The Staircase

I was impressed by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s Oscar-winning documentary, Murder on a Sunday Morning (2001), but I am late coming to his follow-up, which originally appeared as an 8-part series on Sundance Channel.  It’s an omission I’m glad to have rectified, since this is one of those rare elevations of true crime into work of art, on the order of Joe McGinniss’ book Fatal Vision.  One has to bracket questions of real guilt and innocence with an understanding of the director’s particular point of view, but with the astounding access he gained, his mastery of cinema verité techniques, and the inherent fascination of the case, the series makes for a riveting 6 hours of real-life legal soap-opera, with all the twists and turns you could ask for, and an aura of lingering enigma, nicely enhanced by an extremely evocative musical score.  Lestrade’s viewpoint, culled from 600 hours of footage, is highly persuasive, but after experiencing it, you’d be wise to fact-check other sources on the trial to get an idea of what he omitted.  (I found Heather Havrilevsky of Salon.com insightful, as well as Amazon’s “most helpful” comments.)  The director’s viewpoint may be partial but is very effective dramaturgically.   I couldn’t and wouldn’t want to decide the case based on the film, but found the presentation consistently involving, especially when approached with no prior knowledge of the trial, which apparently ran on CourtTV.  I advise going in cold to follow each twist of the tale, so I will offer no spoilers, except to say that the case involves a well-off Durham NC man accused of murdering his wife, while he claims she died from falling down the stairs.  Believe me, that’s just for starters.  (2004, dvd.)  *8*