Those of
you who know me in real life know, I have quite a number of nonagenarians in my
family. So it may be said of me that I think of old age and the things it will
bring a tiny bit more than the average 30 year old. We tend to put it off, live
as if we will be young forever and old age, if we think of it all, is a
slightly more romantic vision of growing old with our significant other (if we
have been lucky enough to have found them) happily sharing memories of youth
and going through life a bit slowly perhaps, but gracefully, hand in hand. We
very well may be lucky enough to have such a blessed autumn in our lives.
Reality, however, as Amour not so very gently reminds us, is often much, much
less sugar coated than this.
Meet
Georges and Anne. They are retired music teachers in their eighties. They both
enjoy a healthy interest in music and culture and their bond of love is as
strong as the first day they have met. They have one adult daughter who has a
family of her own in the UK who they keep in touch with. All in all they are
preparing to end their years peacefully and together. Their peaceful world
however is shattered when quite out of the blue Anne has a severe stroke. The
condition claims first her body – rendering her an invalid – and then her mind
leaving Georges quite alone. Georges is now left with the mere shadow of what
his wife used to be and has to come to terms with becoming her carer. He also
needs to cope with one of the severest tests their love has received.
Michael
Haneke presents us with a typically unflinching and unforgiving stare at old
age. Anyone who has at some point had to care for elderly relatives will
testify to the realism of the depiction. Veteran actors like Emmanuelle Riva
and Jean Louis Trintignant skillfully show us the horrifyingly sudden way
Anne’s mind unravels and Georges’ trauma, confusion but above all undying love
for his companion of so many years. It is no coincidence that the characters
are music teachers – the contrast between Anne before the stroke – an able and
knowledgeable housewife but also clearly a very capable music teacher who has
raised musicians of world renown in her time – to Anne post the stroke towards
the end of the film, inarticulate, screaming wordlessly like a baby, unable to
tell Georges what is wrong and unable to understand what he or her daughter
says to her. Quite apart from being incredibly difficult to watch, it is a
stark reminder that it may be our very own future; Anne is peacefully having
breakfast when the stroke strikes and has no previous symptoms whatsoever. Or
indeed we might end up as Georges, left with only the shell of our loved one;
trying to accept that for all intents and purposes the person we fell in love
with has died.
And of
course the way Amour is filmed is as big a factor in its message as what the
story actually tells us. The camera is often static and placed at a
“respectable” distance that is often beneficial for us, the viewer to take in
the house as it changes from Anne and Georges’ home to a house that needs to
accommodate an invalid and all of her needs. The sedate and minimal movements
of the camera match Georges very well as he presents a relatively calm and
almost matter of fact exterior to his daughter, the carer and even us the
viewer, while it is the tiniest cracks that show his real emotions boiling up
all the way up to the breath-taking finale which I will not spoil for any of
you.
Another
interesting point is that the film takes place almost exclusively within the
confines of Georges and Anne’s home. This is actually a very effective mirror
of life in old age. In developing countries especially it is true that a lot of
older people enjoy quite active lives, for one reason of another it is very
easy for an octogenarian to become housebound. So we get a real taste of what
old age may be like, but contrariwise we also bear witness to the ever-changing
universe that can exist within four walls. This means of course that details of
the film that take place outside the four walls get missed – we must use our
heads to follow the story, although the effort will not be so great. We even
miss some things that happen within the same house, but hey, that’s a pretty
realistic depiction of real life as well…
Amour is,
in short, a wonderfully sensitive and insightful look at the “happily ever
after” of love. It shows us what happens after the sun we previously happily
walked into with our other half has truly set. It is an incredibly sad film but
not a hopeless one. Love, Amour tells us, doesn’t really die in events like
this, It merely changes form…
Brilliant review
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