I’m always a little frightened by the loglines to Michael Haneke’s films, because a simple sentence or two is rarely adequate for capturing the bizarre angles from which the director approaches his stories. Haneke has a way of telling a story that is rarely straightforward, and typically strikes some kind of indescribable tone that takes what otherwise would look like a straightforward period drama or a thriller film and turns it into something much more difficult.

So hearing that his new film Amour, “revolves around an aging couple of retired music professors, whose enduring love is put to the test after the wife suffers a stroke and becomes partially paralyzed” just sets my head spinning with all the ways that story could become deeply uncomfortable and emotionally trying.

My interested apprehension aside, foreign distributors seem quite pleased with the film, as it has managed to sell rights to companies in Italy, Spain, Japan, the UK, South Korea, Australia, Hong Kong, Israel, Brazil, Greece, Argentina, Mexico, Sweden, Portugal, and more. Unfortunately there is no American distributor listed, but if the film keeps catching buzz across the pond, surely someone will pick it up for some kind of run over here. Considering the director’s last film, The White Ribbon, was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, I’m sure some plenty of eyes will be on it.

Source | Variety