is a gripping courtroom drama, showing a side of French legal system that we rarely see portrayed in such verisimilitude - not to mention an extremely unpleasant prosecutor. Gradually, through the courtroom interrogations, a fuller picture of the relationship between husband and wife is exposed and Daniel is caught in the middle between the trial and his home life; not unexpectedly, his relationship with his mother suffers.

Among the many impressive features of the film is how the dialogue slips out of French into English seamlessly. The mother, who is the subject of the investigation, is played by the superb Sandra Hüller. Some RFS members will recall her roles as the academic in our 2022 Christmas film, I'm your Man, and in Toni Erdmann, which we screened back in 2018 Plus, if you have not got enough of her in Anatomy of a Fall, do come back for our screening of the Oscar-winning Zone of Interest on 28 January, 2025.

Anatomy of A Fall received five nominations at the 2024 Academy Awards, including for Best Motion Picture, winning the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Not only was it a multi-award winning feature for its humans but Messi (aka Snoop), the family's border collie, won the Palm Dog at Cannes and was given his own seat at the Oscars ceremony. In all, the film went on to win 113 awards worldwide.