1959 | USA | B&W | 161′ | DCP Director: Otto Preminger Screenwriter: Wendell Mayes Original Story: Robert Traver Cinematographer: Sam Leavitt Cast: James Stewart, Lee Remick, Ben Gazzara In English with Chinese and English subtitles 1959 Best Actor, Venice Film Festival 1960 Nominations for Best Motion Picture, Best Actor, Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Cinematography (Black-and-White), Best Editing, Best Writing (Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium), Academy Awards Anatomy of a Murder can just as well be an anatomy of a trial. The film presents the workings of a justice system like a play, introducing characters as they conduct research and plan strategies, going through processes like witness interviewing, suspect arraignment and court arguments, changing courses throughout to adjust. They implement skillful but subtle grandstanding and dramatic employ of morality as legal tools to make their cases, demonstrating that acting is an integral part of courtroom proceedings. At the end, while important aspects of the murder remain ambiguous, more is known about the trial. Anatomy of a Murder is considered a touchstone in Hollywood’s golden age of courtroom dramas that stretched from the mid-1950s to early 60s. Based on the novel of the same title, in turn based on a real trial and written by the defense lawyer in the case, the film is rated by the American Bar Association as one of the best trial films of all time and is often screened in law schools as teaching tool. Director Otto Preminger, who studied law in Vienna, applies his mise-en-scène of objective, distanced observation to the drama, capturing the meeting of bar-room and courtroom cultures in small-town America, shrewdly animating the complex politics of gender and sexuality. This complexity is projected polemically by the defense lawyer played by star James Stewart, who argues his case with downhome language and easygoing demeanor, highlighting the thin line between right and wrong.

25/10/2025(Sat) 14:00

$75