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BaftaBaby 
"Always entranced by cinema."
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 Posted - 12/31/2012 : 23:01:55
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Writer/director Michael Haneke has long mastered the art of telling stories which reveal themselves by the details of life. What isn't said. What passes between people's eyes.
In that, his films have a feel of such Japanese geniuses as Ozu and Ichikawa. Unafraid to hold a shot, brave enough to allow inaction to reveal a different kind of action.
Personally, I think Haneke sometimes takes such precision too far, but for this little gem of a story it's a perfect choice.
We watch as an elderly man who clearly used to be gorgeous tends his wife who's deteriorating in front of his eyes. It's a tale of such profound humanity that even the simplest things become riveting.
I suppose that's because, much as modern life doesn't like to remind us, we're all headed in the same direction. What's to be done? Well meaning health professionals try to help in some vague generalized way, but, let's be honest, there are no how-to manuals for this stuff.
So the rhythm of the film carries us, and when the relative calm is broken it's a shock.
Both Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva - once French superstars - are sublime. You're in for a treat - and no mush involved.
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Amour
