Till death do you apart

Amour  (Love, French; 2012)

I guess this is what happens when people live long lives. There is a mismatch between the mental faculty and physical ability to carry on with life. The mental acumen may be alert for a much longer time than the turgor of muscles of the physical form. The ego of being cocksure and refusal of the aged to be put away, compounded by the fact the offspring all have convolutedly confusing fast-paced separate lives with their own sets of problems may make living in the twilight years a living hell for themselves and those around them. Nobody is evil or is neglecting their duties. In this modern life, where the nuclear family concept is the norm, children who have just too much on their plate can barely put their own family in order, what more to fulfil their filial duties.

At least this what was going through my mind as I patiently followed this 2-hour French film where the characters literally drag themselves befitting people aged 80. The emotional component is accentuated by slow repeated movements, like feeding and cleaning the hemiplegic wife, to drive the message behind the story.

The film starts with firemen forcefully breaking into a bedroom where a corpse is lying down sprinkled with flower. Then it goes into a flashback...

Anne and Georges, retired piano teachers, are just returning from a piano recital of their student. They continue their mundane life talking about this and that. Anne had a temporary lapse of consciousness during breakfast. After some complications of surgery, she becomes hemiplegic. Georges goes out of his way to ensure anything is taken care nicely. A trained nurse checks on her periodically.

Their daughter, Eva, drops in. She feels disappointed with her mother's condition. Exchange of words happen with her father, whom she feels is not doing the best for her.

Things become worse when Anne has another stroke to degenerate further to be bedridden, childlike in her behaviour and incoherent. Remembering her wish not to be hospitalised or institutionalised, Georges continues caring for her despite the difficulties. Seeing her suffering constantly, he smothers her with a pillow. He seals the room with duct tape and continues on with his life. In a fugue state, he wakes up one day to the clanking of cutlery at the kitchen sink. Georges is surprised to see an able-bodied Anne talking incessantly. She invites him to go for a walk. He leaves, never to return.

In the next scene, Eva pays the visit... FIN!

A depressing movie, not for the people who watch movies to forget their misery and escape into a world of fantasy. You do not have pretty actresses with flashy clothes. In its place, you have an 85-year-old actress and a story about loneliness, sickness and the frustration of caring for the sick. Being an art movie, it won many awards. The 85-year-old main actress, Emmanuelle Riva, is the oldest actor to be nominated and won awards!