Robyn
Matthews Film Studies review
Amelie
Amelie is a
French film in complete subtitles. It was directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet in
2001 starring Audrey Tautou as Amelie. This is a romantic comedy that explores
themes of love, dark humour, mystery and suspense. Amelie is a young frail girl
who’s lack of contact with other people has forced her to devote her life to
helping others while she dreams in her perfect world.
The most
successful part of the movie I feel myself, is the first act: Amelie's
childhood. This is when all the fantasy and naivety work best. There is a voiceover
which introduces us to Amelie's parents and gives us a humorous update of their
likes and dislikes. By doing this Jean-Pierre is able to show the viewer how
Amelie feels about her parents in a condescending irrational way, however, it
gives us the hallucination that we grew
up as a member of the family as we know all the random details only a close
family member would recognise.
The
soundtrack to Amélie was composed by Yann Tiersen. He remained relatively
unknown outside France until the release of Amélie in 2001. French film
director Jean-Pierre Jeunet had something else in mind for the film score, but
one day one of his production assistants put on one of Tiersen CD’s and the
director loved it he felt it did justice for the film and envisioned the
certain image in his head that he had wanted to be projected into the movie.
Jeunet bought all of Tiersen's albums, and then contacted him to see if the
Breton composer was interested in writing the film score for Amélie
The budget
for this this film was a small $10 million and it took a massive $173,921,95 at
box office. This was one of the most famous films in France during this time
and it was only released in France, Australia, Britain and America in cinemas,
however copies of the film were very popular world wide. This was a huge
success for the French film industry as they got their foot in the door and was
noticed by America… where all the large Hollywood films are produced.
There is a
particular scene in this film that spikes my interest. The shots the director
uses make it interesting and the narrative drags the attention of the audience.
“Amelie had a strange feeling of absolute harmony. It’s a perfect moment soft
light…a scent in the air a quiet murmur of the city. She breaths deeply life is
simple and clear. A surge of love and an urge to help mankind come over her”
This is the narration that is subtitles below a mid shot of Amelie walking. We
have a clear vision of the expression on her face which reinforces the
subtitles and alerts us of her peace at this current moment. We follow her
walking however we cannot see infront of her only behind; this suggest that she
is intent on moving forward as she does not once hesitate to look behind her. A
close up of a blind man is made clear as we can see the back of his head and a
busy road infront of him. The camera shot then zooms into a close up if Amelies
face, next an over the shoulder shot is used to show us walking behind as she
approaches the disables man. She alerts him that she is going to help him cross
the road and not only does she do that but she describes every little detail
most people wouldn’t see as she esorts him such as the “that florists laughing
he has crinkly eyes”.
This scene
is beautiful to me as we can see the innocence in Amelies description she goes
out of her way to make some ones day better and help them on their way. The
shots are perfectly times as we are shown life how she would see. We have a
close up of the blind man to grab our attention as it did to herself. Many
people would look past but Jean-Pierre felt it was necessary to highlight how
little gestures make peoples days better and this magnified Amelies kind heart
and passion for helping others.
I loved
this film. The subtitles I feel made It better as myself, as a viewer, had to
think extra hard on the plot and sometimes missed key scenes as I was still
reading. I feel though that this was purposely done as I would have overlooked
the details Amelie saw. This film was really heart warming and the subtle dark
humour made it entertaining to watch. I would definitely recommend this film to
others.
This was a detailed review the only thing i would say is include a picture or two to break it up.
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