Happy Valentine’s Day! Don’t worry this is  not a bitter Valentine’s Day post, that’s not our style here at 2WC.

Today is the official start of 2WC’s Best Picture countdown to the Oscars, and we couldn’t think of a more appropriate film to kick it off than the foreign language film that could: “Amour”

Anne (Emmanuelle Riva) and Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignant) do not lead an exceptionally exciting life. They are in their  eighties and both retired music teachers. They live a simple, quiet life, going about their business as best they can.

Aside from an excursion to the concert hall at the onset of the film, this story is told entirely within the four walls of Anne and Georges’ Parisian apartment, and it suits them and their story.

When Anne suffers a stroke, the two continue to go about their lives, keeping everything as close to normal as they can manage. Even though Anne is now paralyzed on her right side,  and confined to a wheelchair, Georges does his best to maintain normalcy.

There is a routine and it’s stuck to.  Even when Anne tells him she doesn’t want to go on knowing that her condition will only go from bad to worse, Georges keeps to a routine.

Even when it does eventually get worse after Anne suffers another stroke and loses her speech, Georges keeps moving both of them forward while desperately trying to maintain the dignity of his wife and himself.

This is love. Even after Anne has lost most of her faculties Georges continues to run everything by her before making decisions. He intercepts and appeases the protests of  their well-meaning but overstepping daughter Eva (Isabelle Huppert), and does everything he can to make his wife comfortable and happy.

Written and directed by Michael Haneke, “Amour” is a simple story about love in its most precious forms. It’s told simply and acted simply.  Much like Georges and Anne it is slow-moving, but thoughtful, and beautiful.

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