Amour (2012)

Georges and Anne are in their eighties. They are cultivated, retired music teachers. Their daughter, who is also a musician, lives abroad with her family. One day, Anne has an attack. The couple's bond of love is severely tested.

Director:

Michael Haneke

Writer:

Michael Haneke (screenplay)

Stars:

Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, Isabelle Huppert

Won 1 Oscar. Another 42 wins & 36 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Jean-Louis Trintignant	...	Georges
Emmanuelle Riva	...	Anne
Isabelle Huppert	...	Eva
Alexandre Tharaud	...	Alexandre
William Shimell	...	Geoff
Ramón Agirre	...	Concierge's Husband
Rita Blanco	...	Concierge
Carole Franck	...	Nurse #1
Dinara Drukarova	...	Nurse #2
Laurent Capelluto	...	Police Officer #1
Jean-Michel Monroc	...	Police Officer #2
Suzanne Schmidt	...	Neighbour
Damien Jouillerot	...	Paramedic #1
Walid Afkir	...	Paramedic #2

Storyline

Georges and Anne are a couple of retired music teachers enjoying life in their eighties. However, Anne suddenly has a stroke at breakfast and their lives are never the same. That incident begins Anne's harrowingly steep physical and mental decline as Georges attempts to care for her at home as she wishes. Even as the fruits of their lives and career remain bright, the couple's hopes for some dignity prove a dispiriting struggle even as their daughter enters the conflict. In the end, George, with his love fighting against his own weariness and diminished future on top of Anne's, is driven to make some critical decisions for them both.

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Plot Keywords:

love | music teacher | daughter | musician | stroke | 

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Genres:

Drama | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic material including a disturbing act, and for brief language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official site [jp]

Country:

France Germany Austria

Language:

French English

Release Date:

20 September 2012 (Germany)

Also Known As:

Amor

Filming Locations:

Paris, France

Box Office

Budget:

$8,900,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$68,266 (USA) (21 December 2012)

Gross:

$6,738,954 (USA) (10 May 2013)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Les Films du Losange, X-Filme Creative Pool, Wega Film

Technical Specs

Runtime:

127 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Existing Cannes Festival rules preclude the possibility of one film winning multiple awards. Hence, Amour won only one single award at Cannes 2012, the Palme D'or, in spite of the jury deeming it worthy of other awards as well. Jury President Nanni Moretti later told director Michael Haneke that had it only been up to him, he would have awarded the film not just the Palme D'or, but Best Actor for Jean-Louis Trintignant, Best Actress for Emmanuelle Riva and Best Director and Best Screenplay to Michael Haneke. Ironically, Michael Haneke himself was responsible for getting the rules changes allowing one film to win only one major award when in 2001, his film The Piano Teacher won 3 major awards at the Cannes Film Festival of that year - the Grand Jury Prize, Best Actress and Best Actor.

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Quotes

Anne: There's no point in going on living. That's how it is. I know it can only get worse. Why should I inflict this on us, on you and me?
Georges: You're not inflicting anything on me.
Anne: You don't have to lie, Georges.
Georges: [looks down at the floor contemplatively] Put yourself in my place. Didn't you ever think that it could happen to me, too?
Anne: Of course I did. But imagination and reality have little in common.
Georges: But things are getting better every day.
Anne: I don't want to carry on. You're making such sweet efforts to ...
[...]

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Connections

Featured in Maltin on Movies: Best and Worst Movies of 2012 (2013)

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Soundtracks

"Prélude Choral: Ich ruf' zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ"
Johann Sebastian Bach/Ferruccio Busoni
Interprétés au piano par Alexandre Tharaud

User Reviews

Left me cold.

It's difficult to write a proper review for Michael Haneke's Amour that extends beyond the basic explanation that the film just didn't hit me the way that it did for others. I have minor complaints about some things in the writing (the pigeon metaphor is pretty hammered in, for example) but there isn't anything that I'd say is aggressively wrong with the picture on a level that would lead me to call it a bad film by any means, there just isn't anything that impressed me much with it either.

Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva both give incredibly honest performances that lack any of the vanity that is usually associated with acting, guided by Haneke to these portrayals of sincere emotion that feel more like real people than most you're going to find in a film this year. That being said, I don't think that these performances are contained within a film that really allows them to reach their fullest potential, as Haneke's script is so clinical and procedural that I couldn't find myself allowed to experience the emotions that these two were clearly struggling with.

The ordeal that Amour details, an elderly couple strained by one's quickly diminishing mental and physical health, is of course tragic but Haneke's cold approach always kept me at a distance, unable to engage myself properly in the material or their reactions to the situation at hand. Trintignant and Riva remain keyed into these characters every step of the way, but I never found a pull to care for either of them beyond any basic surface level.

This was incredibly surprising for many reasons, not the least of which being that Haneke's filmmaking has never really left me feeling so cold before. Here he takes on what should be the most readily emotional subject matter of his career to this point, but I found myself more removed than I have with any of his previous films; a cruel irony in a lot of ways.

I'm not going to pretend that my opinion on Amour isn't in the minority, so by all means don't consider my non-plussed reaction as a deterrent from seeing the film whatsoever. Go see it, discover for yourself where you fall and hopefully you can belong to the many fans that the film has garnered critically and publicly since its initial release. I wouldn't wish for any to experience the kind of muted disappointment that I have with this one.