Amour (pronounced [a.muʁ]; French: "Love") is a 2012 drama film written and directed by Michael Haneke, starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva and Isabelle Huppert. The narrative focuses on an elderly couple, Anne and Georges, who are retired music teachers with a daughter who lives abroad. Anne has a stroke that paralyses the right side of her body.[4] The film is an international co-production among the French, German, and Austrian companies Les Films du Losange, X-Filme Creative Pool, and Wega Film.
| Amour | |
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 French release poster | |
| Directed by | Michael Haneke |
| Written by | Michael Haneke |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Darius Khondji |
| Edited by |
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Production companies |
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| Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 128 minutes[1][2] |
| Countries |
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| Language | French |
| Budget | $8.9 million[3] |
| Box office | $36.8 million[3] |
Amour premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival,[5][6] where it won the Palme d'Or, making Haneke the first Austrian filmmaker to win twice.[7] The film garnered critical acclaim for its direction, screenplay, and the performances of Trintignant and Riva. It has been widely regarded by critics as one of the greatest films of the 21st century.[8][9] Amour received multiple accolades, including five nominations (including Best Picture) at the 85th Academy Awards, and won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.[10]
Plot
editAfter residents of a Paris apartment building complain of a smell coming from one of the apartments, the emergency services break down its door to find an elderly woman's corpse in the bedroom, adorned with cut flowers. Another corpse is briefly glimpsed on a couch in the living room.
Several months before the opening scene, Anne and her husband Georges, both retired piano teachers in their eighties, attend a performance by one of Anne's former pupils, Alexandre. They return home to find that someone has unsuccessfully tried to break into their apartment. The next morning, while they are eating breakfast, Anne silently has a stroke. She sits in a catatonic state, not responding to Georges. She comes around as Georges is about to get help, but has no idea the stroke occurred. Georges is unable to persuade her to get medical attention until Anne finds she is unable to pour herself a drink.
Anne undergoes surgery on a blocked carotid artery, but the surgery goes wrong, leaving her paralyzed on her right side and reliant on a wheelchair. She makes Georges promise not to send her back to the hospital or to a nursing home. Georges becomes Anne's dutiful, though slightly irritated, caretaker. One day, Anne, seemingly having attempted to commit suicide by falling from a window, tells Georges she doesn't want to go on living.
Alexandre, her former pupil whose performance they attended, stops by and Anne gets dressed up and carries on a lively conversation during the visit, giving Georges hope that her condition was temporary. But she soon has a second stroke that leaves her demented and incapable of coherent speech. Georges continues to look after Anne.
Georges begins employing a nurse three days a week. Their daughter, Eva, wants her mother to go into care, but Georges says he will not break the promise he made to Anne. He employs a second nurse, but fires her after he discovers she is mistreating Anne.
One day, Georges sits next to Anne's bedside and tells her a story of his childhood, which calms her. As Anne closes her eyes, he quietly picks up a pillow and smothers her to death.
Georges returns home with bundles of flowers in his hands, which he proceeds to wash and cut. He picks out a dress from Anne's wardrobe and writes a long letter. He tapes the bedroom door shut and catches a pigeon that has flown in through the window. In the letter, Georges explains that he has released the pigeon. Georges imagines that Anne is washing dishes in the kitchen and, speechless, he gazes at her as she cleans up and prepares to leave the house. Anne calls for Georges to bring a coat, and he complies, following her out of the door.
The film concludes with a continuation of the opening scene, with Eva seated in the living room after wandering around the now-empty home.
