Most love stories chart the start of a relationship, but in this Cannes Palme d’Or winner, Michael Haneke charts the power of love near the end of a married couple’s lives. The film is as much about ageing and death as it is about love, and many will find it uncomfortably close to home. But the Austrian auteur (The Piano Teacher; The White Ribbon) has never been interested in giving his audience an easy ride. His concern is the excavation of difficult emotional truths, few of which have been as deep yet commonly experienced as those examined here.

Veteran French actors Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva play an initially sprightly Paris couple (Isabelle Huppert makes an appearance as their daughter), retired music teachers seen near the start enjoying a classical piano recital before arriving home to discover they’ve had intruders. That’s a typical Haneke plot device, but this time more portent than threat. The couple’s true antagonist is already within: one of them is about to suffer a minor stroke. It will be the beginning of the end.

Even for Haneke this is astringent stuff, light on visual flourish or narrative surprise, but driving it all are magnificent performances that cut right...