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CANNES, France - A duo of octogenarian actors bowled Cannes over onSunday as a devoted husband and his dying wife in a wrenchingcinematic study of love at the bitter end by Palme d'Or winnerMichael Haneke. The Austrian director, who scooped the festival's top award in 2009for "The White Ribbon", a study of malice in a German village onthe eve of World War I, turns with his new work "Love" to the mostintimate of bonds. Haneke cast French screen icon Jean-Louis Trintignant, 81, andEmmanuelle Riva, 85, in the story of George and Anne, a couple ofretired music teachers, whose rich and adoring relationship iscruelly tested when she suffers a stroke. Set in the hushed rooms of the couple's parquet-floored Parisianflat, the film charts Anne's physical and mental decline, and theincreasingly unbearable strain it puts on George, who pledges tocare for her at home until the end. Utterly believable in the role, Riva told a press conference afterthe screening that she threw herself heart and soul into the part,sleeping in her dressing room at the studio where it was shot toremain immersed in her character. "I had a very, very strong desire to play this part," thesoft-spoken actress said. "I had a kind of conviction that I couldput myself in Anne's shoes. "I approached it with a very powerful passion, and nothing seemedtoo difficult," she said. "I would run onto the set in the morning.And it was for me a great, great source of happiness." Her co-starTrintignant, a classic French film and stage actor whosebreakthrough role was opposite Brigitte Bardot in the 1956 "And GodCreated Woman," also spoke warmly - and humorously - of the shoot. "I am very proud to be in this film - but I won't be making anymore! I suffered a lot! It was very painful, but very beautiful,"he said. Both actors said Haneke asked them to approach the tough roles"without sentimentality." "We don't feel pity for these people,"the director said. Isabelle Huppert plays the couple's daughter, who drops inoccasionally from London to check on them, but remains a remotepresence as they spiral together deeper into Anne's sickness. Haneke said he drew on personal experience as the catalyst for thefilm. "Once you reach a certain age, you necessarily have to face thesuffering of the people you love," he told the press conference."It's part of nature." "It raises the issue of how to manage thesuffering of the people you love." Wheelchair-bound,half-paralysed, the intelligent, vivacious Anne early on tells herhusband she does not wish to live such an impaired life. But carryon they do, as far as George can take her. Yet the director makes clear this is not a film about the socialchallenges of caring for an ageing population. "I don't write films in order to make a point," he said. "I had nodesire to make a TV-style film about society and its problems.". The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as HTC 3D Phone Cases , China Iphone Protective Cases, and more. For more , please visit Iphone 4 Protective Covers today!
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