…and I mean that with absolute, standing-at-attention respect and a somewhat firm conviction that Amour will be down to the wire for Best Foreign Language Film. But I stand by my initial reaction. I saw my father die in stages. It was perhaps the most dreadful deterioration I’d ever witnessed first-hand. He was a pretty sharp (and if truth be told, caustic) guy for several decades, but what nature did to him was sickening. He was fairly pissed off about it himself.