Amour (2012), Michael Haneke
- IMDB.COM: Rating: 7.9 (29,000+ votes); Metascore: 94 (40+ critics)
- ROTTEN TOMATOES: Tomatometer: 93% (156-168)
- TOP7 NEWSPAPERS: 97 AVG, five 4-star reviews
(K. Turan, L.A. Times; M. Dargis, The N.Y. Times; O. Glieberman, Entertainment Weekly; R. Corliss, Time; R. Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times)
Amour’s two official posters tell its story better than any synopsis or critique could possibly actualize: on the first one, we see a close-up of Anne (Emanuelle Riva, Hiroshima, mon amour), an old woman with someone else’s equally old hands hold- ing her head. Her wrinkled, but still beautiful face is devoid of any distinguishable emotion. There dominate her eyes, their reflection being an absent look through the person in front of her. On the other poster, we see a close-up of Georges (Jean- Louis Trintignant, The Conformist), Anne’s longtime companion whose freckled hands adjust his wife’s face towards his own. His eyes are puzzled and frightened. They are searching for the meaning of an empty gaze that up to a minute ago was the last bastion of his consolation not from death, but loneliness.
A heartbreaking and compassionate masterpiece, Haneke’s Amour is directed with the utter sense for the sympathetic. He directs his characters the way a classical musician might play his/her cello – delicate, emotional, absorbing to the point of exhaustive, draining surrender. It takes courage to show that love rests not on the surface of our body, but in the depths of our being, where it is stored with the good as well as the wicked. And it takes a master to elaborate on that subject so it doesn’t come as pathetic or unappealing. Amour is also one of the most revered films in recent years: it won an Oscar (and was nominated for five), a Golden Globe, two BAFTAs, Palme d’Or at Cannes plus four European film awards (including the Best Film). In regards to its quality, critical acclaim and prize-winning success, Amour is this year’s A Separation. It’s easily the best European film of the 2012. Along with Tarr’s The Turin Horse, it is my early candidate for the best European picture of the decade.
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