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.
