michaelgfalk This is a beautiful movie, which picks up the story some decades after "happily ever after." People often talk about art being "universal." This is usually a cop out. All art is rooted in a culture, and books and movies make little sense if we don't come to them with the required knowledge. But if ever there was a universal movie, it was this one. Illness, death and love are part of everyone's experience. They are all fundamental parts of bodily experience, and transcend culture in a way that health, life and romance do not.The Taj Mahal looms over the Yamuna River in remembrance of Shah Jahan's lost love. "Amour" is a monument no less grand. The heart of the film is the relationship between Anne and Georges, who are played with consummate skill by Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva. I found Riva's performance particularly heartbreaking. It chimed with my own memories of similar situations, and her emotional course through the movie is as complex as it is heartbreaking.Haneke has a muted style. The camera is still, the soundtrack is bare, we continually see the same rooms and the same furniture from the same angles. This throws all the emphasis on the warm emotions of the principal characters. Their faces burn through the screen. Their words are crystal clear against a silent backdrop. The little details of Anne and Georges's home become familiar and take on lives of their own. The piano, the books, the kitchen table, the sink, the green chairs in the salon, the white cornices, the parquet floors. I don't think I've ever seen a movie before where I remember such things.It is a slow movie, but if you're not a fan of international art-house releases, this might be the one film you could handle. It is so warm and so real, that I think it really does have a universal appeal.***Having slept on it, I've changed my mind. I still think this is a beautiful movie. And I still think it is true to say that bodily illness is an almost uniquely universal theme.But it is not right to say that this movie is culturally universal. It is filled with contemporary, western themes to do with illness and dying. Should Anne be put into a home? Should she receive treatment? Is euthanasia justified? What responsibility do parents have for their children? What is the value of human life? How important is a person's dignity? How should we talk to and about the terminally ill? Perhaps many cultures pose similar questions, but surely none pose all of them in quite the way this movie does. This is one reason I found the movie so touching. It asked me questions I have asked myself about my own family members. Someone who had asked themselves different questions might not like the movie.Nor would people who find such questions distressing—as some of the other reviews show.My initial response to the movie reminds me of a scene in "The White Masai." Nina Hoss's character has just arrived with her husband, Jack Ido, in her new home among the Masai. She sees an old woman who has been abandoned to die, and tries to save her life. Neither the old woman nor anyone else sides with her. Euthanasia is not a question everywhere, but my strong response to "Amour" made me feel for a moment that it was. "I want more life," cries Roy Batty in the most famous scene of "Blade Runner." "Amour" brings this cry into question, in a beautiful, subtle, and undeniably Western way.

Ben McKenna Amour is definitely not a film for everyone, it's tough to watch and at times conventionally boring. Although this doesn't mean that it's a bad film, that's very much not the case.Following the life of an Elderly French couple, Amour follows the slow decline of Anne's (Emmanuelle Riva) health as she is looked after by her husband Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) whose dedication is tested.Amour is a beautifully shot film, it is one of technical excellence. Although we rarely leave the apartment the camera finds a way to keep it fresh. At points the simple confines become confusing adding to the claustrophobic atmosphere of the characters.The two main performances are incredibly praise-worthy here, most notably Riva, her acting makes her character believable, her struggle becomes all too real and haunting. Trintignant shines too, the few tales he tells throughout the film are encapsulating, you can really imagine yourself in Georges shoes.Amour is perhaps a little high-brow for a general audience but for those who seek it out it's a must-watch. It's not exactly an 'enjoyable' watch but it's one to think about, to then consider the meaning and ponder the beauty of life.

Brigid O Sullivan (wisewebwoman) This film is still with me. I'd wanted to see it for a very long time.It grabbed me by the throat and just wouldn't let me go, right from the opening, which was shocking, through the concert to the lovely Parisian apartment where the rest of the film stays, static at times but within reason. Life literally freezes for the elderly couple.Amour - the title is about love, not about the word love, I doubt it was ever invoked throughout the film, but about the action of love as the wife becomes more and more incapacitated and hates what is happening to her while he adjusts to caring for her, all the brutal tasks of diaper changing and hair care, etc.I was left sobbing at the end.All through the film it was as if it was a documentary with hidden cameras, that's how believable it all was.Incredible filming.9/10 from me.

davikubrick "Love" is the most beautiful and pure feeling that a human being can feel for each other, but it's also one of the most painful, especially when it's an elderly couple, and "Amour" express that in a amazing and depressive way. We see the normal everyday of an elderly couple, Georges (played by Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (played by the stunning Emmanuelle Riva), both of them are retired music teachers. One day, Anne has a stroke, and then the suffering starts for both, and us, the public. The performances are amazing, especially by Emmanuelle Riva(who acted in the poetic masterpiece "Hiroshima, Mon Amour"), she really looks like that she is sick, and Jean-Louis Trintignant also does a great job, both of the actors are almost perfect . Michael Haneke direct the movie in a amazing way, with no music (most of the time), very realistic (typical of his films) and quite cold. The little soundtrack that is in this movies is excellent, classic, and set the tone of sadness really well. The cinematography is excellent, with almost no "happy color". "Amour" has a important and very sad message that everyone do not want to face and think about: death, and how some people react when someone very close to them is in a bad condition of health."Amour" is a true love story, and one of the most depressive movies of all time, and also the best love story of the century so far, it's already a classic and Haneke best film to date.