Oscars 2024: Justine Triet and Arthur Harari claim ‘Best Original Screenplay’ for ‘Anatomy of a Fall’
At the 96th Academy Awards, Justine Triet and Arthur Harar have taken home the Oscar for ‘Best Original Screenplay’ prize for Anatomy of a Fall.
The pair beat Celine Song for Past Lives, Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer for Maestro, Samy Burch for May, December, and David Hemingson for The Holdovers to claim the major honour. Anatomy of a Fall, which recently won the Bafta for ‘Best Original Screenplay’, stars Sandra Hüller as a woman set on proving that she was not responsible for her husband’s fatal fall from a window in their home.
Taking to the stage, Triet outlined it had been a “crazy year” for her and the Palme d’Or winning film Anatomy of a Fall, which is also nominated for ‘Best Picture’.
In our two-and-a-half-star review of the film, Far Out said: “Anatomy of a Fall‘s Palme d’Or triumph isn’t a mistake at all. Rather, it’s symptomatic of the contemporary film festival landscape and the kind of visual language that it has been trying to normalise. It’s enough for a project to tick all the boxes that should make it work; what it’s actually bringing to the table is purely inconsequential. That’s exactly why festival circuit entries have increasingly started to resemble each other instead of actually conducting innovative experiments”.
Continuing, the review added: “Sandra Hüller is the primary reason why Anatomy of a Fall deserves any acclaim, managing to construct a complex, psychologically ambiguous and morally conflicted character in a film that is thoroughly uninterested in its own narrative. For that, she deserves all the praise”.
Both Triet and Harari join a long list of esteemed Oscar-winning screenwriters, including Kenneth Branagh, Bong-Joon Ho and Emerald Fennell.
Is Anatomy of a Fall based on a true story?
No. Triet and Harari’s movie is not based on actual events, with the director citing her obsession with true crime media as her primary source of inspiration when writing the film. Despite the movie centring around a trial, Triet told The Hollywood Reporter that this was merely “a side story,” adding: “What was interesting for me was to use this pretext of the murder trial to dissect the relationship of a couple who have a child together but do not have a common language”.
Though the film is a strict courtroom drama, the director has referenced somewhat unusual films such as Kramer vs. Kramer and David Fincher’s Gone Girl when it comes to cinematic inspirations.
A comment on contemporary society’s obsession with ‘true crime’ drama, Triet’s Palme d’Or winner dissects the impact of such a horrific death on the family behind the courtroom drama. An excellent and gripping study, it was, without doubt, one of 2023’s greatest achievements.
Where to watch Anatomy of a Fall
You can rent or buy Anatomy of a Fall to watch at home from a variety of sources, such as YouTube, Curzon and BFI Player. It is also still playing in select independent cinemas.
When accepting her award at Cannes, Triet stated the “commercialisation of culture this neoliberal government supports is in the process of breaking France’s cultural exception” before adding that her country had “suffered from historic protests over the reform of the pension system…these protests were denied…repressed in a shocking way”.
If you are US-based, Anatomy of a Fall will be available to screen on Hulu from March 22nd onwards.
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