Hello Friends,
I have to say, if there were any film that desperately deserved to win Best Picture, but was likely doomed, it would be Amour.
Let me explain. Only nine foreign-language films have ever been nominated for the Best Picture category, including Amour. There have also been three partially foreign-language films that have won this category, but this film still doesn’t have very good odds. However, were there to be any film armed and ready to fight the uphill battle, it would most certainly be Amour.
Amour is a drama, a very painful and beautiful drama, written and directed by Michael Haneke. It stars Jean-Louis Trintignant, Emmanuelle Riva, and Isabelle Huppert. The film follows the life of Anne and Georges, both of whom are retired piano teachers. Anne has a stroke that leaves the right side of her body paralyzed, and the entirety of the film revolves around the challenges Anne and Georges face together. It is a beautiful film to watch, regardless of the language barrier, and I highly recommend that everyone see it. It seems to me to be an amazingly honest and incisive look into the life of an aging man who is thrust into the role of a caretaker to his wife.
The title of the film, Love, is fitting. This is a movie about a man and a woman who love each other very much, and it is also about a man who’s love is tested each and every single day, as he attempts to determine what is the best thing to do for the woman he loves. She fights him in his attempts to care for her, she tells him she wants to die, she becomes less and less aware of what’s going on around her, and by the end she is bedridden. Anne cannot walk, or feed herself, or talk, though she does try very hard to get the one working side of her mouth to make words for her. Her demise is absolutely heartbreaking, and through it all, her husband Georges is beside her. In the end of the film, Georges is left to make a very hard decision. The outcome wasn’t what I thought it was going to be, and although I found it surprising, it completely made sense. The whole film was just love. All good things, and bad things, all of the sadness and joy; it was all love; the love of two humans who share a life together. There was no evil in this film, nothing sinister. In fact, there was almost no conflict at all. No one really argued, or was angry with anyone else, they just lived, and it was captured on film and delivered to us to watch and enjoy. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.
One of the most interesting pieces of the film is the lack of underscoring. We hear sound, and we hear music, mostly piano music, but we never hear any music living underneath the scenes. None at all. This is not a heavy-handed film whose writers manipulate the audience into feelings. (You think underscoring isn’t a manipulation? Then why do I cry during Finding Nemo when the two fish reach the EAC? Clearly it isn’t because the animated water is so beautiful. Humph.) Instead, this film delivers the story, and only the story. Pure acting. And it’s enough; it’s more than enough.
You want to see this movie. I know you do. It’s maybe the best Oscar nominee that I’ve seen yet. It’s emotionally taxing (although there aren’t many nominees this year that aren’t, really) and heavy, but filled with Love. Ignore the fact that there are subtitles, and just watch the faces on the screen. I guarantee you’ll understand what’s going on anyway. This is a truly human story, that surpasses language and borders, and goes straight to the heart. You only live once; you’ll regret missing this one for sure.
Live, Love, Learn,
Rebecca & The Write Teacher(s)