This is a film of slant lights and gray finickiness that always recalls, in every slight gesture, both the inconclusive happy world outside and that of the youthful past, even as it threatens every moment to erupt into absolute darkness and hostility.

Since the beginning of the new year, I have heard again and again about the new work of Austrian film maker Michael Haneke, whose signature works includes "Funny Game," "The White Ribbon," and "Cache."

Film: Amour (2012) Cast includes: Jean-Louis Trintignant (Three Colors: Red), Emmanuella Riva (Hiroshima, mon amour), Isabelle Huppert (The Piano Teac...

Amour is not the most gripping, devastating, insightful film you'll see this year. It may be the most gripping, devastating, insightful film you'll see ever.

Simply put, Michael Haneke's Amour is an instant, harrowing classic about one of the most important issues of our time.

Clinical and self-contained, Amour still achieves an emotional level that probably would dismay the dispassionate Haneke.

The instances in which she must lean on him depict a heroic dance of coupledom -- burdensome though it may be. There are several such scenes and they are dually painful and beautiful.

I went to back-to-back screenings on Monday night in New York City that combined to make a very interesting double feature, each playing off the other in moving and intricate ways.

Whether or not you personally love their work, it is difficult to dismiss the impact of the French New Wave. To reinforce this strongly held position, here is a pungent mix of Truffaut, Godard and Rohmer.