パリ在住の80代の夫婦、ジョルジュとアンヌ。共に音楽教師で、娘はミュージシャンとして活躍と、充実した日々を送っていた。ある日、教え子が開くコンサートに出向いた2人だが、そこでアンヌが病で倒れてしまう。病院に緊急搬送され、かろうじて死だけは免れたものの、半身まひという重い後遺症が残ってしまう。家に帰りたいというアンヌの強い願いから、自宅で彼女の介護を始めるジョルジュ。しかし、少しずつアンヌの症状は悪化していき、ついに死を選びたいと考えるようになり……。
製作費: $8,900,000 (13億円)
興行収入: $29,800,000 (45億円)
推定収支: $20,900,000 (31億円)
※製作費・興行収入はTMDBのデータを参照しています。収支は(興行収入 - 製作費)で算出したFindKey独自の推定値であり、広告宣伝費や諸経費は含まれません (1ドル=150円換算)。
監督: ミヒャエル・ハネケ
脚本: ミヒャエル・ハネケ
制作: Uwe Schott / Michael Katz / Stefan Arndt
撮影監督: ダリウス・コンジ
制作会社: Les Films du Losange / X Filme Creative Pool / Wega Film / France 3 Cinéma / BR / WDR / ARD Degeto
Superb drama about the final stage of the life of a middle-high class couple in France when one of them gets disabled due to a stroke. Bothe actors perform exceptionally.
At a time when the whole concept of “assisted dying” is being scrutinised in the British Parliament, it’s a poignant time to watch this heartfelt drama that follows the decline of the elderly “Anne” (Emmanuelle Riva). She is a retired piano teacher who has been married to “Georges” (Jean-Louis Trintignant) for most of her life and with whom she shares a daughter in “Eve” (Isabelle Huppert). It’s at breakfast one morning that he notices something slightly amiss. She thinks it’s nothing but has soon suffered a debilitating stroke. She has partial movement and is still fairly compos mentis and so the pair promise to continue as best they can, but when she suffers a further attack and is rendered bedridden the pressure on her husband becomes enormous. With their daughter living with her family in the UK, there is only limited support she can offer and at times her frustrations cause friction with her father who is increasingly at his wits end. A nurse is hired, but can that ever be anything better than a stop-gap measure as the inevitable looms large but unpredictably on the horizon? It’s essentially a two-hander and is a very powerful depiction of just how people deal with grief while their loved one is still alive! Promises made must be kept but cannot be; tensions arise that can have no alleviation, love grows and yet dies at the same time. It’s an emotionally charged and thought provoking drama that serves as a timely reminder that so often dignity and individuality are sacrificed at an altar of generality that fails to appreciate that every such scenario is different and that legally defined one-size-fits-all solutions are not always those that really satisfy anyone. Both actors here play their roles with a palpable degree of sensitivity and even though she is inactive for much of it, Riva manages to convey through her facial expressions much of her own character’s exasperation as life’s chemistry replaces it’s quality. It’s not an easy film to watch, nor does it present us with anything other than the solution which “Georges” feels is the most humane. Some will agree, others will not - but that’s a debate that films like this can do much to advance.
