Amour

Michael Haneke

Best film winner at Cannes last May, this was a slow, agonizing portrait of the deterioration of a person. A series of strokes strips her of her dignity and pride and reduces her to a jabbering blob whose suffering goes on and on. She is supported by her loving husband who is bewildered in the turn in their seemingly pleasant little lives but rises to the task of caring for someone who no longer recognizes him.

Unblinking, painful to experience but sharply insightful. This film brings real life, and death, to the big screen. Splendidly acted and framed...we get to know these people and their restricted little world better than their friends or children. This should be seen as a touchstone for all future films dealing with death and suffering.

A major work of world cinema.

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