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Anatomy Of A Fall is a film which looked great from the trailer, and another in the list of films which disappeared when they were due for release, as listed in my video below.
The individual involved in the fall is Samuel Maleski (Samuel Theis), partner to Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller – Toni Erdmann), who fell from the upstairs attic window, while she was inside. No-one heard anything because his stereo was playing veryr loud music, and their snowy location is so remote, there’s no-one for miles.
So, was it an accident or deliberate? Either way, Sandra’s in the frame, and her lawyer, Vincent Renzi (Swann Arlaud), needs to get her out of this, making it all feel similar to The Staircase, in that someone has died, but it happened in complex circumstances, no-one saw it take place, and thus, everyone has trouble figuring out exactly what happened. Hence, we’ll get some flashbacks along the way.
It also doesn’t help that the only person nearby at the time, was their son, Daniel (Milo Machado Graner), who had an accident at the age of 4 and lost his eyesight.
I strapped myself in for this long potboiler – as it runs just over two-and-a-half hours – but was ultimately disappointed. We get very heavily overfaced with details about the case, where elements are spelled out at least three times, meaning that the film could’ve been cut down by 30 minutes, early. As such, the court scene takes forever, and comes across as bland storytelling.
I also found it odd that quite often, the court would ask questions in French, but Sandra replies in English… why? Wouldn’t you just stick to the same language when she can already speak it?
Overall, Anatomy Of A Fall should be engaging, but it’s not. Similar to The Staircase, it also brings us a very unsatisfying conclusion, but no spoilers regarding the outcome, in case you also want to suffer like I did.
Anatomy Of A Fall is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on Blu-ray and DVD, ahead of its release on March 18th.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 152 minutes
Release date: November 10th 2023
Studio: Picturehouse Entertainment
Columbia Pictures Corporation
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Anamorphic Hawk Scope)
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 2/10
Director: Justine Triet
Producers: Marie-Ange Luciani, David Thion
Screenplay: Justine Triet, Arthur Harari
Cast:
Sandra Voyter: Sandra Hüller
Vincent Renzi: Swann Arlaud
Daniel Maleski: Milo Machado Graner
The Prosecutor: Antoine Reinartz
Samuel Maleski: Samuel Theis
Marge Berger: Jehnny Beth
Nour: Saadia Bentaieb
Zoé Solidor: Camille Rutherford
The President: Anne Rotger
Monica: Sophie Fillières
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.