Film Review: Amour

Director: Michael Haneke

A French-language film that is currently the favourite to win the Best Foreign Film title at the Oscars and it also won the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Festival. Haneke is renowned for his bleak films which often look at the problems faced by people in society and Amour is certainly no different.

The film follows a couple of retired music teachers, Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva), whose enjoyable life is taken away when Anne suffers a stroke and Georges has to help look after her as well as deal with the fact the wife he once knew is gone. We follow the slow decline in Anne's health and how Georges tries to deal with it.

Georges tries to help Anne

An incredibly painful drama which unfortunately moves painfully slowly as well, the long reflective pauses where little happens and nothing is spoken are initially effective but become too frequent. It is stark in its realistic portrayal of life caring for a wife following a stroke and the slow descent that Anne takes but for two hours it struggles to keep your interest for the whole time.

This is essentially a critics film that will point to two great performances from the leads and a film that is impressively intelligent and an in-depth view on love and life but from a viewers point of view it's a difficult film to be moved by. Many films such as Tyrannosaur and Boy A are harrowing films that are hugely impressive but that you wouldn't want to watch again because of the upsetting nature of the events but Amour felt too distant.

2/4 at times touching and impressive realism but too cold and tedious