If you’re lucky, you get old. When you get old, you eventually get infirm and then you die. I generally do not focus on this grim truth, but no one can argue it isn’t part of the human condition, and director Michael Haneke explores it with his film Amour.
We meet a delightful elderly couple played by French film icons Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva. They live a comfortable and independent life, engaged in culture and current events, until she suffers a stroke. He steps up to become her sensible and compassionate caregiver. However, the decline of her health brings humiliating dependence is for her and frustration and weariness for him. It finally becomes unbearable for both of them (and for the audience).
Amour is heartbreaking, made so by its utter authenticity. I have been plunged by circumstance into the caregiving role at times, and I recognized every moment of fear, frustration, resentment and exhaustion that the husband experiences.
I tend to despise Haneke because he is a sadistic filmmaker. I hated his critically praised The White Ribbon because the audience has to sit through 144 minutes of child abuse for the underwhelming payoff that parents of Germany’s Nazi generation were mean to them. In Funny Games, where a gang of sadistic psychos invade a home, Haneke toys with the audience’s expectation that the victimized family will be rescued in a thriller or avenged – but they are simply slaughtered. However, he doesn’t manufacture cruelty in Amour, the cruelty is in the truth of the subject.
Haneke’s brilliant skill in framing a scene, his patience in letting a scene develop in real-time and his severe, unsparing style are well-suited to Amour’s story. He is able to explore his story of love, illness and death with complete authenticity. That, and the amazing performances by Trintignant and Riva, make the film worthwhile. That being said, it is a painful and not enjoyable viewing experience.
Amour is an undeniably excellent film. Whether you want to watch it is a different story.