‘Amour’ by Michael Haneke

This fictional film centres on retired couple Georges and Anne Laurent. When Anne suffers an absence seizure, marking the beginning of a steady neurodegenerative decline, her husband, Georges, becomes her carer. Over time, Anne becomes increasingly dependent on her husband and decides that she does not want to continue living. Although Georges initially dismisses her request, when she reaches the stage of no longer being able to communicate or complete even the most basic of tasks, he takes matters into his own hands and suffocates his wife with a pillow. Does this constitute an assisted death or is it simply murder? The viewer is left to make that decision as they follow the story from the opening scene, in which Anne’s body is found by the police, through the events that led up to her death and into the closing scene, where Anne has been killed, Georges seals the couple’s bedroom like a tomb and exits the apartment, leaving it empty and untouched until the police break in. 

The film is almost exclusively set in the couple’s Parisian apartment, forming a huit clos that intensifies its dramatic effect. Through Haneke’s clever use of static shots, the film becomes increasingly claustrophobic as it progresses, with the couple retreating further into the confines of their home. This sense of claustrophobia is heightened by frequent moments of darkness, through which Haneke also provides insights into the emotional impact of the couple’s growing isolation. The film features a notably pared-back soundscape, with silence playing a central role. These silences are often interrupted either by sudden, violent noises (e.g. the police breaking down the door of the apartment) or by everyday household sounds, such as a running tap or creaking floorboards. While such everyday noises form the majority of the film’s soundscape, classical music also features regularly in the film, offering both a link to the couple’s past profession and a reminder of Anne’s progressive decline. Undoubtedly, this film offers a highly sensory viewing experience, which draws the viewer into Haneke’s stark aesthetic.

Haneke’s film deliberately problematises the definition of an assisted death, muddying the waters between voluntary euthanasia (given that Anne has expressed her wish to die and is no longer able to fulfil that desire herself) and murder/manslaughter (in that Georges suffocates his wife in what appears to be a snap decision, without any obvious request from her at the moment of her death). The film also probes the extent to which social factors played a role in Anne’s desire for an assisted death and in Georges’s decision to help/kill her. We see the lack of professional homecare provision in France, the pressure placed on Georges, as his wife’s primary carer, and the lack of understanding shown by the couple’s daughter and her husband. In presenting these various contributing factors, Haneke asks his viewers to reflect deeply on the care and support offered to the global ageing population, on how it could – and should – be better, and on the limits of that care and support, in terms of what constitutes an ‘acceptable’ form of assistance in dying. For its capacity to raise these important questions, the film has featured in several recent debates on palliative care and assisted dying in France.