The great Michael Haneke has always divided audiences and critics, and he’s done it again. Only this time it’s not uncompromising violence, or his insistence on the disturbing that is so divisive. As the film title suggests, this is a huge leap away from Haneke’s usual style, and into new territory love, in all of its complications and messiness. It’s very different to Haneke’s work such as White Ribbon, Hidden, Funny Games or Benny’s Video, but Amour burrows itself into your head and stays there for a long time.
The story is remarkably straightforward. An elderly couple, Georges and Anne, are living a quiet life in a comfortable flat in Paris. They are retired music teachers, with a daughter, Eva, who is married to an Englishman. One day Anne has a mild stroke, frightening Georges who insists she goes to the hospital. They operate unsuccessfully, and a further stroke follows, paralysing Anne down her right side.
Eva blusters back into the couple’s life, insisting that they have a serious chat’ and do something’ but for all the talk of homes and specialist care, Georges does what he has done all of his life look after his wife. He never complains, he never asks for sympathy, and neither does she. A nurse helps Georges out, but when he disastrously hires a second helper she frightens Anne and Georges fires her.
That’s about it in terms of the plot, but Haneke’s skill is in setting up a shot and holding it for so long you are forced to look harder. Lesser directors would cut away, Haneke is happy to show Georges reading to Anne, or brushing her hair, or drinking tea, for what seems like an interminable time. The effect is the cumulative power of what it is to live with someone you love deeply but seeing them fade slowly away.
Set almost exclusively in the apartment, Haneke never resorts to tricks. The only relief’ in the slow decline portrayed is a strange sequence featuring a pigeon that keeps flying into the flat through an open window, and a brief, terrifying dream sequence. Visually there is one sequence of a series of beautiful outdoor scenes raging seas, blue skies, lush trees but it’s merely a series of close-ups of the paintings in the couple’s flat.
There are hints at the beauty of the outside world the film starts with the couple at a concert, and Anne’s former pupil pays a visit and treats her to a blast of Beethoven on the piano. However later, when he sends a critically acclaimed CD, she turns it off perhaps because it’s too beautiful?
Amour is certainly a tough watch, but with none of the lecturing Haneke was guilty of in Funny Games that was a violent film, then one character lectures the viewer on the wrongs of screen violence. Instead it suggests a deeper understanding of what it is to be married, and to watch your partner fade in front of your eyes. It’s a profound film, which proves that Haneke is certainly no one trick pony and that can only be a good thing.
Overall verdict: Tough, disturbing but ultimately rewarding portrayal of old age and decay, with two central performances that will steal your heart away. Uncompromising but compelling it’s not a feelgood film like Untouchables was but it’s equally powerful and memorable.
Reviewer: Mike Martin