Review of movie 'Amour'

       'Amour'. Starring Jean Louis Trintignant, Emanuelle Roy and  Isabelle Huppert. Directed by Michael Hanneke.


    There's definitely two distinct ways of looking at old age. One is Jane Fonda's way or the North American way. "Old age is wonderful," goes this message. "It's just another stage of growth. Sure, it ends in death but don't think about that part." Then there's the European take on ageing which says it can be hell on wheels.
    The French film 'Amour' hews to the second view. Georges and Anne Laurent are an upscale French couple who've made it into their eighties. They're living in a big apartment somewhere above the ground floor in a building that maybe in Paris.
    Anne, played by Emanuelle Riva is a former classical music pianist who gets hit by a stroke. Then a second stroke hits her. Georges, played by another veteran actor, Jean-Louis Trintingnant has to take care of his now invalid wife. Director Michael Hanneke spares us nothing. We see how hard it is for Georges to lift his wife from the wheelchair she's in,  to the bed and back from the bed to the wheelchair. In long stable camera shots, Hanneke gives us closeups of the couple's struggles just to do what used to be normal everyday tasks.
     And sometimes Georges has to change the bedsheets,  as Anne now urinates in bed. I've never seen that in a film before.
     Isabelle Huppert plays a small role as the daughter Eva. Like many middle-aged children she has trouble facing her parents' physical decay and their oncoming death. Near the film's end, Georges has to feed  his near paralyzed wife. "Come on sweet," he says. "You only ate three mouthfuls."
    The ending hurts. But you can't condemn anybody. Ageing , disability and death stalk us all. 'Amour' means love of course. In the end Georges shows his love for Anne. 'Amour' is one tough film, worlds away from the upbeat mood of most North Americans. For that alone it's well worth watching.