Recently, after listening to “The Flower in the Rock”, I was recommended the movie “The Fallen Judgement”. Finally, on this not-so-busy afternoon, I watched it completely.
The movie begins with a chaotic piece of music, making me think for a moment that this film is going to tell a lesbian story that is not considered avant-garde nowadays. Then the scene in the following picture appears. Just as what was said in the initial autopsy, there is no conclusive evidence against either party for the husband’s death. Everything unfolds from speculation.
Court sessions are held again and again. We can see that the jury, the prosecutor, and even the judge have more or less tendencies. They might have convicted this trial in advance. More and more information comes into view, revealing the bad marital relationship and the chaotic family.
Unlike ordinary movies, the director did not spend too much effort depicting the past happiness of the couple. But from the narrative, it is not difficult to see that Sandra, the female protagonist, a native German speaker and bisexual, was able to follow her husband from London back to a French village. Relying on not-so-fluent French and sometimes not-so-efficient English, she led a nearly secluded life in a foreign country. She must have had such passionate love with the male protagonist. The deceased male protagonist, Samuel, naturally lost the right to defend himself from the beginning of the movie. The remaining audio tapes are more like complaints left to the world, accusing Sandra of being such a selfish, cold-blooded and unempathetic wife, and how much burden he has borne and how much he has contributed to the family. From the female protagonist’s mouth, we see that the male protagonist was a patient who failed in career, family and marriage. Not only did he fail himself, but also because he made wrong choices for the family and reaped the consequences. It was all his own fault and his death was of no value.
If we switch the genders, we might not be so impressed by such a story. But once immersed in the story the director wants to tell, empathy makes our vision more and more blurred. What exactly is the truth and whose reasoning should we listen to?
Through the frequent flashes of the old photos of the male and female protagonists and the quarrel scenes between them at the climax, the director has tried his best to create a sense of fragmentation. Perhaps from the beginning, the director was not going to tell a story of a trial, but a typical failed marriage. Through the perspective of the trial, the narrative becomes more tense and the vision becomes unclear. Of course, the director does not have an obvious tendency to judge either party in the marriage, leaving more room for the audience’s imagination.
Perhaps watching movies is more about reflecting on ourselves. This film gives us a demonstration of the worst marriage. “Sometimes walking side by side, sometimes standing alone, and sometimes fighting each other” is warning us that in marriage, it is not always the result of “1+1>2”, and both sides need to compromise.