[rating: 4/5]
Throughout history, love has always been plentiful in the city of Paris. Romance has thrived through the ages, passion has held strong with time. And there have been enough cheesy love stories that have been made into movies with Paris as its backdrop.
It always seems to be young naiveté that is displayed in movies about love. And there are many based on the stage of falling in love.
“Amour” is not one of those movies.
Written and directed by Michael Haneke, “Amour” is the refreshing tale of a couple of old farts in love. It is a stir of tragedy, heartache, honesty and even some moments of comedic relief, that shows what it really means to be in “Amour”.
Haneke went much further into the future from the ending kiss in most romance movies. “Amour” tells the story of a couple in their eighties going through the trials and reality of their mortality. Anne Lavrent (Emmanuelle Riva), suffers from a stroke and slowly withers away as her husband, Georges Lavrent (Jean-Louis Trintignant), watches the love of his life fade.
The notion of everlasting young love is thrown out the window. Haneke reveals the dedication it takes to keep the promise to the person you told you would spend the rest of your life with. This story line of aged love led to the hard truth and scrutinizing thoughts of seeing the person you love most suffer in their attempt to keep whatever health they have left. Like taking cough syrup, the twist leaves a bittersweet taste that goes away when the reasons behind it set in and are accepted.
Even though the storyline was well played, the scenes and dialogue were not always on queue. The slow-pace and what seems like bland conversations were thrown in throughout the film. Exchanges of “please” and “thank you” (in French), were more than plentiful in “Amour”. But even then, there were enough lines of significance and wit to fill in the rest of the dialogue.
Haneke gives us a chance to laugh at what it is to become old. Just as much as he slaps us in the face with what it means to be an old soul.
“Amour” depicts the challenge of staying connected, not to love, but of the promise made when claiming love for as long as they both shall live. Haneke shows us that real love is love that has been through the tribulations and tests of life, and facing death. Romance in movies almost always lead to that last kiss when the audience tries to dry up their tears before the lights go back on, “Amour” makes us swallow those tears like cough syrup. But it leaves the impression of true love beyond the years.
