An elderly couple's resilience is tested when the wife has
a series of strokes, leaving the husband to be her caregiver. DRAMA
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Amour (2012)Written and Directed by Michael Haneke
Starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert Oscar Wins - Best Foreign Film Oscar Nominations - Best Picture, Best Actress (Emmanuelle Riva), Best Director, Best Original Screenplay |
Something I've learned about myself during this ongoing, never-ending film journey is that I don't enjoy French cinema. I know that this is an Austrian production, but it's in French, so to me, it's a French film. I find French cinema to be mostly pretentious, and overly artsy, which I'm just not a fan of. I like a strong narrative and interesting characters. Amour tells a sad story, but it takes so long to get going and doesn't even bother to end in the proper place. There's so much unnecessary content in the film, and it commits the biggest sin a film can commit: It's boring.
I won't dog the performances. Both Trintignant and Riva are very good. I don't know about Oscar worthy, but good. They play an elderly couple who are retired music teachers. When Anne (Riva) has a stroke that leaves her partially paralyzed, Georges (Trintignant) becomes her fulltime caretaker, which he is woefully unprepared for. But his pride wins out and their love is tested when Anne's condition worsens. I think Georges isn't a great person, and since the film is through his eyes, it's difficult to relate to someone so cold. The ending involves watching Georges chase a pigeon around his house for ten minutes and then write a letter explaining how he just chased a pigeon around his house. All of this happens, by the way, immediately after he just smothered his wife with a pillow. It seems tacked on, like Haneke was trying to use up film. I get why a lot of people enjoyed Amour. But it didn't do it for me. |