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Amour Fou tackles suicide with satire

Amour Fou Where: Cineplex Odeon When: Tonight and Thursday, 9:15 Rating: 2.

Amour Fou

Where: Cineplex Odeon

When: Tonight and Thursday, 9:15

Rating: 2.5/5 stars


Suicide is no joke, but Austrian writer-director Jessica Hausner (Lourdes) artfully plays it for laughs, albeit with mixed results, in this slight, at times patience-trying yet exquisitely crafted satire about the bizarre but true story of a suicide pact the melancholic and narcissistic 19th century German romantic poet and novelist Heinrich von Kleist enters into with Henriette Vogel, an initially indecisive young married woman with mysterious health issues.

Billed, ironically to be sure, as a “romantic comedy,” this talky, intellectual period piece toggles between being fitfully witty and sombre as Kleist’s deranged obsession mounts amid a muted, quasi-comedy of manners. It’s notable more for its elegant, painterly tableaux, classical music and historical costumes than an immersive story addressing the period’s politics and social mores.

READ MORE ›› Victoria Film Festival