Cast
edit- Jean-Louis Trintignant as Georges Laurent
- Emmanuelle Riva as Anne Laurent
- Isabelle Huppert as Eva Laurent
- Alexandre Tharaud as Alexandre
- Rita Blanco as Concierge
- Carole Franck as Nurse
- Dinara Droukarova as Nurse
- William Shimell as Geoff
- Ramón Agirre as Concierge's husband
- Laurent Capelluto as Police officer
- Jean-Michel Monroc as Police officer
- Suzanne Schmidt as Neighbor
- Walid Afkir as Paramedic
- Damien Jouillerot as Paramedic
Production
editThe film was produced for €7,290,000 through France's Les Films du Losange, Germany's X-Filme Creative Pool and Austria's Wega Film.[4][11] It received co-production support from France 3 and €404,000 in support from the Île-de-France region.[4] Further funding was granted by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg in Germany and National Center of Cinematography and the moving image in France.[12] Principal photography took place from 7 February to 1 April 2011.[12]
After 14 years, Jean-Louis Trintignant came back on screen for Haneke.[13] Haneke had sent Trintignant the script, which had been written specifically for him.[14] Trintignant said that he chooses which films he works in on the basis of the director, and said of Haneke that "he has the most complete mastery of the cinematic discipline, from technical aspects like sound and photography to the way he handles actors".[14]
The film is based on a situation that happened in Haneke's family.[15][16] The issue that interested him the most was how to manage the suffering of someone you love.[16]
Haneke called the collaboration with Jean-Louis Trintignant and the subject of the film the motivation to make the film. The starting point for Haneke's reflections was the suicide of his 90-year-old aunt, who had raised him. According to Haneke, she had heavy rheumatism and lived her last years alone in her apartment because she did not want to be placed in a nursing home. She had even asked Haneke for euthanasia. According to Haneke, the main theme of his script is not old age and death, but "the question of how to deal with the suffering of a loved one".[17]
Haneke dealt with the matter since 1992.[18] The work on the script was interrupted by a writer's block. Haneke normally wrote out the script exactly before the writing process. This time the end of the story was not clear to him. He began writing in the hope that this would occur to him at work, but this did not happen.[19] "I have tormented myself terribly with the script and I was left with the impression that I have not succeeded in getting the hang of this topic", he said. At the same time the director realized that the Swiss-Canadian Léa Pool with La dernière fugue (2010) had created a similar story, about an old man who is taken care of by his wife. Therefore, he left the project in favor of another. He worked only sporadically on it, until his writer's block loosened and he could finish the script quickly. Haneke wrote it specifically for Trintignant, having already written the scripts for The Piano Teacher (2001) and Caché (2005) specifically for Isabelle Huppert and Daniel Auteuil. Haneke prefers this way of working, because in this way one "writes specifically something that fits to the advantages of each actor and helps to particularly work them out".[20]
Release
editArtificial Eye acquired the distribution rights for the United Kingdom and by Sony Pictures Classics in the United States. It has been released on DVD, Blu-ray, and Digital mediums.[21]
Reception
editAmour met with widespread acclaim from critics. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 93% based on 223 reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The website's critical consensus reads: "With towering performances and an unflinching script from Michael Haneke, Amour represents an honest, heartwrenching depiction of deep love and responsibility."[22] Metacritic gives the film a weighted average rating of 95 out of 100, based on reviews from 44 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[23]
Writing for The Guardian after the Cannes screening, Peter Bradshaw said "this is film-making at the highest pitch of intelligence and insight", naming it the best film of 2012.[24] Jamie Graham of Total Film gave Amour 5 stars out of 5, stating "far from being a cold, scientific study from a filmmaker frequently accused of placing a pane of glass between his work and his viewers, this sensitive film emerges heartfelt and humane."[25] Dave Calhoun of Time Out London also gave the film 5 out of 5 stars, stating "Amour is devastatingly original and unflinching in the way it examines the effect of love on death, and vice versa".[26] Calling Amour the best film of 2012, critic A. O. Scott of The New York Times said that "months after its debut at Cannes this film already feels permanent."[27] Writing in The Times, critic Manohla Dargis hailed the film as "a masterpiece about life, death and everything in between."[28] The newspaper flagged the film as a critics' pick. The Wall Street Journal's film critic Joe Morgenstern wrote of Amour: "Mr. Haneke's film, exquisitely photographed by Darius Khondji, has won all sorts of prizes all over the world, and no wonder; the performances alone set it off as a welcoming masterpiece."[29] The Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars out of four.[30]
Among the few negative reviews, Calum Marsh of the Slant Magazine gave the film 2 out of 4 stars and indicated that the film "isn't the work of a newly moral or humanistic filmmaker, but another ruse by the same unscrupulous showman whose funny games have been beguiling us for years", adding that "Haneke's gaze, trained from an unbridgeable remove, carries no inflection of empathy; his style is too frigid, his investment too remote, for the world of these characters to open up before us, for their pain to ever feel like something more than functional."[31]
Box office
editThe film earned $6,739,492 in the U.S.[32] It grossed $36,784,044 worldwide[33] on an $8.9 million budget.
