Retired music teachers, Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) and Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) are in their eighties and still very much in love. They live in their Paris appartment; share conversation, jokes and listen to music. One day Anne suffers from a stroke, the first of a few that later unfold. We begin to notice that Anne is developing dementia and parts of her identity begin to fall apart.
Promising Anne that he will never put her in a home, Georges begins to act as her carer. He washes her, changes her... Amour is extremely tough to endure at times, packed with plenty of long sequences with minimal editing adds to the realism. The most moving aspects of all is Georges love for Anne and how it is still very present right until the end of the film.
The haunting reality that life is not forever is very prominent throughout the film. Amour also tackles complex issues such as; what is the right way to deal with death? Is it all really worth it in the end? What's the right way to behave?
Fans of Haneke will notice traces of his earlier work in Amour, he tackles the issue of space extremely intelligently, it's only by the end of the film when the audience is made aware of the actual structure of the elderly couple's flat. There is also an underlying hint that something dark and menacing has entered the home which is sucking the life and energy out of the couple.
There is no score at the end of the film, as the credits rolled set against a black screen, the lights came on in the cinema and there was a very uncomfortable silence. Everyone left the cinema as you would a funeral.
A true masterpiece and one of my personal favorites from LFF despite being exceptionally grim.
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