Amour review

 Number 450 on the top 1000 films of all time is the Michael Haneke's French psychological drama 'Amour.'

Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) and Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) Laurent are former music teachers and elderly couple in Paris. When Anne suffers a stroke that leaves her unable to take care of herself, Georges dutifully accepts the role of carer. However, the stress of the work becomes too much for the both of them.

Upon directing this film, Michael Haneke constantly reminded his cast to avoid over-sentimentality at all costs. This is what stopped the film from being a cheesy love story. Instead it was an utter devastating tragedy. Like Georges, I worked as a carer, so I saw first-hand how this stress can impact a couple's relationship.

I can attest there was nothing corny or overly-romanticised in Amour. We saw the authentic side of caring in all its brutal detail. We also saw the pour of amour - French for love - nowhere was this more present than in the relationship between Georges and Anne. Amour was the perfect title for the film - if you are taking care of a loved one, you need nothing less than love itself. And to allow somebody to take care of you, you need to trust and love somebody implicitly. It was obvious Georges and Anne loved each other unconditionally.

This was obvious from Trintigant's and Riva's excellent characterisations. Anne was obviously in an awful situation. Nobody ever wants to suffer like she does, but despite being in a pitiful situation, she wasn't a pitiable character. Riva played her with the utmost humanity. Despite being in a sorry situation, she never surrenders her humanity. Not once. It was this brilliant portrayal that saw her win the BAFTA and Caesar award as well as receiving an Oscar nod.

Trintignant was equally good as Georges. As Anne's carer, the stress quickly takes its toll - his position is almost as bad as his wife's. Yet similarly to Anne - although we feel sorry for Georges, Georges is not a sorry character. He remains faithful to his wife all the way up the shock ending that I didn't see coming. Just like Riva, Trintignant also won the Caesar award for his portrayal of Georges.

Amour was a powerful but tragic film which depicted one of the hardest parts of life with the utmost humanity. And if my praise wasn't enough, it also won the Best International Film Oscar. Well-deserved.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly review

 Number 264 on the top 1000 films of all time is the French biographical drama: 'The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.'

Based on the true story, TDBATB tells the story of Jean-Dominique "Jean-Do" Bauby (Mathieu Amalric) the editor of Elle magazine. After a stroke leaves him with locked-in syndrome, he is forced to adapt to a whole new way of living.

TDBATB is based on the story that the real-life Jean-Do wrote while he was in locked-in syndrome, all through a letter chart, a pain-stakingly slow system of blinking and a very helpful assistant. It is a tragic story, but also an inspirational one.

The movie adaptation does the story justice. Director Julian Schnabel did brilliantly to make us feel the shame and humiliation that Jean-Do felt during his ordeal. He goes from being a healthy forty-two-year-old to not even be able to wash himself without assistance. It is a pitiful existence, yet we have a lot of empathy for Jean-Do.

This was partly because the first third of the film is told entirely from his POV, accompanied by his cynical narration. The audience are figuring things out the same time as him. This intimate, even claustrophobic perspective put us firmly in Jean-Do's shoes. Even if we didn't want to, we were forced to experience how awful his life had become.  

The rest of the film is told more conventionally leading it to lose its unique perspective. I understand that a first-person POV might have been difficult to sustain throughout the whole film, but its intimacy is what made it so powerful. We weren't looking at Jean-do through an external lens with an external bias, but through his own eyes, hearing his thoughts, his feelings and his voice.

Considering Mathieu Amalric had little to act with, but his voice, he did well in making Jean-Do, a sympathetic, yet powerful character. And his character was never reduced to a joke or a cruel cartoon.

In many ways, the film is a deep introspection into Jean-Do's life, as he reflects on his successes, many failures and different relationships. The most notable of these is his relationship with his ageing father, Mr Bauby SR, played masterfully by Max Von Sydow. His father is very much a mirror-image of his son. Whereas his son is trapped in his own body, Mr Bauby is trapped on the top floor of his apartment building, too scared to use the many steps. Sydow was brilliant in the part, and their relationship was very moving.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly was a brilliant introspective into not only locked-in-syndrome, but also the human condition. Even with locked-in-syndrome, Jean-Do is a still a human who deserves our love and respect. Sometimes that is something we forget.