Accolades
edit
Amour received five nominations: Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role (Riva), Best Original Screenplay (Haneke) and Best Director (Haneke).[34] At 85, Riva is the oldest nominee for Best Actress in a Leading Role.[35][36] It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
At the 25th European Film Awards, Amour was nominated in six categories,[37] winning in four, including Best Film and Best Director. At the 47th National Society of Film Critics Awards it won Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress.[38] At the 66th British Academy Film Awards, it was nominated in four categories, winning for Best Leading Actress and Best Film Not in the English Language.[39] Riva became the oldest person to win a BAFTA.[40][41] At the 38th César Awards, it was nominated in ten categories,[42] winning in five, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Actress.[43][44]
Legacy
editBoth Sight & Sound film magazine and Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian named Amour the third-best film of 2012.[90][91]
In 2016, Amour was named the 42nd-best film of the 21st century in a poll of 177 film critics from around the world.[8] It was 69th on BBC's 2018 list of the 100 greatest foreign-language films as voted by 209 film critics from 43 countries.[9]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ "Amour - Zurich Film Festival". Zurich Film Festival. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
- ^ "Amour - Love (12)". British Board of Film Classification. 14 September 2012. Retrieved 23 January 2013.
- ^ a b "Amour at The Numbers". The Numbers. Retrieved 24 June 2023.
- ^ a b c Lemercier, Fabien (22 November 2010). "Ile-de-France backs Haneke's Amour". Cineuropa. Retrieved 3 June 2011.
- ^ "2012 Official Selection". Cannes. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
- ^ "Cannes Film Festival 2012 line-up announced". timeout. Archived from the original on 23 April 2012. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
- ^ a b "Awards 2012". Cannes. Retrieved 27 May 2012.
- ^ a b "The 21st Century's 100 greatest films". 23 August 2016. Retrieved 16 September 2016.
- ^ a b "The 100 Greatest Foreign Language Films". bbc. 29 October 2018. Retrieved 10 January 2021.
- ^ "Oscars 2013: Full list of winners". BBC News. 25 February 2013. Retrieved 25 February 2013.
- ^ "Love (Amour)". filmsdulosange.fr. Les Films du Losange. Archived from the original on 12 May 2011. Retrieved 3 June 2011.
- ^ a b "Amour". Screenbase. Screen International. Archived from the original on 18 May 2011. Retrieved 3 June 2011.
- ^ Cannes 2012, "Amour": le retour à la lumière de Jean-Louis Trintignant, Huffington Post in cooperation with Le Monde, 20 May 2012.
- ^ a b Rohter, Larry (2 November 2012). "Michael Haneke Directs Amour, With Jean-Louis Trintignant". New York Times. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
- ^ "Article The Curzon Interview: Michael Haneke". Curzon Cinema. Archived from the original on 28 November 2012. Retrieved 30 December 2012.
- ^ a b Foundas, Scott (20 December 2012). "Michael Haneke on Amour: "When I Watched it with the Audience, They Gasped!"". The Village Voice. Retrieved 12 January 2013.
- ^ Liebe: Vorabdruck aus dem Buch 'Haneke über Haneke' – Gespräche mit Michel Cieutat und Philippe Rouyer. Berlin/Köln : Alexander Verlag, September 2012. 31 S. (Kindle Edition, 133 KiB)
- ^ [Abeltshauser, Thomas: "Ich laufe nicht mit der Palme auf dem Kopf herum" in welt.de, (from September 2012)]
- ^ [Huber, Christoph: Michael Haneke: "Bei mir ist der Schauspieler schon König!", diepresse.com, August 2012]
- ^ ["Ich habe keine Phantasie!", artechock.de, 31 May 2012]
- ^ Kemp, Stuart (13 May 2011). "U.K.'s Artificial Eye Boards Michael Haneke, Laurent Cantet Projects (Cannes)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 3 June 2011.
- ^ "Amour (2012)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
- ^ "Amour Reviews". Metacritic. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 27 November 2012.
