Haneke has them talking at Cannes

By Jake Coyle

AP Entertainment Writer

CANNES, France

The first half of the 65th annual Cannes Film Festival has completed a life cycle in films that range from the motivating spark of child birth to the despair of slow death in old age.

The latter came by way of Michael Haneke’s “Amour,” which is by wide consensus the favorite thus far for the festival’s top honor, the Palme d’Or. Such an outcome would make the Austrian filmmaker, who won three years ago for his film, “The White Ribbon,” the seventh director to win two Palmes.

Cannes audiences sit down for a movie with expectations of nothing less than a masterpiece, and “Amour” has been the only film generally considered worthy of that label. Masterly austere, it’s a simple and direct story of a French couple in their 80s, played by Emmanuelle Riva as Anne, and Jean-Louis Trintignant as Georges — both French acting greats in thrillingly good late performances.

Early in the film, they return home from a concert to find signs of an attempted break in. No one has entered the apartment, but something worse, something more destructive seems to have been let in. The next morning during breakfast, Anne freezes, staring vacantly. It’s the first sign of an irrevocable decline, to be followed by doctor visits, a dementia-inducing stroke, and the mounting indignities of dying while Georges cares for her.

For Haneke, a provocateur of mysterious terrors, it’s a film of exceptional intimacy, where death slowly disassembles love.

Cannes finishes Sunday with the Palme d’Or selection from the jury headed by Nanni Moretti. Still to come: David Cronenberg’s “Cosmopolis,” Walter Salles’ “On the Road,” Lee Daniels’ “The Paperboy,” Jeff Nichols’ “Mud” and Carlos Reygadas’ “Post Tenebras Lux.” On Tuesday, Andrew Dominick’s thriller “Killing Them Softly,” starring Brad Pitt, was to premiere.