‘Anatomy of a Fall’: What Crime Movies Should Learn From the Year’s Best Film
Our craven desire for crime stories is nothing new—even Taylor Swift cites Law and Order: Special Victims Unit as one of her favorite shows. There’s a lurid pleasure and curiosity to watching these ripped-from-the-headlines reenactments happen to other people; thank goodness it’s them and not us. And everything in the genre, from Dateline to Serial, uses sound design to its storytelling advantage, creating a haunting, eerie, intense soundscape that ups the dramatic ante.
It would be easy for Anatomy of a Fall, the Palme d’Or-winning film from Justine Triet that premiered to rave reviews at this month’s New York Film Festival, to borrow that trope. The film has a salacious premise that true crime-lovers will salivate over: After Sandra’s (Sandra Huller) husband falls to his death, she is charged with murder. Their son Daniel (Milo Machado-Graner) was the only other person present at the crime scene, but his visual impairment makes him unreliable. Yet Daniel’s vision also bolsters the film’s greatest strength. To offset the failings of one sense, Daniel leans into his hearing—and so too does the film, to unique, incredibly successful effect. This is a film defined by its sound in a way that every other crime story should learn from: to use it in a way that’s sparing and intentional, not obnoxiously manipulative.
In fact, Anatomy of a Fall’s music is more significant than that of any other crime story in recent memory, in large part due to the fact that all of it comes from within. Instead of a soundtrack, it uses only music performed diegetically, by characters within the film itself. A core part of the investigation involves the song that Sandra’s husband Vincent (Swann Arlaud) was blasting right before he died. Through the trial that makes up the bulk of the film, we learn that the couple’s relationship had become irreparably damaged by the time of death. Vincent, according to Sandra, had even begun finding enjoyment in deliberately pissing his wife off—like playing music way too loudly while she was trying to work.
The song in question is one that most viewers are unlikely to pick up on at first blush: a looping cover of 50 Cent’s “P.I.M.P.” by the German group Bacao Rhythm and Steel Band. Whatever 50 Cent intended with the song is completely irrelevant; it now fully belongs to Anatomy of a Fall, which uses it to hilarious and haunting effect. The steel drum interpretation of an early-aughts rap song is inherently funny, yes, but when Vincent is found dead while it’s still blasting out of his upstairs office, it becomes a key part of the crime scene.
Much of the investigation hinges on whether Daniel could hear his parents’ conversation start and stop over the din of the horribly loud song, as he claimed; if he did, it could exonerate his mom, due to the amount of time between their conversation ending and his dad’s death. So important is this song at that volume that it even makes its way into the courthouse; “P.I.M.P.” is an inextricable part of the most stressful moment of Sandra’s life. And because Anatomy of a Fall exclusively employs music put on or performed by the characters themselves, Triet doesn’t use “P.I.M.P.” to conjure a feeling from the audience. It’s intended to evoke a painful memory for Sandra and Daniel alone.
Sandra Hüller, Milo Machado Graner, and Samuel Theis.
We don’t develop a Pavlovian response to hearing notes of the steel drum cover because the film threads it repetitively into different scenes; we do because it is used so sparingly, only at moments in which characters are intentionally trying to evoke testimony from Sandra or Daniel. And because their appearances before the court are so riveting and grueling, we, too, naturally come to relate “P.I.M.P.” with the pain and fear that they’re experiencing. Eventually, that loop of “P.I.M.P.” becomes a trigger for what we know to be more important: the words which Sandra and Daniel speak at these crucial moments.
‘Anatomy of a Fall’ Thrillingly Perfects the Courtroom Drama Formula
For a film that so accurately replicates the heated courtroom experience, what matters is what is or is not said; if a distracting steel drum—or any other sound—is folded on top of it, it may sway us in one biased direction, the same way that the jury is trying not to be. A lesser film would also force a song like “P.I.M.P.” to signify something, like that Sandra is or isn’t innocent; one can imagine a more serious instrumental cover of it playing to suggest triumph, pain, or pity. Such is the norm for many crime dramas, which use music to align us with a certain character or hint at important parts of the overarching investigation. Anatomy of a Fall’s power comes from its neutrality, where we must establish for ourselves whether we believe Sandra did or didn’t kill her husband based upon what’s presented to us.
Sandra Hüller.
The only other notable piece of music in the film is one that Daniel plays, similarly in repetitive fashion. He is fixated on learning the piece “Asturias (Leyenda)” on piano, playing it as a form of self-soothing. Daniel’s become a dedicated piano student in the years since his terrible accident, in which his optic nerve was permanently damaged. With his sight weakened, he’s leaning on his hearing instead; this comes in handy when the trial of a lifetime revolves around music. Whenever we see Daniel outside of the courtroom, quietly mulling whether he can trust his mother or if he really knew his father, he’s got his fingers on the keys, trying again and again to master “Leyenda.”
It’s another obvious musical cue that Triet could throw in as an instrumental elsewhere, something like a “Daniel’s Theme.” But such false notes would rob Anatomy of a Fall of its faith in the very real power of truth, emotion, and how both blend perception and belief. There is no heavy hand needed here—not on the steel drum playing “P.I.M.P.” or Daniel’s beloved piano, and least of all on the film’s gorgeously spare choice of music. Not every courtroom thriller needs something as dramatic as a man falling to his death to the tune of an incongruous track—but they could all benefit from this level of appreciation for the delicacies of diegetic music.
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