Death Becomes Haneke’s Oscar-Nominated ‘Amour’

Director Michael Haneke delivers another cerebral film that tells a tale of imprisonment in Amour, which just won a Best Picture nomination. This time, the barred cell is as elemental as love and the physical body—and the only way out is through death.

The movie takes place in Paris, or more specifically in an elderly couple’s Parisian apartment. The couple is comprised of George, played by Jean-Louis Trintignant, and Anne, played by Emmanuelle Riva. Both retired music teachers, they share a deep and lasting love for one another. Their love story is interrupted early on when Anne suffers a mini-stroke—but not before George endearingly asks, “Did I tell you, you looked pretty tonight?”

The rest of the movie travels through Anne’s last days as George supports her through it. She is trapped by the weakened health of her poor age, while he is trapped by his love for a dependent wife. Anne’s impending death is the followed in depressing detail by the audience (“an emotional wolf in sheep’s clothing,” according to SD City Beat writer, Anders Wright).

As with Haneke’s previous film The Piano Player, music plays an integral part. In one scene, George imagines Anne sitting back at her piano playing Schubert. “Does the new film redeem such horror, or is all beauty fated to be ominous and frail?” asks The New Yorker’s Anthony Lane.

Pianist Alexander Tharaud is credited with delivering the haunting score in Amour, including pieces by Shubert, Beethoven and Bach. “It’s music that speaks about absence and death—that’s why it’s ideal for the film,” said Tharaud told The Los Angeles Times.

Amour has already picked up awards this season, including the Palme d’Or at Cannes last May. This is the second time one of Haneke’s films has taken home this prestigious award – the first was for The White Ribbon in 2009.

“[Haneke] works like a conductor, with a script that is eminently musical, that offers the possibility of seeing reality, that is not realistic but is reality itself,” Riva told The New York Times. “His work is almost musical, because his sense of rhythm is so precise.”

Watch the trailer for Haneke’s painful waltz toward death below.