cinemajesty Film Review: "Amour" (2012)Exposing a couple's life-time as a string of subjective as unique events, enjoyed or suffered for, which ultimately makes no difference, when auteur-director Michael Haneke, at age 69, captures alongside extraordinary precision-working cinematographer Darius Khondji, known for galvanizing visuals of "Se7en" (1995) starring Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman in favors for director David Fincher, here putting leading cast surrounding Emmanuelle Riva (1927-2017), Jean-Luc Trintignant as her on-screen picture-carrying husband Georges, who then fulfills the ultimate act of so-called love led into death, while the daughter portrayed in professional as supportive manner actress Isabelle Huppert just wonders in an aftermath scene of a calmly-received major Parisian apartment interiors what the force of an undescribable eternal emotion can fulfill in one's to another one's life to sit back stunned of seldom seen on-screen honesty and then again to be recognized as "Best Picture" in World Cinema of 2012 at the Festival de Cannes in its 65th edition and couple of months after still-standing strong with arthouse audiences as "Best Foreign Language Film" at the Oscars in their 85th edition.Copyright 2018 Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC

bliss66 I've always been an admirer of Haneke's work but this film left me cold. It is well made and the performances are terrific (especially Jean-Louis Trintignant); Haneke is certainly a master filmmaker whose formality certainly demands attention. Such is his hold on the viewer that the film doesn't really allow for self-reflection or moments when one might mourn the loss of their own loved ones. It is very tightly contained. I think it is best described as Disneyland for people who've never had to deal with end of life issues.As a gay man who came of age during the AIDS in the '80s, death was always a factor. I felt surrounded by it and supported friends and strangers alike who suffered and died. Even beyond that, I've supported friends who cared for parents who were in declining health and died. (Gay sons and daughters often assume these roles.) It is a honour to care for people and share the last stages of their lives with them. Death is inevitable for us all but it ain't over 'till it's over.Maybe that's why it seems like such an indulgence. We all have loved ones. The couple depicted, comparatively, suffer very little. The have a roof over their heads, groceries delivered daily, you never see them on the phone haggling with insurance companies; she receives the necessary care. On reflection, it seems that Haneke is indignant that we should die at all! To add some drama, he takes an unfair crack at the nursing profession which hardly seems representative in my experience.The whole thing was very unedifying. I was reminded of far superior films on this topic, most notably the 1993 documentary Silverlake Life which records the last months of a documentary filmmaker's harrowing life with AIDS, both the good and the bad days, and is a true celebration of life and love; Kirby Dick's Sick: The Life and Death of Bob Flanagan, Supermasochist (1997) is another startling record of long term illness and eventual death that manages to celebrate a difficult existence. These are films that truly look death in the face. Amour is just bourgeois old people in formalised decline with a nurse who brushed the old woman's hair too hard. For once, Haneke seems out of his depth; you almost wish the doorbell would ring and the film would lurch into a mashup of Funny Games and Amour. If someone videotaped it, you'd have Cache as well.Have been mystified by the across the board praise of this film. Are people really that distant from death?

Brigid O Sullivan (wisewebwoman) This film is still with me. I'd wanted to see it for a very long time.It grabbed me by the throat and just wouldn't let me go, right from the opening, which was shocking, through the concert to the lovely Parisian apartment where the rest of the film stays, static at times but within reason. Life literally freezes for the elderly couple.Amour - the title is about love, not about the word love, I doubt it was ever invoked throughout the film, but about the action of love as the wife becomes more and more incapacitated and hates what is happening to her while he adjusts to caring for her, all the brutal tasks of diaper changing and hair care, etc.I was left sobbing at the end.All through the film it was as if it was a documentary with hidden cameras, that's how believable it all was.Incredible filming.9/10 from me.

davikubrick "Love" is the most beautiful and pure feeling that a human being can feel for each other, but it's also one of the most painful, especially when it's an elderly couple, and "Amour" express that in a amazing and depressive way. We see the normal everyday of an elderly couple, Georges (played by Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (played by the stunning Emmanuelle Riva), both of them are retired music teachers. One day, Anne has a stroke, and then the suffering starts for both, and us, the public. The performances are amazing, especially by Emmanuelle Riva(who acted in the poetic masterpiece "Hiroshima, Mon Amour"), she really looks like that she is sick, and Jean-Louis Trintignant also does a great job, both of the actors are almost perfect . Michael Haneke direct the movie in a amazing way, with no music (most of the time), very realistic (typical of his films) and quite cold. The little soundtrack that is in this movies is excellent, classic, and set the tone of sadness really well. The cinematography is excellent, with almost no "happy color". "Amour" has a important and very sad message that everyone do not want to face and think about: death, and how some people react when someone very close to them is in a bad condition of health."Amour" is a true love story, and one of the most depressive movies of all time, and also the best love story of the century so far, it's already a classic and Haneke best film to date.