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The day before shooting commenced on Anatomy of a Fall,<\/em> star Sandra H\u00fcller<\/strong> posed the question to her director, Justine Triet,<\/strong> on which their entire film seemingly hinged: \u201cIs she innocent or not?\u201d H\u00fcller had never stepped into the shoes of this kind of character, a grieving widow who may or may not also be the killer, but the veteran German actress was ready for the challenge. \u201cThe older I get, the more I know that it\u2019s just a question of perspective sometimes,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I was younger, I always made sure I was on the right side of the moral position\u2014it doesn\u2019t work anymore.\u201d Still, old habits die hard. So when she pressed Triet for an answer, the filmmaker replied with what H\u00fcller now calls the \u201cfamous sentence\u201d: \u201cI want you to play her like she\u2019s innocent.\u201d<\/p>\n H\u00fcller took that directive, \u201cpanicked\u201d as it initially made her, and out of it emerged one of the year\u2019s richest, deepest, and most complex screen performances. Her work also anchors a film that takes the ambiguity around a woman\u2019s credibility and ingeniously spins it into a suspenseful drama of ambition, power, and interrogation. Triet and H\u00fcller debuted Anatomy of a Fall<\/em> at Cannes in May, a festival of heavy hitters; the film was so rapturously received that it hardly seemed surprising when it was awarded the coveted Palme d\u2019Or. \u201cMy answer is a bit of a Teletubby answer, but that was really quite magical and joyful,\u201d the French-born Triet says through an interpreter. \u201cCannes tends to be a pretty violent place, so to have such a unanimous response was great.\u201d<\/p>\n Over Zoom for their first interview since that triumphant debut, Triet and H\u00fcller share a connection that both of them individually highlight for me\u2014not that they need to. It\u2019s obvious in how they keenly listen to one another as they speak and build on each other\u2019s insights. The film also serves as ample evidence. Anatomy of a Fall<\/em> is a star vehicle, one that allows H\u00fcller\u2014a celebrated European star poised for a major international breakthrough this year, also given her lauded turn in fellow Cannes prize\u2013winner The Zone of Interest<\/em>\u2014to unleash her command of craft. Yet her tour de force performance is also central to the vision of Triet, who sculpts a film of fascinating inquiry and towering intensity. It\u2019s why both are about to embark on a robust awards campaign, propelled by US distributor Neon\u2014Anatomy of a Fall<\/em> will make stops at festivals in Telluride, Toronto, and New York, positioning itself as an across-the-board contender.<\/p>\n H\u00fcller inspired Triet to write Anatomy<\/em> before she even knew of its existence. They\u2019d previously worked together on Triet\u2019s relatively comic 2019 movie, Sibyl<\/em>. \u201cI knew that her character [in Anatomy<\/em>] would have something kind of ungraspable,\u201d Triet says. She even named the protagonist Sandra a year or so before sending the actor the script. Triet devised a cunning moral drama disguised as a legal one, incited by Sandra\u2019s husband Samuel (Samuel Theis<\/strong>) falling out of their house\u2019s window to his death. Was he pushed? Did he trip? Out in the remote snowy French mountains, Sandra and her sight-impaired son, Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner<\/strong>) find the body and call the police in agonizing shock, but as the mechanics of the tragedy are outlined, more questions arise than answers. \u201cI really wanted to stay away from all of the narrative reflexes of a whodunit kind of film,\u201d Triet says. \u201cWhere something is unknown and will remain unknown, we have to compose with what is there in the meantime.\u201d<\/p>\n That \u201cmeantime\u201d provides Anatomy<\/em>\u2019s dramatic crux, with Sandra eventually forced to plead her innocence in court, represented by her old friend Vincent (Swann Arlaud<\/strong>). We learn about Sandra and Samuel\u2019s history through competing narratives, between prosecution and defense, and within the malleability of memory. Sandra\u2019s notoriety as a published author comes up in the courtroom; so too do her relatively fluid sexual preferences. She does not apologize for who she is. H\u00fcller situated herself in a context in which everything she said and did informed the narrative. \u201cIt\u2019s very much a film about the audience and what their perspective is on a woman: on a successful woman, on a bisexual woman, on all these things\u2014and how the thoughts on her change with every information they get,\u201d she says. It\u2019s why Triet took so much time in the courtroom, even as the film is not particularly interested in the conventions of courtroom drama. \u201cThis space was going to be where a kind of rewriting occurred,\u201d the director says. \u201cA scripting of this woman\u2019s life and a diving into her mind.\u201d<\/p>\n That scripting turns especially thorny for Sandra, who\u2019s required to defend herself\u2014explain herself, really\u2014in French, a language she does not speak so proficiently. This went for H\u00fcller as well\u2014the German actor is fluent in English, but needed to learn the Anatomy<\/em>\u2019s native tongue alongside the character. (The film flits between French and English throughout, but features enough of the former to qualify for France\u2019s international feature Oscar contender, should the country select it.) \u201cThere are so many layers in it, and the language layer is one of them,\u201d H\u00fcller says. \u201cTo be in the position where you constantly have to explain yourself\u2014there is a risk that people get things wrong that you say.\u201d<\/p>\n A blushing H\u00fcller offers to leave the Zoom room when I ask Triet what drew her back to the actor\u2014what about H\u00fcller, previously best known for leading Maren Ade<\/strong>\u2019s Toni Erdmann,<\/em> so compelled her to develop such a demanding, slippery character study around her. I ask H\u00fcller to stick around\u2014\u201cAmericans love this stuff,\u201d I reason\u2014and she does quietly, with a slightly embarrassed smile. Off the cuff, then, Triet offers a rather striking tribute to the actor. She talks about the way she first saw H\u00fcller walk onto a French set and integrate herself seamlessly. She talks about H\u00fcller\u2019s \u201cincredible\u201d preparation, and how when action is called, her interpretation \u201ctranscends the script.\u201d She talks about their bond: \u201cWe have a really incredible connection\u2014we\u2019re the same age, and there\u2019s almost a kind of kinship between us.\u201d One senses she could go on forever.<\/p>\n Triet moves into English at one point to add another detail, almost apologetic at the length of her answer. \u201cBut Americans love it!\u201d H\u00fcller says, now laughing. Triet concurs with a smirk, and so she concludes with a rather profound observation: \u201cDespite being a wonderful technician, that\u2019s not what Sandra is playing on. She\u2019s playing with her soul.\u201d<\/p>\n The film cannily, sparely flashes back to Sandra and Samuel\u2019s life before the latter\u2019s demise, diagnosing what appears to be the deterioration of a marriage. One scene captures an explosive argument between them, played with a searing specificity by both H\u00fcller and Theis; my mind immediately went back to it when Triet mentioned her star performing with soul. The two-hander is a miraculous act of performance that feels, somehow, both expertly modulated and utterly spontaneous. \u201cActors really like to do really big things sometimes, and they love emotions, and they want to show it\u2014but in my experience, and maybe I\u2019m the only one, normally people try to avoid that in their lives because it\u2019s really painful,\u201d H\u00fcller says. \u201cIt takes a long time until somebody says, \u2018Okay, this is enough, and now I\u2019m going to scream at you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n