Amour - 2012 - Emmanuelle Riva, Jean-Louis Trintignant.

A devastating, powerful film.

Amour is a love story centred around the lives of Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva), a couple forced to deal with degenerative illness. The pair are first seen together as part of an audience to a music concert, and from then, they dominate the film. Other than a few appearances from daughter Eva (Isabelle Huppert), and few others, the film is set as a two-person drama. 

When Anne suffers a stroke, Georges ensures that he does everything he can in order to keep her safe and  comfortable while her degeneration progresses. As time goes on, Anne's condition worsens, how can she carry on this way? What sort of life is this? Anne's mental state changes along with her physical one, becoming less compliant with Georges as he tries to feed and water her. Will love carry this couple forward?

The acting from Trintignant and Riva is simply superb. Trintignant plays a man unconditionally devoted to his wife, quietly doing his duty, telling stories from his past, constantly comforting and never giving up. Riva somehow manages to get across the pain and suffering of a woman who is plagued by loss of memory and emotion with extremely limited means of doing so. Her performance is thrilling, and truly heartbreaking. I feel the Academy Award for Best Actress should have been hers. 

Director Michael Haneke creates a tremendously personal atmosphere throughout this film. Once Anne's illness forces her to use a wheelchair, the camera doesn't leave the apartment. Haneke does not shy away from the use of motionless camera during this film, whilst cinematographer Darius Khondji does a fantastic job of keeping the audience involved in the heartbreaking story. Haneke has created a film so intimate, so relaxed and pure in its approach, that Amour will not be forgotten any time soon.

An upsetting but pure film. A must-see. Would of been my choice for Best Picture at the Oscars.

J.Henderson.

9/10.