Samuel Theis and Sandra Hüller in Neon’s ‘Anatomy of a Fall.’
Fall: Courtesy of Neon
It’s striking, looking through the international movies in contention for awards season this year, to see how many adult films there are. Not in the “XXX” meaning of the word, but adult in the sense of stories depicting grown-up, mature people with grown-up, mature relationships.
Take IFC’s The Taste of Things from director Tran Anh Hùng. France’s official contender for the best international feature Oscar stars Benoît Magimel and Juliette Binoche as Dodin and Eugenie, a 19th century gourmet chef and his cook who bond over the joy of working together and their shared love of food as much, or more, than they do over their frequent tumbles beneath the sheets.
“They’ve been together for 20 years, and she’s never wanted to get married because she wants to stay independent,” says Binoche, describing her Taste of Things character. “And she knows her independence is tied to her work, to what she excels at, working in the kitchen, cooking. That ties her to Dodin more than what happens in the bedroom.”
In the film’s closing scene, Eugenie asks Dodin if she’s been his wife first or his cook. “My cook,” he answers. “Thank you,” she says. Professional respect means more than romantic love. (Binoche and Magimel know a thing about both: The onetime romantic partners share a daughter.)
On the other side of the spectrum, historically as well as romantically, you have Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall, a modern-day legal thriller distributed by Neon in the U.S., about writer Sandra (played by Sandra Hüller), who may or may not have killed her husband, Samuel (Samuel Theis). The plot of Anatomy, a major best picture contender since it scooped Cannes’ Palme d’Or honor earlier this year (on Dec. 11, it earned Golden Globe nods for best non-English-language film, actress and screenplay), is a courtroom mystery centered on whether Sandra did or did not kill Samuel. But at its core, the French drama is a dissection of a marriage gone horribly wrong. A pivotal scene in Anatomy is a violent argument between the pair, one of the most wrenchingly realistic depictions ever put to screen of how long-married couples fight: no-holds-barred and with zero punches pulled.
Triet, who co-wrote the Anatomy screenplay with real-life partner Arthur Harari, says the idea of the film came from wanting “to dive into a relationship” with all its complexities. Sandra clearly sees her husband’s many failings, but, up until the incident where he falls — or is pushed — to his death, she has found a way of making the relationship work for the sake of their son and because that’s what grown-up couples do.
A24’s The Zone of Interest, the U.K.’s official best international feature entry and a Golden Globe nominee for best picture (drama), best non-English film and original score, provides an even more chilling vision of married life. Rudolf and Hedwig Höss (Christian Friedel and Hüller), the couple at the center of Jonathan Glazer’s German-language drama, appear to have it all: a beautiful house and garden, and five happy, healthy children. There’s even a shared sense of purpose, a common political goal they both believe in. But the goal is the Holocaust. Rudolf Höss is the commandant of Auschwitz. The couple are partners in crimes against humanity.
European cinema has a long tradition of serving up relationships flavored with both the sour and the sweet. Think of Ingmar Bergman’s 1974 classic Scenes From a Marriage, about a couple (Erland Josephson and Liv Ullmann) with irreconcilable differences who are unable to fully fall out of love. Or Roberto Rossellini’s Voyage to Italy (1954), starring Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders as a couple so rich yet so emotionally indifferent, they seem closer to cynical millennials than postwar baby boomers.
There’s a bit more room for romance in Magnolia’s The Promised Land, Denmark’s Oscar entry, and Mubi’s Fallen Leaves, Finland’s awards hopeful. Both have elements of the traditional love story. But both are clear-eyed, not naive, about the perils and compromises of later-life romance. Directed by Nicolaj Arcel of A Royal Affair fame, Promised Land stars Mads Mikkelsen and Amanda Collin as Ludvig von Kahlen and Ann Barbara, a mismatched couple — he’s a soldier turned ambitious homesteader, she’s a poor housekeeper — whose relationship, initially, is less amorous than transactional. His first-choice romantic partner, the high-class Edel Helene (Kristine Kujath Thorp), is unavailable. Her father has assigned her to marry her wicked but wealthy cousin, the evil landowner Frederik De Schinkel (Simon Bennebjerg). When we first meet Ann Barbara, she’s happily married to Johannes (Morten Hee Andersen). Both used to work for De Schinkel before they escaped. It’s only when fate intervenes — De Schinkel kills Johannes, von Kahlen loses his other workers and is hard up for help — that Ludvig and Ann Barbara’s relationship begins to evolve into a deeper alliance. Their first sexual encounter is framed as a practical matter. It gets pretty cold out there on the Danish heath. With firewood running low, sharing a bed just makes economic sense.
Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves, the closest to an old-school love story among the international contenders this year, has many classic rom-com moments. But each is given a sardonic spin. Lonely hearts Ansa (Golden Globe nominee Alma Pöysti) and Holappa (Jussi Vatanen) have their meet-cute at a bus stop where he’s passed out drunk. Their first date involves a shared coffee with no conversation, followed by a stoic viewing of Jim Jarmusch’s zombie comedy The Dead Don’t Die. “They could never have made it,” Ansa says wryly after the film. “There were just too many zombies.” It’s not exactly a Hallmark moment.
“This isn’t a typical Hollywood romance story — it’s not about the famous or the rich but about normal people, people who are lonely, outcast but still long for something else,” says Pöysti. “It might not be happily-ever-after, but there’s companionship. And that’s something.”
This story first appeared in a December standalone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.