“Difficult, but Thought-Provoking”

“Hotshots” looks at a movie!

Amour means “love,” “affection,” or “passion” in French, and although the film has dialogue in French with English subtitles and it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Feature, it was not submitted by France, but rather by Austria.

Amour

The reason is that the director, Michael Haneke, is Austrian, not French, and so one could say that not everything is at it seems with this film, which goes for the simple story itself.

The film was also nominated for four other Academy Awards, Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, and Actress, and in 2012 it won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, which suggests that this is a well-respected, classy film.

But not everything is as it seems.

For example, you might believe you already know how it ends from reading about it and especially from seeing the opening scene.

But there is much more to it than that an old woman dies.

The woman is Anne, she has a stroke at the beginning of the film, and when she returns home, she says to her husband, Georges, “Promise me one thing. Never take me back to the hospital.”

She is partially paralyzed on the right side of her body, and as Georges begins to care for her at home and as Anne’s condition becomes worse, keeping that promise becomes more and more difficult.

The action occurs almost entirely inside their apartment in Paris, and although other characters come and go, the events consist mostly of Georges’s problems taking care of Anne as her physical condition gets worse.

It sounds boring, doesn’t it, especially since you believe you already know how it is going to end.

But not everything is as it seems.

For example, there are a couple of scenes that end with a planned shock to the audience, and one you might not have seen coming.  There are also a couple of scenes that have to have been either fantasizing by one of the characters or the result of the director and screenwriter playing with the audience.

However, after the film is over, you realize that thinking about these scenes adds depth and meaning to the film.

In other words, keep remembering that not everything is as it seems with this award-winning film.

Amour is difficult to watch, but also very thought-provoking.

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”