Amour ending explained · Cinespective

What happens

Georges smothers Anne, who is paralysed and barely able to speak, then lays flowers around her and seals the bedroom door. Eva later returns to the empty apartment and sits alone. This is the scene the film opened with.

The last image

Eva sits alone in the main room of the apartment, with no one else left in the rooms.

Three readings

1 · Mercy and promiseGeorges ends her suffering as Anne wished, keeping his promise to her.

2 · Love that overreachesHe decides alone what her dignity means, and Eva is left to live with it.

3 · The imagined walkAnne calmly leaving the apartment, with Georges following, is his hope of peace, not a fact.

What it says

Haneke gives no verdict because the film asks what love owes a person at the limit of endurance, not whether Georges was right. It ends on the empty space and Eva's absence, leaving the judgment with you.