The answer to the mystery of Anatomy of a Fall was revealed 11 years ago, in this film

“Samuel committed suicide, it’s obvious “. “This shot at 1 hour and 13 minutes is irrefutable proof that she killed him », “Look at Snoop in that moment: he knows instinctively that this is murder. » Anatomy of a fall it was released 8 months ago now. Yet no one has solved the mystery of him. Nobody found out THE detail hidden in a corner of the furniture. No one formulated the theory that had not yet been thought of. And for good reason: perhaps this is proof that we weren’t looking in the right place.

If we consider Anatomy of a fall like a treasure hunt, so this didn’t start in 2023. It was born at the same time as the cinema of Justine Triet.

Comedy (The Battle of Solferino, 2013), drama(Vittoria, 2016), drama (Sibyl), o thriller (Anatomy of a Fall, 2023), the register and tone of Justine Triet’s films may change over the course of the titles, but her cinema does not just tell small trajectories of characters or news events. He builds the vision of the world of a director.

The strength of Anatomy of a Fall is not his mysterious death but the fact of questioning the couple

Love might be the most banal subject in cinema, you see the couple questioned is, paradoxically, a lot rare. How many films question themselves the couple as system ? As an organization worked by relations of domination and power What are its specificities and which sometimes even escape the individuals who make up this couple? The couple as an agreement that necessarily implies sacrifices and the forms, presumed or not, conscious or not, of violence?

This is the real issueAnatomy of a fall. Justine Triet enjoys carrying out an investigation so meticulous it becomes almost absurd: studying Tiny’s trajectory drops of bloodlearn more about Sandra’s private life and usage his bisexuality as evidence of a murder. Situating the film of him in a court that don’t go on for 2h30, Triet highlights the inability of justice to think about these dynamics of violence and power which also contaminate the intimate. The Court’s obsession with micro-details and norms – speaking impeccable French, being forthright and faithful – blinds her to the evidence. The culprit is the violence inherent in the couple.

Self Anatomy of a fall can leave a feeling of mystery, of unfinished in the end is that in reality we can consider it as the second part of a diptych that Justine Triet began in 2013 with his first film, The Battle of Solferino.

The battle of Solferino, what is it about?

Laetitia, television journalist, follows the presidential elections. She entrusted her daughters, two small girls, to a very inexperienced babysitter. But then Vincent, her ex, shows up to see their daughters. He doesn’t give up. From Laetitia or in rue Solférino where she follows a demonstration a few hours before the announcement of the results, he harasses her. Wild kids, overwhelmed babysitter, vaguely encrusted lover, misanthropic lawyer, France cut in two: everything gets tangled up, nothing goes right.

Anatomy of a Fall and The Battle of Solferino, two opposite but twin films

From the point of view of form, Anatomy of a fall AND The Battle of Solferino they are opposites of each other. On one side, Anatomy of a fall it oscillates between the intimate atmospheres of a large house inhabited by a couple who do not speak to each other, and that of a court governed by precise standards of behavior, language and appearance. The court is the mecca of the language : The power of lawyers is managing the words they are given so well the right to say what is true and right. “That’s not the question.” Vincent, Sandra’s lawyer, responds when she tells him she is innocent. In court, we examine the speeches made by the Witnessesand let’s look at the minimum wrong word suspicious. Ultimately, the world of the Court only has its obsession with the word as a tool for establishing justice in a silent couple.

In reverse, The Battle of Solferino East a cacophonous film without a single second of silence. On the street, the crowd of Sarkozy and Hollande voters never stops scream : slogans, demands, insults to opponents, tears of disappointment. But the space of the apartment, which should be the place of intimacy, is everything noisy and messy like the street. From start to finish, the two little girls never stopped screaming with anger, hunger, tiredness. Vincent pours out insults, reproaches, rivers of words like vomit on Laetitia.

Anatomy of violence

Nesting large-scale public event – a French presidential election to that of private – the chaotic management of a family and a divorce, Justine Triet it destroyed the distinction between the intimate and the political. A decade later, it’s no surprise what the director imagines Anatomy of a fall. It’s as if this second film begins where it ends The Battle of Solferinoa film so tense that it seems ready to explode at any moment. In Anatomywe arrive after the explosion, and try to understand why it happened.

Therefore, it does not matter whether the death in the film is a suicide, a murder, an accident or even a paranormal phenomenon. What interests Justine Triet is this profound lack of communication and this systemic violence that spares nothing and no one, starting with women. Violence social, political, social, patriarchal which contaminates everything, down to the most intimate corners, leading to the absurd and humor The battleor to the tragedy in Anatomy.

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