Amour (**** out of ****)

I don't think I really have ever enjoyed a Michael Haneke film. They are however challenging and masterfully crafted. This time he has reflected on the idea of what love truly represents. Amour is a film about love in the face of death, but is also just as much about how love and life are connected. Geroges (Jean-Louise Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) are a married couple well into older age. They live in a nice Parisian apartment and are retired music teachers. Anne suffers a stroke and things are only likely to get worse. Geroges is more than willing to take care of his wife, he love her deeply and she feels the same. However she doesn't want this to be their life. So the issues questioned are how far love will go, what is best for your loved one, and is it ready for love in life to end etc. Perfectly acted the two leads are fearless in their performances (especially Riva whom starred in Hiroshima, Mon Amour around 60 years ago). Haneke has made a film hard to watch but impossible to look away from. One to think, reflect and meditate on. Amour is perhaps the best movie about the process of death ever made. It is one of the crowning achievements of this or any year. Yet I dare not watch it twice.

**** out of ****