Not an easy story to take in. A French couple, man and wife, both in their 80’s who live in Paris and therefore probably lived through the German occupation and liberation of WWII . Both are well-educated and they apparently have significant money for retirement and also the excellent French health-care system is available to them. Still they strive to handle a health issue on their own resources – which are non existent. Their effort doesn’t work and they have problems they can’t handle. They also have no real friends who can help, and one daughter who works elsewhere. No professional medical help was present at any time, even after a major surgery had taken place.
I found the story hard to believe or accept and that detracted from the movie for me. Symbolism was present but not really directive. The acting obviously required extensive preparation and work by the female lead, Anne, (played by Emmanuelle Riva) and she played that marvelously. The physical resources brought to bear by the actors in the story were constrained to bare minimum physical rehabilitation, no real mental activity was applied toward the illness and recovery, some emotional work was done with paintings that were very dark, and singing of childhood songs. The spiritual aspect was totally absent from the film and that seemed strange.
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