You’ve probably seen the poster. A body lies splayed in the blinding white snow of the French Alps. Blood blooms like a dark flower around the head of Samuel Maleski. It’s a striking image, but it’s basically the only "clear" thing you’re going to get from Justine Triet’s 2023 masterpiece. Honestly, Anatomy of a Fall isn't really a whodunnit, even though it pretends to be one for two and a half hours. It’s more like a "how did we get here?"
The film centers on Sandra Voyter, played by the incredible Sandra Hüller. She’s a successful German novelist living in a remote chalet near Grenoble with her husband, Samuel, and their visually impaired son, Daniel. When Samuel falls to his death from the top floor of their home, the authorities (and the audience) are left with a messy, frustrating puzzle. Was it a tragic accident? Did he jump? Or did Sandra, frustrated by their crumbling marriage, give him a shove?
What makes this movie stick in your brain isn't the forensics. It’s the way it weaponizes language and the inherent subjectivity of truth.
The Trial of a Marriage, Not a Murder
If you go into this looking for a CSI style breakdown of blood spatter, you’re kinda missing the point. The French legal system, as depicted here, is a wild ride compared to American courtrooms. It’s noisy. It’s theatrical. The prosecutor, played with a sort of oily brilliance by Antoine Reinartz, isn't just trying to prove Sandra killed Samuel; he’s trying to prove she’s a "bad" woman.
He attacks her for her bisexuality. He attacks her for using her real life as fodder for her fiction. He basically argues that because she is a strong, successful, and somewhat cold woman, she must be a killer. It’s a brutal look at how society views female ambition.
🔗 Read more: How Old Is Paul Heyman? The Real Story of Wrestling’s Greatest Mind
The Audio Recording That Changed Everything
The turning point of the film is that harrowing audio recording. Samuel, it turns out, was recording their fights. We hear a massive, screaming argument from the day before he died. It’s visceral. You can feel the resentment bubbling over—the way they bicker about time, their son’s accident, and who sacrificed more for the other’s career.
Listening to that recording is uncomfortable because it feels private. It feels like something we shouldn't be hearing. And yet, the court uses it as "proof" of a motive. But as Sandra’s lawyer and friend, Vincent, points out: a fight is just a snapshot. It’s a moment of extreme emotion, not a map of a person's entire soul.
Did She Do It? The Evidence Breakdown
Let's look at the facts we actually have.
- The Spatter: The blood droplets on the shed below the window suggest a specific trajectory. The defense argues Samuel hit his head on the way down. The prosecution says he was struck before he fell.
- The Aspirin: Daniel remembers his dog, Snoop, getting sick a few months prior after Samuel threw up. This suggests a previous suicide attempt by Samuel using aspirin.
- The Music: P.I.M.P. by 50 Cent (the steel drum version) was blasting on a loop when Samuel died. It was so loud it drowned out everything. Was Samuel using it to annoy Sandra, or was she using it to mask a struggle?
Most people walk away from Anatomy of a Fall debating these points, but Triet intentionally leaves the physical evidence inconclusive. She wants us to feel the same uncertainty that Daniel feels. Daniel is the moral compass of the film. He’s 11. He’s blind. And he has to decide if he believes his mother is a murderer.
💡 You might also like: Howie Mandel Cupcake Picture: What Really Happened With That Viral Post
The Language Barrier as a Weapon
Sandra is German. Samuel was French. They lived in France but spoke English to each other as a "middle ground."
This is huge.
When Sandra is on the stand, she struggles to express the nuances of her feelings in French. She has to switch to English to be precise. The prosecutor uses this against her, making her seem alien, detached, and untrustworthy. It’s a brilliant commentary on how we lose ourselves when we can't speak our own "truth" in our native tongue. Language in this film is a cage.
Why the Ending is So Divisive
By the time the verdict is read, you aren't cheering for justice. You’re just exhausted. Sandra goes home. She eats some mall food. She goes to sleep with Snoop.
📖 Related: Austin & Ally Maddie Ziegler Episode: What Really Happened in Homework & Hidden Talents
There’s no flashback showing us what happened. No "gotcha" moment.
Justine Triet told The Hollywood Reporter that she actually told Sandra Hüller whether the character was guilty or innocent so she could play it correctly, but she never told the audience. Some people find this infuriating. I find it honest. In real life, we rarely get the "objective" truth of what happens behind closed doors. We only get the stories we tell ourselves to survive.
Actionable Insights for Your Next Watch
If you're planning on revisiting the film or watching it for the first time, keep these things in mind:
- Watch Snoop the Dog: Seriously. Messi (the dog who plays Snoop) won the Palm Dog at Cannes for a reason. His physical state often mirrors the emotional health of the household.
- Listen to the Silence: Pay attention to when the music stops and starts. The sound design is a character in itself.
- Ignore the Prosecutor’s Tone: Try to separate the facts he presents from the moral judgments he makes. It changes how you view Sandra’s guilt entirely.
- Pay Attention to the Colors: The cold blues and whites of the mountain vs. the warm, cluttered wood of the courtroom. The film is visually telling you that the "truth" is freezing and uncomfortable.
The brilliance of Anatomy of a Fall is that it forces you to become a juror. It doesn't give you the answer because, in the end, the answer matters less than the wreckage left behind. It's a film about the "fall" of a family, long before anyone ever hit the snow.
Your Next Steps
- Watch the P.I.M.P. argument scene again on YouTube. Notice how the camera moves—it's shaky, intrusive, and claustrophobic.
- Look up the French "Instruction" system. Understanding how French judges and prosecutors work differently from the US/UK system explains why the courtroom scenes feel so chaotic and biased.
- Check out Sandra Hüller’s other 2023 film, The Zone of Interest. Seeing her play a completely different, chillingly indifferent character shows just how much work she put into making Sandra Voyter feel human and sympathetic in this film.