- ^ Bradshaw, Peter (20 May 2012). "Cannes 2012: Amour – review". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
- ^ Graham, Jamie (26 October 2012). "Amour review". Total Film. Future Publishing. Retrieved 19 November 2012.
- ^ Calhoun, Dave (13 November 2012). "Amour review". Time Out. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
- ^ Scott, A. O. (14 December 2012). "25 Favorites From A Year When 10 Aren't Enough". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
- ^ Dargis, Manohla (18 December 2012). "Étude on Aging, Its Graces, Its Indignities". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
- ^ Morgenstern, Joe (20 December 2012). "Luminous, Loving 'Amour'". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 20 December 2012.
- ^ "Amour". Roger Ebert. 9 January 2013.
- ^ Marsh, Calum (2 October 2012). "Amour". Slant Magazine. Retrieved 11 January 2013.
- ^ "Amour (2012) - Box Office Mojo".
- ^ "Amour (2012) - Financial Information". Retrieved 24 June 2023.
- ^ a b "Oscars: Hollywood announces 85th Academy Award nominations". BBC News. 10 January 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
- ^ "Youngest v oldest actress vie for Oscar as Lincoln leads the pack". The Times. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
- ^ Walker, Tim (10 January 2013). "Quvenzhané Wallis v Emmanuelle Riva: Best actress Oscar contested by oldest and youngest ever nominees". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 13 January 2013. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
- ^ "Amour leads European Film Award nominations". BBC News. 5 November 2012. Retrieved 4 November 2012.
- ^ "US critics reward Cannes favourite Amour". BBC News. 7 January 2013. Retrieved 7 January 2013.
- ^ a b "Bafta awards 2013: Full list of nominees". BBC News. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
- ^ Brown, Mark (10 February 2013). "Baftas: stars dress for show not snow as awards hail director Ben Affleck". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
- ^ "'Argo', Affleck take top prizes at BAFTAs". CNN. 11 February 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
- ^ a b "Amour among contenders for 2013 Cesar Awards". BBC News. 25 January 2013. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
- ^ "Michael Haneke film 'Amour' sweeps major César awards in Oscars warm-up". euronews. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
- ^ "'Amour' sweeps France's César awards". France24. 22 February 2013. Retrieved 23 February 2013.
- ^ "Hanke's Amour geht fuer Oesterreich ins Oscar Rennen". Der Standard. Retrieved 4 September 2012.
- ^ "2nd AACTA International Awards Nominees". Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA). 9 January 2013. Retrieved 9 January 2013.
- ^ "2012 EDA Award Nominees". Alliance of Women Film Journalists. Retrieved 28 December 2012.
- ^ "Winners of the Bavarian Film Awards". Cineuropa.org. 22 January 2013. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
- ^ "Bodil-prisen 2013". Bodilprisen.dk. Retrieved 10 February 2013.
- ^ "2012 Winners". Boston Society of Film Critics. Archived from the original on 13 December 2017. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
- ^ "Bafta Film Awards 2013: The winners". BBC News. 10 February 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
- ^ BFI (December 2012). "The Master tops Sight & Sound's Best of 2012". British Film Institute. AwardsDaily.com. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
- ^ "British Independent Film Awards". Archived from the original on 11 May 2013. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
- ^ "Imposter Among Early Winners at British Independent Film Awards". 9 December 2012. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
- ^ "38th César Award Nominations" (PDF). academie-cinema. 26 January 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 February 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2013.
- ^ ""The Master" rules 2012 CFCA Awards with 10 Nominations". CFCA. 14 December 2012. Archived from the original on 29 July 2013. Retrieved 14 December 2012.
- ^ "Critics' Choice Movie Awards". The Broadcast Films Critics Association. Archived from the original on 14 March 2015. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
- ^ Jones, Arnold Wayne (18 December 2012). "DFW Film Critics bestow 2012 awards". Dallas Voice. Archived from the original on 14 June 2018. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
- ^ "Award-winners Announced At Durban International Film Festival 2012". University of KwaZulu-Natal. Archived from the original on 6 May 2015. Retrieved 18 August 2012.
- ^ "The 25th European Film Awards: Winners". Retrieved 2 December 2012.
- ^ "Michael Haneke's Amour, winner of the FIPRESCI Grand Prix". Archived from the original on 13 March 2016. Retrieved 30 November 2012.
