Amour [Blu-ray]

An absolutely brilliant movie about old age
AMOUR is one of those films that grabs you by the throat and doesn't let go. The plot is straightforward: an elderly man looks after his wife after a stroke and finds that he just cannot cope. Director Michael Haneke constructs the film as a character-study of old age; looking at how people of that vintage think in a different way, as opposed to their offspring. Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) decides at the end of her life to check out; her husband (Jean-Louis Tritingnant, in a memorable performance) tries in vain to keep her alive. For anyone who had had the experience of being a carer, the film has painful resonances. Director Michael Haneke's filming is just brilliant; the use of long takes, wordless sequences (in which the only sounds we hear are the creak of floorboards, or the flapping of bird-wings) sums up the elderly couple's lives. The film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival; it is easily the best I've seen in 2012.

Incredible Film About Old Age and Dying
note: Emmanuelle Riva was nominated for the Oscar shortly after I wrote this review. She is the female lead, pictured, and as a young woman was the lead in HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR, a foreign film classic.

I can't say this depressed me. However, I must warn you that this may happen to a viewer. This is not an easy film to watch. It involves a married couple in old age. She has a stroke which is very disabling. She lives at home with him and he tries to handle it. But she keeps getting worse. This movie is about the end for them. They are a couple who have been in love their whole lives. They had a complete life together. They have a grown daughter. You see early pictures of them and they were beautiful. Plus we know they are talented and affluent. All of that makes no difference when old age and last illnesses set in. It is a long spiral down and as the husband says to the daughter,"it is very bad, it will only get worse and then it will be over." that is the...

Trapped by Amour
"Amour" opens with the police discovery of the decomposed body of an elderly French woman in her bed, surrounded by flower petals. We then get a brief flashback to the life of a cultured, sophisticated French couple, enjoying their golden years - an evening at a concert, stimulating conversation - before she suffers a stroke.

When Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) returns home from the hospital, wheelchair-bound but mentally intact, she makes her husband, Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant), promise to never send her back. She says there is no reason to go on living in her current state, and she does not want to be a burden on Georges. His attentiveness and solicitousness, while necessary, rankle her. A second stroke leaves Anne in much worse shape, both physically and mentally. His vow to her leaves him almost as trapped as she is, while she sinks deeper into depression and despair over her body's betrayal.

Viewers, particularly those who have experienced the heartbreak...

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