Anatomy of a Fall: Movies about Writing

This movie is fairly new so understand that I’m not going to be going to many details of the actual court case or end of the films. Still, spoiler warning. Also, unlike the movie, I’m going to keep this short.

Sandra, a known novelist who takes inspiration from real life, is on trial for the death of her husband Samuel, a university professor who was found dead outside of their isolated French home. I don’t understand the legal system in France, so let’s just focus on the parts about writing.

One of the driving forces in the trial is Sandra’s relationship with her husband being rocky because she was an established author and he was a struggling writer. The day Samuel dies, he’s playing loud music while a university student is trying to interview Sandra about how their son’s accident is a thinly veiled plot point in one of her books. The same accident occurred on a day Samuel decided to stay home writing and sent a babysitter to pick up the son from school. Sandra suggests that the guilt over their son’s vision loss caused Samuel to stop writing for a long time. The court suggests that it was her blaming Samuel causing that guilt. I say - why isn’t anyone mad at the babysitter?

Anyway, before his death, Samuel and Sandra had a loud fight with destruction of property about their roles as writers. Samuel accuses Sandra of forcing him to always be on her creative schedule, leaving him no time for his own writing. Sandra accuses back that he uses her as an excuse not to write. Both sides feel valid to me, yet the whole scene made me very uncomfortable - and that’s something I’m filing away for later counseling.

There is also the insinuation that he is bitter that she used an idea from one of his unfinished novels for one of her published works and now he wanted to go back to it, but it was too late. She points out that he gave her permission to use the idea and this part of the argument made me side a little more with her. Don’t give away ideas, dude. That was on you.

The big thing I wanted to point out was that (and this is a big spoiler to the movie - you have been warned) Samuel had been recording family conversations and transcribing them for the book he was working on. Sandra knew this was a process of his, but when she finds out that he taped their argument about writing in general, she starts to wonder if he planned the conversation for his recording and creative process. I think that would piss me off worse than the idea-take-back-sies. Don’t manipulate your spouse for source material. You’re not F. Scott Fitzgerald. Get over yourself.

In (Lack of) Defense of Patient Griselda

Brief History: This is a piece of European folklore that has been written down by Giovanni Boccaccio, Geoffrey Chaucer, and other big wigs of the Middle Ages. The version I’m focusing on was retold by Charles Perrault, but they are all pretty much the same. The story is about a rich marquis who decides to marry a poor woman named Griselda (which would have been the only tragedy of her life had she not met her husband). He decides to test this sweet lady various times including insisting that their children are taken away to be killed. Griselda, who promised to obey him, allows him to take her kids without any fight. He then forces her to live in exile for a decade or a so before announcing that he is going to remarry. Why does he tell Griselda this? Because he wants her to be a maid at the feast, of course. And wouldn’t you know it? His new bride is their twelve year old daughter (most versions make Griselda ignorant of this fact). Griselda continues to keep her mouth shut during all of the awfulness, never complaining or objecting to how she’s been treated. At last, her husband decides that she is worthy in his eyes. He restores Griselda as his wife, reveals that their kids are alive, and they all get to live in luxury with him. Some reward.

Analysis: First of all I haaaaaaaate this story. HATE IT! Why am I covering it within this blog, you may ask? To share my hate. Embrace how irksome this tale is. Let it feed you. Let it help you rally for equality and against the powers that be, whether your fight is social, gender, or economic woes.

Blame it on the Victorians: You know the Victorians liked this story. They were all about a woman’s value being based around what their husbands deemed important. It’s strange that a society ruled by a queen was so closed minded. Anthony Trollope, one of the lesser known Victorian novelists to us Yanks, used the theme of Patient Griselda in one of his novels in order to make some thinly veiled social commentary.

Last thoughts: HATE IT!!! HATE IT, I SAY!!!

*If you want know any of the places where some of my research comes from, just contact me.