Amour

Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or-winner, about an octogenarian couple trying to cope when a stroke leaves the wife partly paralysed and speechless.

The film which provided cinema’s great provocateur Michael Haneke with the mainstream recognition of an Oscar win, alongside other prizes including the Palme d’Or. This devastating drama about an elderly couple trying to cope when a stroke leaves the wife partly paralysed is honest, unsentimental and deeply sensitive.

Save for one early scene, it takes place in the retired music teachers’ Paris apartment; as Anne’s condition deteriorates, their world shrinks, and visitors merely distract Georges from deciding what’s best for his wife. Haneke never underplays the difficulty of maintaining a mutually supportive relationship under such circumstances; the film’s brave, brilliant performances make it extraordinarily moving.