Amour

2012 Palme D’or winner Michael Haneke’s Amour is a devastating story of an end of life love.  There’s nothing happy about this film.  Anyone who’s ever witnessed or cared for someone in the last stages of their life will be haunted by the reality of this film.  Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva were stunning as the aging couple coping with Riva’s character Anne’s final days.  Riva was the oldest person nominated for an Oscar ever.  She was best known for her performance in Hiroshima, Mon Amour over 50 years ago in 1959 which won numerous awards including an Oscar.  Amour won Best Foreign Film and both Riva, Trintignant, and Haneke won many other awards here in the states and in Europe where the film garnered two British BAFTAs and swept the César Awards in France.  Beautiful, heartbreaking, true-to-life, quiet, stately, Amour has it all.  The opening shot in the theater is unbelievably stunning.  I’d like a framed image of the audience, ready for the show.  Amour is French so the ending is a bit foggy which I particularly love about French films.  Makes you pay attention through the credits to be certain what you think happened really did happen.  Amour is a treasure and a 21st Century masterpiece.  Just released on video and streaming this past week, if you didn’t catch it in the theaters, you really owe it to yourself to queue this one up when you have the strength to handle this devastatingly brilliant work of art.  5 out of 5 for Haneke’s Amour.

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