Amour

"Amour" is a French-language romantic drama film written and directed by the Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke, and it is about the strength of an old couple's love being measured and tested by life itself.

I purposely described the film as vaguely as possible because it is a must-see, and it is definitely an experience where going in blind is the best way to go. Michael Haneke keeps proving me wrong and is slowly but surely climbing my ladder of favourite directors, and I'm super excited to check out the rest of his films.

The acclaimed director this time tackles a powerful subject with such brutal honesty, and I don't think anyone could pull off what he did successfully in any other way, he is clearly aiming for the film to touch the viewer in a personal way, and despite it not working for me as effectively as the movie probably hoped for, I was still able to appreciate it for what it did.

"Amour" which means "love" in French, is pretty close to being a flawless film, that is mainly due to Michael's hard work and dedication, just watch the making of Amour and you'll see what I'm talking about, there aren't any technical problems and if there actually are, they're extremely unnoticeable, in fact, everything seems to be carefully put together.

It's impossible to praise the acting enough, since every last actor does a phenomenal job, we spend the majority of our time with Emmanuelle Riva and Jean‑Louis Trintignant characters, and they portray them in such a truthful and realistic manner, not to mention, their relationship is a confronting and honest portrayal of love, they're truly magnificent to watch.

This is a very cold picture, and Haneke makes sure that the audience absorbs every bit of the coldness from start to finish, despite how hard and emotional it may get, what I also admire about his filmmaking techniques is his lack of use of music, the only time we hear a song is when it is actually played in the movie's universe, which adds to the genuineness that the film consistently reaches for.

And of course, this being a Haneke film, it has its fair share of symbolism, and no it doesn't come off as pretentious or complex whatsoever, they simply help at making the message of the story much more powerful.

The only reason why "Amour" didn't connect with me as much as I wanted it to is because of the pacing, it is incredibly slow, don't be confused though, I'm not calling it boring or dull since it is clearly far from that, but I can't help to think that certain scenes dragged on for way too long, the former is actually intentional so it isn't much of a critique rather than a personal issue.

"Amour" is a beautiful looking movie that is as authentic as it can possibly be, it's sad, it's emotional, it's admirable, and it achieved pretty much everything that the director wanted to achieve. This is a Full Price.