miércoles, 7 de noviembre de 2012

Scene City #19: "Amour" (Haneke, 2012)


Most films about old age find tenderness by creating a sympathetic portrayal of death. "Amour" might be the first movie in shattering the naive paradigms of dealing with a person whose decease is slowly destroying every remain of her former life.
This is a cruel and humilliating experience and director Michael Haneke never lets us off the hook. He wants us to live every moment of sorrow and despair–– every nightmare, every sense of hopelessness. And by being this cruel he forces us to empatize with a man trapped in an impossible situation of heartbreak. 
Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, as Georges and Anne, give tremendous performances. We believe completely in their marriage and when she starts behaving erraticly we know for sure it is the beginning of the end in her life (Haneke's first scene involves the police finding her corpse lying in bed). The movie is set almost entirely in their apartment, a setting that becomes ever more claustrophobic as the situation turns for the worse. We see the decay in every painful detail as Georges forces himself to take care of his wife after he promised he wouldn't abandon her in a hospital or asylum. I understand this man and I even understand his daughter (played by the great Isabelle Huppert), who still clings to the hope of getting back the woman that no longer resembles her beloved mother and who doesn't agree with her father in keeping her in their home. She wants to help, to not only cope with her family's grief, but be a part of this difficult journey. She only makes it worse because she can't possibly understand this kind of pain. 
I'm not one of Haneke's regular fans. He usually makes films that are too cold and cerebral to generate much emotion but he is a unique voice in contemporary cinema. I still think, every now and then, about "Caché" and the mystery surrounding its static scenes (including the reveal at the end). And with "Amour" I find myself going back to this couple, this terrible moment in their lives and think that I've never seen grief portrayed this realistically. Haneke has made a visceral fiction that never rings false. He's so cold-blooded in his approach that we start wishing for some cliche, some violins or a simple reassurance of security as if any happy ending were possible. 
"Amour" is worth of every accolade it has garnered and I sincerely hope the Academy rewards Emmanuelle Riva's devastating performance (one that will not be topped be any actress this year) but frankly it is a work of such emotional endurance that I wouldn't want to experience it again. 


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