Most Recent Film: Amour (2012) Next Film: N/A Best Film: The White Ribbon (2009) Watching a Michael Haneke movie play out over the space of two or three hours is an inherently uncomfortable experience, and that'd be the point. Austrian filmmaker Haneke doesn't want you to have "a good time at the movies," after all. He wants to make you think; he wants you to consider the consequences of your actions. Essentially, he wants to punish you for bothering to go and see his movie in the first place. How dare you! Michael Haneke is a true original and there are few filmmakers of his boldness; his meta-films are among the most unique of all motion picture beasts - deft, cold and complex, they're social commentary, historical analysis and cinema critique all rolled into one. Now and again, he'll change things up, and along comes something like Amour, which tells the story of an elderly French couple who are forced to come to terms with a terrible fate. Should we be surprised that Armour packed such a genuine emotional punch, free from the manipulation that haunt the canon of Haneke's work, given that the director has groomed his audience to expect anything but? The fact that we're even asking is what he'd want.
Sam Hill is an ardent cinephile and has been writing about film professionally since 2008. He harbours a particular fondness for western and sci-fi movies.
