NZIFF 2012 Review: ‘Amour’

Michael Haneke’s films are known for their shocking, unexpected moments of violence, so this quiet, dignified portrayal of love at the tail end of life is definitely a departure. Or is it?

Apart from the single, opening scene in which the couple attend a concert, the entire film takes place inside Georges and Anne’s comfortable apartment. Surrounded by books, music and other cultural objects collected over a lifetime together, Haneke’s lens makes the space feel by turns like a cocoon and a prison.

Haneke doesn’t leave the audience in any doubt as to what is to come. Early in the film we watch the police break down the apartment doors and find Anne’s body, wreathed in flowers, laid out on her stripped bed.  The questions hang in the air: did she kill herself or did Georges take pity on her and end her suffering? Either is criminal but the film does not judge, just shows in painstaking and often painful detail the journey this couple makes to reach that point.

It starts with a single moment, a lapse in Anne’s attention that is sinister in its insignificance. Anne has had a stroke. When she returns from the hospital she is paralysed on her right side. Georges, while not robust himself, is determined to take care of the woman he loves. He labours to help her eat, move, toilet – honouring her wish not to go back to hospital. Their adult daughter doesn’t agree with this, but is too wrapped up in her own life to really intervene.

Because Haneke has trained his viewers to expect the unexpected, even the presence of a pigeon in the house is enough to invoke a sense of fear. Whether or not it is called for, I won’t reveal here.

The acting is flawless – it’s almost like watching the events unfold in real time. The actors so embody their roles it is impossible to see where the character ends and the actor begins.

Sad, thought provoking and heartbreakingly real, this film is not fast–paced and requires patience to appreciate. But it is also one of the most beautiful love stories I have ever seen.

9/10