Amour Fou
Directed by
Austria, Luxembourg, Germany
2014
90 min
- German
Period drama
Cannes IFF - Un Certain Regard Toronto IFF - Contemporary World Cinema
AMOUR FOU is inspired by the life and death of the poet Heinrich von Kleist and his partner in death, Henriette Vogel. However, rather than being a biographical portrait, the film is a parable about the ambivalence of love.
AMOUR FOU deals with the ambivalence and absurdity inherent in the very concept of two people committing suicide because of their love for one another. Commiting this act is the yearning to escape the inevitability of death through love, to avoid dying alone and to oppose all-powerful death by dictating the terms of one's death. However, the fundamental absurdity lies in the fact that the joined act cannot be experienced jointly in any complete sense, since love is fickle and ambivalent, and everybody – in the end – must die alone.
Awards
- Best Film - Lisbon & Estoril FF
- Best Director (Jessica Hausner, International Competition) - FICUNAM
Festivals
Labels & Line Ups
Credits
- Cast
- Christian Friedel
- Birte Schnöink
- Stephan Grossmann
- Peter Jordan
- Sebastian Hülk
- Marc Bischoff
- Marie-Paule von Roesgen
- Josiane Peiffer
- Nickel Bösenberg
- Screenplay
- Jessica Hausner
- Cinematography
- Martin Gschlacht
- Editing
- Karina Ressler
- Festival Bookings
- AUSTRIAN FILMS
- Sales
- COPRODUCTION OFFICE
- Production
- COOP 99 FILMPRODUKTION
- Production
- AMOUR FOU LUXEMBOURG
- Production
- ESSENTIAL FILMPRODUKTION
Press
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A dryly amusing and ambiguously layered account of the famed double suicide of Heinrich von Kleist and Henriette Vogel.
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A complex and exquisitely filmed exploration of a man's desire to find a woman willing to die with him.
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An accomplished work of art.
Jessica Hausner
Austria
"I always see the characters in contrast to their task, their obligation. I have a strong sense of these characters like in a game of chess, what’s their role in this process?"
Jessica Hausner was born in Vienna, Austria. She studied directing at the Filmakademie of Vienna, where in 1996 she made the short film FLORA, which won the Léopard de Demain at the Locarno Festival. INTER-VIEW, her graduation film, won the Prix du Jury of the Cinéfondation at the Cannes Film Festival in 1999. Two years later, LOVELY RITA, her first feature film, was presented in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes FF. Her second feature HOTEL was again selected for Cannes FF, and won the Grand Prix for the Best Austrian Feature at the Diagonale 2005. In 2009 she went on to make the multiple prize-winning feature LOURDES. Her most recent feature, AMOUR FOU has taken part in both Cannes and Toronto IFF. Her last feature LITTLE JOE will premiere in Cannes, in the Official Selection.
