Amour, winner of the Palme D’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and Austria’s entry in the 85th
annual Academy Awards, won’t open in the US until just before
Christmas, but Los Angeles-area members of the press were recently treated to
early screenings. The latest work by acclaimed writer-director Michael Haneke (who was previously honored at Cannes for his films The White Ribbon, Cache and The Piano Teacher)
is a thoughtful, unsentimental — though not unfeeling — examination of
long-term romantic commitment. Leave your rose-tinted glasses at the
door.
As
husband and wife as well as teachers and parents to their
professional-musician daughter (played by Isabelle Huppert), Georges
(Jean-Louis Trintignant, veteran of over 100 films including such
classics as A Man and a Woman, Z and The Conformist) and Anne (the utterly heartbreaking Emmanuelle Riva) have given life their all. As
is typically the case for all of us, however, they don’t begin to fully
realize the quality and value of their relationship until it becomes
clear that it is coming to an end.
Anne
has a mini-stroke one morning during breakfast, which is followed soon
after by a more severe event. Partly paralyzed as a result and
requiring more and more assistance from Georges as time goes on, we
watch as Anne becomes utterly dependent and, ultimately, unable even to
communicate intelligibly. Georges and their daughter struggle with
their own helplessness as they strive to accept Anne's impending death.
As far as plot goes, that's about it.
I found Amour stunning, in a good way. As I posted simply on Facebook immediately after seeing it: “Wow.” It
is a near-perfect movie (a couple of horror movie-ish nightmares
Georges has are Haneke's only missteps) that deals so well and
sensitively with aging, facing death, relationships and, yes, love.
My inner moral theologian questions a startling plot development late
in the film, but it is a fairly minimal concern in light of Georges'
devotion to his wife. Trintignant and Riva are seriously deserving of Academy Awards consideration and I really hope they are nominated.
Given the characters' professional background, it is only appropriate that music play a fairly large part in Amour.
Much of it is provided by French pianist Alexandre Tharaud, who makes
his acting debut in the film as Anne's star pupil (appropriately named
Alexandre). He provides lovely interpretations of Bach, Chopin and
Ravel here that serve as at times joyous, at times mournful soundtrack.
As the film illustrates so elegantly and movingly, the music of love
has many shades.
Conversely, director Andrea Arnold (Fish Tank) forgoes music entirely in her new adaptation of Wuthering Heights (now
playing in New York City and opening in LA tomorrow), save for an
occasional hymn sung by the actors and an end titles song performed by
current country-folk sensation Mumford & Sons. Arnold's approach
to Emily Bronte's classic, 19th-century saga of tortured romance
emphasizes the natural sounds of its remote setting. The result
is visceral, at times savagely so, as Arnold removes virtually all the
costume drama artifice that has adorned prior film versions.
For
those unfamiliar with the story, it chiefly concerns the love of
Heathcliff, a poor orphan living in the Liverpool streets, for
Catherine, the daughter of a well-intentioned Christian farmer who takes
Heathcliff in. Though Heathcliff is treated as little more than a
servant by most in the household, Catherine also develops feelings for
him. Alas, Catherine eventually decides to marry a wealthier man,
breaking Heathcliff's heart but setting him on a years-long quest to
prove himself worthy of her.
Arnold
also made the bold artistic choice to cast a pair of black actors as
younger and older Heathcliff. Though the lad was described by Bronte as
having dark skin, Heathcliff has traditionally been played by the
caucasian likes of Laurence Olivier, Timothy Dalton, Ralph Fiennes and
Tom Hardy. Newcomers Solomon Glave and James Howson are excellent here,
and the camera loves them (Of note, Wuthering Heights won the
Best Cinematography award at the 2011 Venice Film Festival; it is also
somewhat curiously shot in full-screen/non-widescreen format). The
remainder of the largely non-professional cast makes less of an
impression, though the performances of all concerned are acceptable.
Making
Heathcliff unquestionably black naturally adds a layer of racial
tension to the story, which gets awkward at times when white
characters hurl the decidedly non-Bronte "N-word" at Heathcliff.
Similarly, Heathcliff uses modern vulgarities at one point to describe
his oppressors. Arnold also heightens the sexual tension and content in
ways that I'm not sure Bronte would approve of. Such license serves to
diminish the characters rather than bring any greater understanding or
appreciation of them to today's audiences.
Despite
the director's interesting take on this classic work of literature,
I'll stick with the revered 1939 movie version that starred Olivier and
Merle Oberon, even though it took its own liberties with the source
material. Notably, it only covers the first half of Bronte's book and
therefore ends on a much less tragic note.
Reverend’s Ratings:
Amour: A-
Wuthering Heights: C+
Review by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and Rage Monthly Magazine.
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