"This story about an octogenarian husband and wife facing their mortality -- beautifully played by the French actors Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva -- had left audiences stunned with its artistry and depth of feeling. Haneke winning the Palme in 2009 for "The White Ribbon" was thought to be a factor working against him. Ms. Riva (born in 1927) was last at Cannes officially in 1959 with that classic of the French New Wave, Alain Resnais’s "Hiroshima Mon Amour." Both Ms. Riva and Mr. Trintignant spoke briefly after Haneke. The visibly frail Mr. Trintignant (born in 1930), whose astonishing career includes some of the most famous European films of the past half-century -- "A Man and a Woman," "Z," "My Night at Maud’s," "The Conformist" -- said that Haneke was the greatest director working today." http://www.nytimes.com/2012... - Adriano

"Haneke’s latest eschews his more direct, and more controversial, uses of violence: suicide, murder, rape. The themes that obsess him — suffering, trust and its failure, the bonds that love builds and destroys — still seem to be present. But also an acknowledgement that **actors bring a texture — a history — of their own** that affects what a movie, even one reshot scene for scene by the same director, ultimately means." http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012... - Adriano