Amour

— “Amour” is a perfect film experience, but this intimate and devastating look at love and aging isn’t an easy film to watch. It linkers on scenes, just as one of the main character’s illness lingers, and the images are all a little gray and mostly shot in fading light without background music. The action is all indoors, private and hidden from the young and active. The skilled Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva tell much of the story in their looks and movements, as well as their quiet conversations. They cope and are both fragile and stoic, and we watch their tender and tortured love, unable to turn away and wishing the situation was less real. The film deserves the awards and accolades it’s received, but don’t think this is the light and easy love we grew up hearing about. It’s the hard part of love that can leave you feeling devastated.

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[2012. 127 min. Directed by Michael Haneke. Starring Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, and Isabelle Huppert.]
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/amour-2013