Star rating 9/10
Michael
Haneke's latest film is one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking depictions
of true love I have ever seen. But be warned, it is far from an easy watch,
especially as the opening frames reveal an ending that will not be happy.
Alexandre
Tharaud and Emmanuelle Riva play
Georges and Anne, an
elderly French couple who are enjoying retirement together, and continuing to
sample the finer pleasures of life such as concert going. Anne then slowly
succumbs to illness and paralysis, whilst Georges sets about lovingly tending
to her every need.
Unlike
other Haneke films such as The White Ribbon, there is no mystery or obscurity -
no untied ends. The ravages of illness and old age are played out slowly and
painfully though the minutiae of everyday life in the apartment.
One of
the most poignant moments is when Anne cannot even listen to the CD sent to her
by her former piano student, now an accomplished international musician. The
memories of better days full of happiness and health which it provokes are too
much to bear.
But
most of all this is the story of a profound love, not told through artifice and
saccharine, but through the daily unglamorous tasks of washing, feeding
and toileting. Georges cares for his wife lovingly, through simple acts of
kindness, even though he is himself slowed down by his advanced years. He is
determined to keep his promise not to send her back to hospital, but to care
for her at home.
The
acting of Tharaud and Riva is superb, nuanced, and genuinely affecting. Even I
nearly shed a tear. Isabelle Huppert plays a great supporting role as their
daughter, who finds it very difficult to accept her mother's decline.
Amour
is a simple yet profound, achingly sad yet astonishingly beautiful film, and a
very refreshing change to all the young love rom-com type standard offerings.
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