| Dialogue |
HÜLLER CORNER
ANATOMY OF A FALL Sandra Hüller fights for her life in a quality courtroom drama…
Iknow that Justine [Triet, director] watched every courtroom drama on this planet,’ says celebrated German actress Sandra Hüller of Anatomy of a Fall, a coolly intelligent and forensically detailed addition to the genre. In May it went before the jury of the Cannes Film Festival. It won the Palme d’Or. ‘So she knows the traps. She knew what she wanted to avoid.’
Like Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, Anatomy of a Fall avoids cliches. In place of grandstanding speeches and lastminute reveals, we have Hüller’s calm, complex performance as Sandra, a successful author, German by birth, who lives in the French Alps with her husband Samuel (Samuel Theis) and their son, Daniel (Milo Machado Graner). Or at least she did. Then one day Daniel returns home from a walk to find his father dead with a head wound. His cries awaken Sandra and pitch her into the nightmare of being the prime suspect in a murder trial.
Ambiguity is key. Daniel is blind but also the key witness, with both the prosecution and defence reliant on what he heard. And not even Hüller had all of the facts at her disposal… ‘I panicked a few days before shooting, and I asked
Justine if Sandra was guilty or not,’ says the actor, who became an international sensation with her performance in Toni Erdmann and can next be seen playing ‘the Queen of Auschwitz’ in Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest. ‘Justine avoided answering that question. And then I realised it doesn’t matter to me as she believes she’s not guilty.’
Hüller worked with Triet previously on Sibyl (2019), and here relished taking to the witness stand to speak in French and English (‘When I’m working in German I tend to be too precise, and I’m bored by myself’). She also appreciated that the film digs into the artistic process given that Sandra is a writer, and examines the unknowability of people.
‘Did I recognise the fighting for the time to do what we do? Yeah.
‘She believes she’s not guilty’
SANDRA HÜLLER
The misunderstandings? Yeah. You always need a space where you can work. And it’s a private space. For example, when I go off to shoot for two months, that doesn’t mean I have time for myself. To explain to other people is hard. I was not relaxing. It was time for the team, the project.’ And does she agree that we all have our private spaces that we don’t reveal to anyone? ‘Yes, and isn’t it great? I find that thought really soothing. It means I don’t even have to try to find out everything – they will tell me what is meant for me. There’s a space between two people, or more when you’re a family. The space is private. That’s a good thing.’ JAMIE GRAHAM
ANATOMY OF A FALL OPENS IN CINEMAS ON 10 NOVEMBER.