THIN ICE

"Anatomy of a Fall."

- ANTHONY LANE

The first question that is asked in “Anatomy of a Fall,” a new film from the French director Justine Triet, is a simple one: “What do you want to know?” The line, which could stand as a motto for the whole movie, is spoken by a writer, Sandra Voyter (Sandra Hüller), in a chalet in the Alps. She is being interviewed by a graduate student, Zoé (Camille Rutherford), although their conversation is soon drowned out by a rumpus from above—specifically, an instrumental version of “P.I.M.P.,” by 50 Cent, played with a thunderous boom by Sandra’s husband, Samuel Maleski (Samuel Theis), who is also a writer. Either he’s deliberately sabotaging the interview or he wants to trigger an avalanche.

Of Samuel himself we see no sign, for the moment, and that matters. It foreshadows how the story will unfold. So much in “Anatomy of a Fall” is overheard, heard but not seen, seen but misunderstood, misremembered, conjured out of conjecture, or unwisely taken on trust. When we do catch sight of Samuel, he’s dead—sprawled in the snow beside the chalet, with a deep cranial wound and a trail of blood. So, did he tumble over a balcony or was he shoved? Did he hit his head on the edge of the shed below, or had the blow already been struck? Did he perish by his own hand, or at Sandra’s? Is 50 Cent a suspect? The puzzles proliferate. Warning: Do not expect them all to be solved.