Amour (2012)

I was not particularly looking forward to watching this one, but it's nominated for awards, so off I went with a couple of friends. Sometimes I love having low expectations!

This is a fantastic work of art - and it is aptly named. Amour is a love story, but it's not about new love; it's about what happens to love when sickness and death arrive. It is not an uplifting story. I never want to see it again, but I'm very glad I've seen it.

Michael Haneke directed Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva as the couple in their 80's, living a privileged life in Paris. She gets sick, and everything ends. George and Anne have had a good life, and the changes they face are dramatic.

My friends felt it dragged in parts, and should have moved more quickly. I feel this slowness was intentional. It puts us better in the shoes of a couple who are living with a situation that is interminable.