In sickness and health

Amour

Crit

There's good reason why this is not titled "The Stroke" or "Helplessness" or "Despair" or "Diapers" or "Incoherence" or "Fury" or "Brutality" or "Stalking the Pigeon," even though those are all key elements of the film; but unlike those elements, the emotion linked to the title writer/director Michael Haneke chose infuses every frame.

Perhaps the placement of Emmanuelle Riva in the first scene of the film--an audience of 100+ people gathered for a piano recital--was chosen because of scientific research that has found that that's the first place one's eye alights on the cinematic rectangle. At any rate, hers was the face in the crowd that I first saw, one of only two faces that matter. She is Anne, and beside her is Georges, her husband (Jean-Louis Trintignant), and this is the last good night of their lives.

Growing old, it is said, is not for sissies, and neither is this film, but if you can endure it, you will see the best film of 2012 that I'm aware of.