London Film festival
10 - 21 October 2012
Help and support by Neeley Lara Gail
Me & Our reNdeZvouS
An implicit insight into my views and experiences of the London Film Festival 2012, for all to enjoy!
AMOUR
Director: Micheal Haneke
Initially I was not sure what the film would be like as I had overheard some of the wall comments. Oh my! What a wonderful film experience; intriguing yet frightening to see such spiralling and realistic circumstances.
The plot surrounds this couple living in a city apartment; who are very much in love. Doing things that couples do, going to concerts, the theatre, films etc. The entire film is shot in one apartment in Paris, aside for the first scene where the couple are at a music recital.
The first scene, she has her first attack. They are sitting on the small kitchen table where she is making breakfast and sits down to share it with her husband and all of a sudden freezes, her husband while washing up tries to have a conversation her but she is oblivious to anything around her and does not respond. He leaves the washing up and rushes to make a phone call leaving the tap running.
While he is on the phone he notices the tap stops running so he runs back and finds his wife standing there, as if nothing had happened, doing normal chores. But that was just the beginning of what has to come, slowly her attacks are getting more frequent and more prolonged and finally becomes partially paralysed and speechless.
The wife understands the predicament of her husband but cannot help her state of mind therefore is depending on him. Her husband is very supportive and lovingly wants to do everything himself. Their daughter pays a few visits as she is very concerned about her Mother's deteriorating health but also has her own problems to deal with.
Husband never shows any begrudges in looking after his wife, he lovingly does all chores himself feeding, changing sheets and clothes and he also takes on the responsibilities of all needs. Once he notices that the nurse was ill-treating his wife who he had to appoint to avoid confrontations with his daughter. As her condition worsens he starts to become more protective and doesn’t trust anyone near her including the daughter, leading him to essentially isolate his wife from anyone aside from himself.
The film has been handled very sensitively and is wonderfully portraying the emotions and very true to life where a couples very much in love have to see their loved one deteriorating painfully in front of them and doesn't know how to deal with it except by trying to make them comfortable in every way possible.
The ending portrays an array of emotions and possibly the expected which can almost be interpreted as true love. Did he commit this act out of frustration, pain or love for his wife? Quite possibly it was for all those reasons. A tragic end for both husband and wife. A must see film, this beautifully acted by Jean Louis Trintignant (Husband) & Emmanuelle Riva (Wife). This film is a perfectly structured and a great tribute to cinema.
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