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Amour, Movie

Amour 2012

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Winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes and Best Foreign Language Film at the 2013 Academy Awards, this French drama directed by Michael Haneke (The White Ribbon, Funny Games) examines old age, infirmity and mortality with relentless honesty as it depicts the relationship of a couple in their eighties. More

Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Academy Award nominee Emmanuelle Riva) are retired music teachers in their eighties whose lives are fulfilled by music and their love for one another. But when Anne suddenly sits staring blankly at her husband one day, it signals the first onset of a mental and physical deterioration that will test their love's ability to endure an inevitable conclusion.

This is the second Palme d'Or that Haneke has won, placing him in an elite category of just seven directors that have been twice honoured with the supreme award at Cannes. Hide

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33 votes / 7 comments The Talk

  • 82 %

    Want to See it

    What say you?

    • Kirk

      More overrated foreign tripe, boooooooring.

    • Red

      Palme d'Or winner yo!

    • keeshy

      brutally honest -good for young people....

    • xxero

      I have some tissues for your sniffles, Kirk. I saw this at the festival and it's the best film of the year. Hands down. Amazing.

    • black widow

      i heard its suppose to be fantastic so will see

    • Chris

      Absolute shite.

    • Alyx

      A tender love story. So good to watch time passing with this day to-day level of gentle, poignant intimacy.

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Flicks.co.nz Review

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Matt Glasby Flicks Writer

Michael Haneke's films always take place in the shadow of something unspeakable. In his debut, 1989's The Seventh Continent, it was madness; in his last film, 2009's Palme D'Or-winning The White Ribbon, it was Naziism. Here, in his most celebrated work (also a Palme D'Or winner), it is, simply, death. More

One evening, elderly couple Georges (Trintignant) and Anne (Riva) come back to their lovely, lived-in flat after a classical music concert. In the night, Georges wakes to find Anne, confused, staring off into the darkness. In the morning, her brain freezes while washing up - the onset of dementia.

Over the next few months, the image of running water – something natural but impossible to control, the ordinary becoming overwhelming – infects Georges' dreams as Anne's mental and physical health deteriorate. With terrifying speed, she slips from walking stick to wheelchair, having difficulty washing herself to wetting the bed. Anne is incensed and mortified; Georges is patience personified. Still, an uncharacteristic flash of temper from him is one of the most shocking things you'll see onscreen all year.

While Haneke, that most precise of directors, has no qualms getting down to the grim technicalities of decay, he might just have softened a little bit too. In fact, Amour's biggest surprise is not that it's movingly acted and extremely harrowing, but that it's the most optimistic of all his films. Although nothing can spare Georges and Anne from life's final indignities, they do have one weapon against what's waiting for us all in the wings: love. Hide

The People's Reviews

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2 ratings and 2 reviews

All reviews (2)

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Very slow, but totally engaging, with brilliant acting.

adeej Flicks Superstar (?)

I saw this film at the New Zealand International Film Festival and really enjoyed it. It is an extremely slow film, but I was never bored. The interaction between the caregiver husband and the wife suffering from a stroke and alzheimers was brilliantly acted and I was completely engaged with what was happening. With a surprise show of love at the end of the film, I walked out of the cinema knowing that I had seen a wonderful film that led me the think about the realities of true love and growing old.

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A beautiful and moving film

Rob-Crozier B-Grader (?)

Making a difficult subject into a thing of beauty can only happen so often in the movie world. "Amour" achieves this in style. Although, most of us may avoid such cinema magic, the portrayal of the unkind changes in the later years of life impressed us Loafers. 4 stars from us and noted as a worthy Oscar winner. The topic may have dragged down our score but we all agreed that the producer's talents are tops.

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Press Reviews

AV Club (USA)

Haneke being Haneke, Amour is still a bracingly unsentimental film, but it shouldn't be mistaken for heartless. Full review.

Chicago Sun-Times (Roger Ebert)

Old age isn't for sissies, and neither is this film. Full review.

Empire (UK)

Old age may not be a reality you wish to confront, but you must see this film. Full review.

Guardian (UK)

A moving, terrifying and uncompromising drama of extraordinary intimacy and intelligence. Full review.

Hollywood Reporter

Consummate acting helps ease a painful watch, as Michael Haneke describes the ultimate test of love in a profoundly honest study of sickness and dying. Full review.

Little White Lies (UK)

An exceptional work shows a world-class director still unafraid to lock horns with the profound mysteries of the universe. Full review.

Los Angeles Times

The resulting interplay of ruthless restraint and unavoidable passion, plus the film's refusal to shrink from depicting the inevitable horrors of physical deterioration, is devastating. Full review.

New York Times

A tender, wrenching, impeccably directed story of love and death. Full review.