Amelie film review

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.