Love, pain and death in one solitary expression in Amour
Amour
A+
A review by Frederick Cholowski
Love in old age is hard. Not
because of the amount of time spent with a singular person or the challenges of
love in general, but because of one thing, death. Death and slow loss of a
partner are the ideas presented in Amour, Micheal Haneke’s powerful portrayal of
an old couple hanging on to life. These ideas make Amour the most emotionally
challenging film of 2012 as well the most unforgettable. There are few films that
can provide images that can keep a viewer thinking about it for weeks
afterwards and Amour is definitely one of those films.
After an opening scene at a
concert, Amour takes place entirely within the confines of the apartment of the
elderly couple of retired music teachers Georges and Anne (played by the two
wonderful actors Jean-Louis Trinignnant and Emmanuelle Riva who are both in
their eighties). Life is moving on as happily as ever until Anne falls victim
to a small stroke that, after a failed operation, leaves her paralyzed on
throughout her right side. This causes George to take care of Anne through
thick and thin to avoid putting her in a hospice and after many sad
deliberations about her place in this life their lives seem to move on. Then a
second more devastating stroke arrives and the true challenge for the couple
begins.
The power in Amour comes from
the sheer honesty of the material. Haneke provides little to no melodrama to
manipulate the emotions of the audience, instead the director uses a simple and
honest portrayal that is simply devastating. Haneke relishes in long, still
shots of silence or minimal dialogue that really drive the message home. Shots
often aren’t cut for minutes and minutes on end allowing for the message of
each scene to really sink into the viewer. It’s a truly powerful experience that
can leave the viewer feeling a mix of complicated emotions from scenes that are
so beautify simple and almost nonchalant.
The reason that these scenes
work as well as they is also because of the fantastic performances given by the
lead actors in Amour. Trinignnant and Riva, two actors who have been legacies
of French cinema for many, many years provide two of the best performances of
2012 as they play taxing roles that require quiet subtle emotion. Trinignnant is
painfully brilliant as a man who is desperately trying to keep his emotions
internal while tragedy is unfolding around him. Riva is asked to do so much in
this film and it’s truly stunningly painful to watch. To watch a woman who
seems so nice and normal slowly die to a stroke that seemed to have come too
early.
Most of the pain generated
through the film comes from the way the film is shot and edited. As previously
mentioned Haneke doesn’t cut shots for long stretched of time (to give an
example most shots are at the longest twenty seconds Haneke can stretch shots
without cutting for three-four minutes at a time) keeping the camera very still
and allowing everything not only to play out but to sink in. Along with the
long shots comes the lack of much of a soundtrack. Silence is this film’s best
friend as it adds power to the already tragic and at times squirm inducing,
long shots of simple emotions and reactions.
Amour is one of the most
powerful films to come out in 2012, and perhaps in a long time. While writing
the images of this film still run through my mind. The ideas and emotions may
be simple, the plot unmanipulative and straightforward, but the filmmaking is
so masterfully powerful that Amour can clearly place itself in the highest of
high class of 2012.
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