Jean-Louis Trintignant
When we are young we believe that we will live forever. We have no idea what that means and the responsibilities that comes along with being alive. How we live does not prepare us for what it is to live a long time
Emmanuelle Riva
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Amour is an exceptional film. It is brave, poignant, honest in that it brings to the surface many of the fears we wish to ignore. It is not a sad movie and at times it’s very funny. The humor is about things that we think about but never say, about our silly concerns that in the end don’t matter. We should all (adults) recognized some part of ourselves in this film.
The film is not fantasy. There is this invitation to the audience, almost from the very beginning of the film to engage in a honest conversation about what we are about to see and what we are about to see is ourselves, in time.
Michael Haneke, Writer and Director
In Europe, actors are allowed to grow old and to become the lead characters in wonderful films about non heroic figures faced with issues that we all relate to. In the U.S., actors like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone both in their late 60’s portray fantasy figures with guns, muscle and snappy one liners. “America is afraid of getting old”. On the other hand Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva who’s stardom and careers go back to the 1950’s have gotten older like the rest us and their portraits of Anne and Georges are both fragile and heroic.