- ^ Mitchell, Robert (5 September 2012). "Int'l crix love Haneke's 'Amour'". Variety. Retrieved 5 September 2012.
- ^ "2013 Golden Globe Nominations". HFPA. 12 December 2012. Archived from the original on 14 December 2012. Retrieved 13 December 2012.
- ^ "Golden Globes: Ben Affleck's Argo scoops two awards". HFPA. 14 January 2013. Retrieved 14 January 2013.
- ^ "The 60th MPSE Golden Reel Awards nominees". Los Angeles Times. 17 January 2013. Retrieved 14 February 2013.
- ^ "Nomineringarna till Guldbaggen" (in Swedish). Sydsvenskan.se. Archived from the original on 6 January 2013. Retrieved 3 January 2013.
- ^ "Lincoln leads Houston Film Critic Society Awards with eight nominations". AwardsDaily.com. 16 December 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
- ^ "Spirit Awards 2013". Archived from the original on 16 February 2013. Retrieved 28 November 2012.
- ^ "Winners of the 10th Annual Irish Film & Television Awards". Retrieved 17 February 2013.
- ^ "The Circle Film Awards 2012 NOMINATIONS". LFCC. 18 December 2012. Retrieved 18 December 2012.
- ^ "Amour bags hat-trick of London Critics' Circle Film Awards". BBC. 21 January 2013. Retrieved 21 January 2013.
- ^ "38th Annual Los Angeles Film Critics". LAFCA. 5 December 2012. Archived from the original on 10 December 2013. Retrieved 10 December 2012.
- ^ "Prix et nominations : Lumières de la presse étrangère 2013". AlloCiné. Retrieved 20 February 2013.
- ^ "National Board Of Review Best Film: 'Zero Dark Thirty'". Deadline Hollywood. 5 December 2012. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
- ^ "2012 Awards: "Amour," Emmanuelle Riva, Daniel Day-Lewis". National Society of Film Critics. 6 January 2013. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
- ^ "NYFCC - Best Foreign Film Awards". Retrieved 3 December 2012.
- ^ "Kathryn Bigelow and Steven Spielberg win New York Film Critics awards". BBC News. 4 December 2012. Retrieved 4 December 2012.
- ^ a b "The gory details of the New York Film Critics Circle vote". Variety Media, LLC. Archived from the original on 5 February 2013. Retrieved 7 December 2012.
- ^ "2012 Awards (16th Annual)". Online Film Critics Society. 24 December 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2013.
- ^ "NOMINACJE DO ORŁÓW 2013, DOROCZNYCH NAGRÓD POLSKIEJ". Polskie Nagrody Filmowe. Archived from the original on 10 March 2013. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
- ^ "Le Prix Louis Delluc récompense Benoît Jacquot pour ses". toutelaculture. 17 December 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
- ^ "San Diego Film Critics Society 2012 Awards". Archived from the original on 7 December 2013. Retrieved 11 December 2012.
- ^ "2012 San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards". SFFCC. 16 December 2012. Archived from the original on 9 December 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2012.
- ^ "17th Satellite Awards Nominations". International Press Academy. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
- ^ "The Best Movies of 2012". Toronto: The Atlantic Monthly Group. Retrieved 21 February 2012.
- ^ "2012 The Village Voice Poll". Village Voice, LLC. Retrieved 21 February 2013.
- ^ "Toronto Film Critics Association Announces 2012 Awards". Toronto Film Critics Association. Archived from the original on 23 January 2013. Retrieved 14 February 2013.
- ^ "Lincoln Leads Vancouver Film Critics". AwardsDaily.com. Retrieved 27 December 2012.
- ^ "The 2012 WAFCA Award Nominees". Retrieved 9 December 2012.
- ^ Kevin Jagernauth (1 December 2012). "Paul Thomas Anderson's 'The Master' Tops Sight & Sound's Best Of 2012". Archived from the original on 3 December 2012. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
- ^ Bradshaw, Peter (12 December 2012). "The 10 best films of 2012, No 3 - Amour". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 12 December 2012.
External links
edit
- Official website
- Amour at IMDb
- Amour at Box Office Mojo
- Amour at Metacritic
- Amour at Rotten Tomatoes
