Amour (M). Director: Michael Haneke. Starring: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva. 127 minutes
Austrian filmmaker Haneke is known for his at times didactic ruminations on violence in its various permutations in life and popular culture. Amour is his most poignant film to date: the violent event at its core is an act of marital euthanasia, whose sweetly but unsettlingly ritualised aftermath is discovered during the opening scene.
Of course, on the face of it, violence is too bald a term for euthanasia. It belies the complexity of the human responses that underpin such an act. Haneke is fascinated by human motivations more than violence itself. And so after showing us the gruesome aftermath, his film flashes back to the difficult events that led up to the act.
He offers us a carefully detailed dissertation on the experiences of aged musician Anne (Riva) and her adored and adoring husband Georges (Trintignant), during the course of Anne's deterioration from a degenerative illness. Early in the illness, Anne asks Georges to let her die. In the first instance, he staunchly refuses.
There are moments that highlight the misery of Anne's condition, the slights rendered against her dignity. She awakens in a puddle of brown urine; labours excruciatingly over every syllable she speaks, but is misunderstood; howls in pain as she is showered. Georges can do little but tend dutifully to her needs. Is it enough?
Haneke regards his characters with affection, although not intimacy. He sets the camera at a clinical distance. His gaze is anthropological rather than voyeuristic. Watch, he seems to be saying; here are the characters, here is the dynamic of their relationship, here is how her illness unfolds, here is how Georges responds.
This could be an academic exercise if not for the devastating performances. Riva embodies Anne's degeneration from vibrant woman to frustrated invalid. Her agony is tangible as she loses control of her bodily functions and mental faculties. Trintignant's Georges witnesses her decline with a quiet, living grief and weary dignity.
Euthanasia may be at the heart of the film, but Haneke, who can be so didactic, seems uninterested here in an ideological debate. His title may be taken as a question, or as a declamation. Is it love that motivates Georges to prolong Anne's life? Is it love that drives him ultimately to end it? Yes, says Haneke to both. Look: Love.
Tim Kroenert is Assistant Editor of Eureka Street.