LIFE
An Anatomy of a Marriage
A story about hidden truths and suffering in silence
Disclaimer: This essay discusses the 2023 film An Anatomy of a Fall directed by Justine Triet starring Sandra Hüller.
Fellow Medium writer and author of Butterfly: A Siblings’ Story Chris Thompson wrote, “Movies are a mirror of society and a beautiful art form.” I cannot agree more. Now and then, when the planets are in alignment, we get films that are brutally honest, revealing, and scoop your guts onto the table and into the salad bowl. It is then placed as a centerpiece on your dining table, exposed, and to be served to your unsuspecting guests. Your vulnerabilities, seasoned and garnished, ready to be picked on by the crows of your social circle. What’s left of you is as good a mystery as the English moors covered in banks of cold fog.
Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall serves us the innards of a family, a tragic disembowelment in a French court witnessed by the public, after the sudden death of husband and father Samuel Maleski. The story moves backwards starting with Maleski falling from the top floor of the family’s picturesque chalet overlooking the mountains near Grenoble in France, and his wife, Sandra, being accused of his death. The big question is, how did it happen?
