Did he fall or was he pushed? Not a very original pitch, let’s admit. But Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet’s superb psychological thriller which this year won the Palme d’Or, the top prize at Cannes, makes all previous such posers seem trivial. She never gives us an answer – and it seems she never told her cast while making it either.
The mise en scène is over and done with before the opening credits. Slightly tipsy German novelist Sandra Voyter (the tremendous Sandra Hüller) is being interviewed, in English, in her house in the French Alps by winsome grad student Zoé (Camille Rutherford). Their conversation is soon made impossible, though, by thunderously annoying music being played on a loop upstairs – a steel drum version of 50 Cent’s “PIMP”. It’s her husband, Samuel, working on the top floor, Sandra explains. They try to chat a bit more but then give up. Zoé leaves, Sandra heads upstairs.
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