Here’s a movie milestone even The Avengers cannot touch: Michael Haneke’s Amour walked away with the top prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, making it the second time the Austrian director has been so generously favored by the Cannes jury. Given that the jury has a reputation for not liking repeat performances, this recognition is all the more special.
Amour (for those who weren’t lucky enough to see it in competition at the actual festival) is about an elderly couple coming to terms with the fact the wife’s health is slipping away, permanently, and that there is nothing they can do but accept (and even embrace) the terrible situation in which they have now found themselves. Will their marriage transform? Will their memories of the past decades be erased? All of these questions are put to the fore in the touching drama which the director readily admits is inspired by the experiences of his own family.
The movie is a radical departure for Haneke whose films are often noted for their sudden and extreme violence, though Haneke himself eschews that the film is a conscious attempt to venture into new territory: “Journalists always try to stick a label on directors. For a long time I’ve been the expert in violence.”
Starring French icons 85-year-old Emmanuelle Riva and 81-year-old Jean-Louis Trintignant, Amour will long be remembered as the unexpected little drama that walked away with the Palme d’Or in 2012.
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