Amour (2012) — France

           Director Michael Haneke won a Palme D'Or at the 2012 Cannes festival for this portrayal of an octogenarian couple who come to the end of their long love. And although the beginning of the film gives away the end, this being a Haneke film, the ending is nothing that you'd expect. Georges and Anne Laurent have enjoyed a long marriage, then one day at the breakfast table she experiences a stroke that paralyzes her right side. This is a one way street, a slow but certain slide down hill. It's full of tenderness and humor, sacrifice and memory, but also confusion, humiliation, and desperation. One time Anne says she wants to die, and another she takes joy in the beauty of life. Then comes a second stroke. Of course, adult children, home care, and the doctor complicate things for Georges. Old age isn't for sissies, but that's not the end of the world if it's a love story like this film. “We’ve always coped, your mother and I,” Georges says. In French with English sub-titles.