Amour

If we were previously in any doubt, Haneke is confirmed as the premiere European director of his generation.

Amour is a must-see film that not everyone must see, at least right now.

At his provocative best, though - in his brilliant, gorgeous 2009 film "The White Ribbon," a study of the roots of fascism in domestic tyranny, and now in Amour - Haneke implicates us in the full range of human capacity.

Small victories that turn into defeats, long walks to gain little ground, little wounds that get deeper every day - growing old is a war, and movies rarely go there. Michael Haneke's amazing, dignified Amour is the exception.

While what's on screen is unsparing and clinically presented, the underlying, almost invisible humanity and artistry of the film inspire rather than depress.

Amour is a far cry from the warm-and-fuzzy version of love that most people are probably looking for on Valentine's Day. This movie is more of a slap than a hug. But reality hurts sometimes - just like love does.

This isn't the work of a newly moral or humanistic filmmaker, but another ruse by the same unscrupulous showman whose funny games have been beguiling us for years.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

What a sad movie! Gets you wondering how will you get old. This kind of non-hollywoodian film can be oustanding some times, but here that's not the case, in my humble opinion. Go for The Intouchables.

It’s alarming to see how savvy some filmmakers are becoming at knowing just what material and what “spin” will gain them big critical jackpots and festival jury prizes. "Amour" is a case in point and suggests that the line between demographic-massaging advertising agencies and shrewd, cachet-hunting filmmakers is diminishing at an alarming rate. The film is basically a genteel “infomercial” that argues the case for euthanasia; it's an highly aggressive, in-your-face exercise and a very ONE-NOTE, highly aggressive, in-your-face exercise..........What it also has “going for it” in some circles at any rate- is the Jerry Springer-like touch of casting two well known stars of yesteryear, now in their 80s, in the lead roles. This brings an eerie Reality TV touch to the proceedings and something of a “frisson nouveau” to your card-carrying film buff audience (the demographic-massaging angle) Think how much, by way of comparison, the casting two relative unknowns would have affected the film’s reception...... In Teen Speak it would have been …..“B-O-R-R-R-I-N-G !!!” Jean-Louis Trintignant in particular struggles to breath life into the sparse characterization that writer/director Haneke has provided for him. However his efforts are in vain, for the forces of “infomercial-hood” are aligned against him here and (even more artistically crippling) Haneke’s somewhat gleeful penchant for the morbid. This latter holds sway as his camera zooms in to capture every detail of the physical and mental disintegration of Trintignant‘s wife (the now 85-year-old star of "Hiroshima Mon Amour" Emmanuelle Riva.) Indeed, Riva’s character soon becomes a sort of laboratory specimen that Haneke is studying intently under the microscope “I wonder what will “go” next he seems to be asking himself, pencil in hand with the result that The Wife (which is the sort of generic entity that Riva is finally reduced to) ends up becoming disconcertingly like that giant bug that Gregor Samsa turns into in Kafka’s "The Metamorphosis" By contrast, one wonders what Jean Renoir or Douglas Sirk would have done with this material. The fact that Riva’s character is not particularly sympathetic to begin with only adds to the uneasiness- indeed, queasiness- we end up experiencing as we’re invited to observe the spectacle of her relentless undoing....... Sad to say, by that point in the film either this latter studying-the-bug-under-the-microscope sensation or else flat out boredom seem to be our only options. "Amour" is an award-winning and highly pretentious film and the two go together much too often for comfort these days.

I enjoy "slice of life" movies but this one was just too much. The acting is fantastic, first-rate, rarely better. The plot is sort of familiar, elderly couple, long term marriage, one gets very sick before the other, and the movie focuses how the less ill spouse manages the more ill spouse. The movie begins with the unsurprising end, then painstakingly drags us down every dark hallway, bathroom kitchen, art museum, and on and on and on and **** infinitum. The directors propensity to freeze shots, bereft of activity, meaning, or purpose, that seem endless. Not clear what he is trying to accomplish, what message he is trying to send, short of a veneer of seriousness or agony (in this case, of the viewer). This film is flat out boring and even incredible acting cannot bail it out.

Amour is certainly not the worse film of the year. It is without a doubt the most boring. There are too many slow, silent and flat out wasteful scenes taking forever to complete. The worse part was all the times throughout the film were literally nothing is happening. This just **** the emotion out of the entire movie.