The “outdated, patriarchal, shit attitude” to cinema that makes Sandra Hüller’s blood boil
The Academy Award-nominated star of Anatomy of a Fall, Sandra Hüller, did not mince words when discussing Woody Allen and Werner Herzog.
The growth of international cinema in the American market has ensured that there is more room than ever before for actors from different countries to expand their fan bases, so while Hüller was already one of the most respected French actors after her amazing performance in the acclaimed darkly comedic Toni Erdmann, she exploded onto the radar of Western critics thanks to two powerhouse turns in 2023.
Hüller starred in Anatomy of a Fall, a fascinating legal drama about a woman who is accused of killing her husband, and who defends both her innocence and her marriage, offering a clever feminist retelling of a classical premise, and Huller’s performance was one of the main reasons it ended up being such a crowd-pleaser.
The film had one of the strangest life cycles of any awards contender in recent memory, as it won the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival, but then was not submitted by France to the Academy Awards for ‘Best International Feature’, but that didn’t matter to the Oscars, as Anatomy of a Fall ended up getting five Oscar nominations, including ‘Best Picture’ and ‘Best Actress’ for Hüller.
The same year, she co-starred in another ‘Best Picture’ nominee with The Zone of Interest, Jonathan Glazer’s terrifying film about the Holocaust. When considering how inherently likeable she was in Anatomy of a Fall, she made a dramatic transformation for The Zone of Interest by playing the cruel wife to a Nazi commander who is overseeing Auschwitz.
Currently, Hüller is set to have the biggest year of her career, as she has already starred in the best-received film of 2026 so far, Project Hail Mary, with her performance integral to the film, especially her rendition of the Harry Styles song, ‘Sign of the Times’, which has already gone viral. In addition to winning the Silver Bear for ‘Best Lead Performance’ at the Berlin Film Festival for her role in Rose, she is set to appear in Fatherland, the highly anticipated new drama from Cold War director Pawel Pawlikowski, but perhaps even more intriguing is that she is involved with Digger, the mysterious new Alejandro González Iñárritu film that will also star Tom Cruise.
Hüller is not only deserving of the industry’s respect, but someone who should be listened to based on how clearly brilliant she is. When asked about the reductive, impersonal style of acting that is favoured by directors like Werner Herzog and Woody Allen, she pulled no punches.
“I consider this view to be an outdated patriarchal shit attitude from a time that fortunately no longer exists,” she said, “In my opinion, it implies that actresses and actors are more malleable if they know less about themselves. This kind of director has survived.”
Her perspective is spot-on, as she suggests that actors are better prepared for their roles if they learn to embrace them on a personal level, and are not just used as tools by an overbearing director. Fortunately, there’s little chance that she would ever work with either of these filmmakers; Allen hasn’t been fully reaccepted in the post-#MeToo era, and Herzog hasn’t made a film that has connected with a broad audience since Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call, New Orleans, back in 2006.
