Language as Character
On the role of language in "Anatomy of a Fall", mothers & sons, and a Bluey nod
I finally saw Anatomy of a Fall , the Academy Award-winning movie directed by Justine Triet about a writer on trial for allegedly murdering her husband. The couple’s visually impaired 11-year-old son is the only witness to the accident and must testify at the trial.Yes, it is a thriller about a complicated marriage, a possible murder and a courtroom drama, but it is also a movie very much about motherhood and language. I am about to discuss the movie in detail so if you need a spoiler warning, this is it.
I heard a lot about the movie before seeing it and read a few reviews and articles including this fascinating conversation between
and Merve Emre about, among other things, the “language of choice”1. I was unaware the movie was in both English and French until I started watching, but it was not the back and forth, characters switching from one language to another, or moments occurring in multiple languages that made me take particular notice. It was the scene when the court appoints a young woman named Marge to stay with the 11-year-old boy before and during the trial in order to ensure no one, especially his mother, influences his testimony that the pivotal part language plays throughout the film became clear.The court tells Sandra, the mother and the accused, that all conversations she has with her son from then on must be in front of Marge and also, they must be in French. The trilingual mother normally speaks English with her son even though the family lives in France. (The father, Samuel, speaks French with the son and English with his wife in flashback scenes.)
You can read more about this in Mother Tongue Tied but when a mother and child do not share a common language, or there is a feeling of emotional or power imbalance because of different languages being used, the mother-child emotional bond may be affected. At the beginning of the film, Sandra apologizes to her French attorney, who is also an old friend, that since they first met many years prior, her French has not improved. Later in the film Sandra says her “mother tongue” is German and yet, she has chosen to communicate with her child in English, not her first language but one that we can presume she is much more confident and comfortable in as opposed to French.
It becomes clear language plays a major part in the film a bit later when in a flashback scene of Sandra and Samuel arguing before his death, Samuel brings up the fact that Sandra speaks English with him and Daniel, both dominant French speakers, despite the fact, according to him, the family lives in France and English is not relevant to either of their lives - something we could argue about at length here in the context of childhood multilingualism obviously. While they argue about language, Samuel says to Sandra about the couple’s son:
While making the argument that it is always him that concedes and compromises for Sandra, another big theme throughout the movie and relating again to that idea of “choice” in love and family, Samuel argues:
Sandra responds that she is in fact the one meeting him on his turf as they live in France, in his hometown where his first language is used and she is not even using her own first language, German but English, a language she learnt later in life and one she considers middle ground for the family.
It is a riveting conversation about love, language and how we communicate in life and marriage - literally. Although their marriage and life is complicated, when it comes to language and this particular argument in the film, I am team Sandra all the way. No, she does not use French with her son because, it is her third language. She can communicate in the language fluently in French as we see during the trial, but it is obvious emotionally, she prefers English and feels more comfortable in that language. German, Sandra’s first language would likely be the “easiest” language to communicate in, especially when it comes to certain mother-child interactions, but she has chosen English because as she sees it, it is the middle ground in the family. Samuel presumably does not know German but does understand English as the couple lived in London previously. Yes, the family lives in France, but as far as language goes, Sandra has given up her first language, German, while Samuel continues to use his first and dominant language every day and with his son. It is indeed Sandra that has tried to find middle ground between the so-called turfs of French and German by using English. And this is all without even mentioning she is also taking on the labour of multilingual parenting, exposing her son to a second language.
Only after watching the film, I saw this interview, where the film’s director Justine Triet, says language was a character in the film and embodied the relationship between Sandra and Samuel. “She’s so uncatchable in a way because she has many languages,” says Triet about Sandra, the character played by Sandra Hüller, emphasizing perhaps that we never truly get to know the real character of Sandra, whether that is because she never speaks her first language in the film, or because that is the point: we are left with no real answers even after the film ends. Sandra is “uncatchable” in more ways than one.
“She’s so uncatchable in a way because she has many languages.”
It is a fascinating thought to consider whether the use of many languages allows a person to be “uncatchable”, perhaps a chameleon of sorts. I have mentioned it here before and talk about it in the book, but if you consider psychotherapy for example, some patients can only express traumatic experiences in their first and/or dominant language or the language of the experience. Others, may need the protective armour of a different language, one that feels detached from the trauma. I do not believe we have different personalities in our languages (I write about this at length in the book as well) but we absolutely may use different languages for different parts of our lives, different experiences and various emotions.
During the trial in the film, Sandra at first answers the French prosecutor’s questions in French and ultimately switches to English because she can’t truly express her thoughts and feelings in her third language and she is on trial for murder! This is another major point in the film about language: the importance of interpreters in legal cases (and medical ones I want to add) and the right for everyone to feel they can truly express themselves in their chosen language, especially in high-stake situations.
One of the most moving moments in the film for me was when Sandra returns home to her son, the two embrace in a dark bedroom and the child holds the mother under his chin while she cries, as if he is the protector, the one doing the comforting. Although I have not mentioned much about this here, the movie is also about emotional and domestic labour and how parents share, or do not, the responsibilities and the burdens of raising children while also trying to make other meaningful work of their own.
If you have seen the movie, let me know what you think in the comments.
As always, thank you for reading.
Oh, and if you are looking for the part about Bluey, see the footnote below!
I was doing a final read of this newsletter after watching, and ugly crying my way through the end of the now much-discussed new Bluey episode, “The Sign” that premiered this week. At this point in my life, it is probably a good idea to stay away from big-themed Bluey episodes for a while I now realize but the damage is done! This idea of “choice” is a big one in the episode, especially around what is best for a family. When you make choices as a couple, and especially as parents, everything is truly about a “language of choice”.