Showing @ Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle until Thu 29 Nov

Michael Haneke / Austria/France/Germany / 2012 / 127 min

One thing which makes film, above all else, a medium of deep, reflective and unyielding strength is its ability to communicate entire states – human conditions involving the finalities of consciousness: life, love and death. It takes such high levels of generational, comprehensive and emotional intelligence to unknot the complexities of relationships, only a few filmmakers possess the talent. Michael Haneke, the Austrian maestro of serious and chilling drama, is one of them.

His latest film, and second to take home the Palme d’Or, is arguably one of his greatest: a courageous journey into the full form of love and identity. It’s set entirely within the confines of George and Anne’s (Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva) apartment, packed with books and period furniture, which practically survive as artefacts containing fond social memories now confronting the altogether more quiescent environment. The elderly couple are pushed deeper into seclusion after Anne suffers a stroke, paralysing her down one side and contributing to her waning health.

As with many of Haneke’s films, the pace here is slow, precise and wholly meaningful, lingering with each painful expression endured by the film’s characters. But it is completely necessary, not just a stylistic technique that Haneke has adopted over the years. He slowly deconstructs what it means to love someone, how absence creates many kinds of distance and whether or not we must obey the requests of dying loved ones, however unbearable they may be. Amour is like an emotional wash which submerges us in an infinite and unravelling conversation about the core nature of love; how it is unreservedly demanding, fierce but also destructive and exasperating. George goes through constantly rivalling mindsets, from sadness and loneliness, through anger, frustration and on to acceptance.

Amour is a film of such aching grace, articulation and intellect, blessed with outstanding performances from Trintignant and Riva, that it goes past the point of evoking ordinary empathy. We identify with the characters and their circumstances, but are more awestruck by the masterful sincerity of the storytelling. There is a dark wonder to Amour which overrides feelings of reactive melancholy; Haneke has uttered something titanic, an almost disturbingly flavourful expression of human interaction, dignity and companionship. Quite simply, this is flawless cinema, addressing the obscurity of love and questioning the weight of its worth.

Listings:

November 2012
Fri 23
  • 11:40 (E)
  • 17:50 (R)
Sat 24
  • 17:50 (R)
Sun 25
  • 18:20 (R)
Mon 26
  • 17:40 (R)
Tue 27
  • 13:00 (R)
  • 18:00 (R)
Wed 28
  • 13:15 (R)
Thu 29
  • 12:15 (R)
  • 20:10 (R)