Around the World in 24 Frames 01.01.10: Amélie

Posted by Len Archibald on 01.01.2010

I begin a look at "Modern Masterpieces" to start the new year and what better way than a little love story about a woman who looks to bring happiness to all around her in Paris. Come on in and share your likes and dislikes!



Happy New Year! I just finished the year on two extremely positive high notes: the trailer for my film, Beating Traffic is completed and will be making its rounds on the INTRAWEBZ~! very soon, and I just gave my wife the surprise of her lifetime. Happy Birthday! As you read this now, she is probably passed out in our bed and will suffer one hell of a hangover when she wakes. I sincerely hope that 2010 will make for a marvelous year for all of you.

THE REBUTTAL

Again, I want to thank any and all of you who took time to read my Great Films of the 2000's column. There was a ton of long hours revisiting films, giving myself carpel-tunnel and surviving on nothing more than Kahlua fumes that was put in for your reading pleasure. As promised, I will take some time to comment on some of your…uh…comments over the past couple of weeks. (Man, I've been lacking vocabulary lately.)

I'm greatly pleased at all the love that One Hour Photo received for putting it on my list. It is one of the creepiest films I've ever seen, and I get mad as a hatter knowing not enough people have seen it.

Talon loved Ocean's Twelve. That is cool – I don't usually knock people for liking movies I didn't like (unless they go off acting like anything Michael Bay did is the greatest movie ever made…sorry – we just can't be friends); but I will not argue about Twelve looking good – because it is a GREAT looking flick, and I appreciated that it gave Matt Damon a bigger role – but it still just felt like the cast just wanted an excuse to go on a paid vacation (which I guess isn't a completely bad thing.)

There was a bit of a debate over the quality of No Country for Old Men. I won't lie: Cormac McCarthy is an opinion-splitter. You either love him or hate him when it comes to both his books and adaptation of his books. I suppose it depends on one's outlook on life in regards to how his work will be digested. I will agree with Talon: read the book if the movie is all you have on it. Oh, and the throwaway scene that isn't a throwaway scene is the one that JLAJRC mentioned – that of the "discovery" of Moss' fate, which again – if one didn't read the book; would understandably would leave people cold.

I do hate the term "Torture Porn" – especially when it is used on the Saw franchise, because at least Saw has made the attempt to use the violence as a tool to the story (especially with the full circle denouement of Saw VI) and not just a reason to see a buzzsaw slapped into a chick's skull. Eli Roth, I'm looking at you.

Particular films that I didn't add to my list and why:

-Walk The Line was on the very, very last cut – just missing out on my honorable mentions. I wanted to say something about it, but then I would have had an honorable, honorable mentions and that would have been redundant. It was great, I just felt a resonance with the other ones mentioned.

-Up was another one where as great of a film it is – and anything that pays homage to Citizen Kane is alright in my book, again - WALL-E affected me more. Maybe it's being numb to Pixar's near perfection. I will definitely give it another shot.

-Let's get this out of the way now: Avatar would have easily made my list. Easily.

-In trying to keep somewhat of an even playing field, giving nods to blockbusters, comic-based films, indies, pretentious arthouse goodies, foreign fare and documentaries, I did my best not to oversaturate the list with any one type of genre. The Lord of the Rings and Kill Bill are the only "series" of films I put all entries in there – really because the whole of the films are greater than the sum of each separate entry, which is why I didn't include X-Men or Spider-Man (even though I did give a shout-out to Spider-Man 2, which – until The Dark Knight was released, was the closest thing to a complete comic-book movie since Superman in 1978.) Again, it's a matter of personal taste at the end. Sometimes there are just movies that come along and cut deeper – such was the case with X-2 and Spider-Man 2

-I liked Star Trek. I didn't *love* Star Trek. I felt it breathed new life into the franchise, but wasn't anything groundbreaking or earth-shattering.

-Tropic Thunder was a funny, funny movie – and it was one of the first films I wound up tossing on the cutting room floor (to use an editor's phrase) because I felt there were films (to me – that's what we always have to take into account) that were funnier, or that stuck with me longer. Other than Robert Downey Jr.'s performance, there wasn't anything else for me.

Finally, I have a dilemma…should I take a comment from a guy who calls himself "Big Fat Fag" seriously? What do you think? I love how the word "overrated" has become the most overused word in the English language in the past decade. One could say that the use of the word overrated is overrated.

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I love movies. They represent escapism, art, intellect and spirituality. Some are nothing more than popcorn flicks, designed to ease the burden of "real-life" for a couple of hours. Some bring important issues to the forefront that challenges how we perceive our surroundings. The most important thing for me – if one is a serious filmgoer – is to constantly expand and discover new movies. This includes experiencing stories told outside of North America.

Yes, I know: "I don't like to read while I watch movies". Well, neither do I, but I won't use that to prevent me from finding a great story within the screen. It is important, as human beings to discover other cultures and expand our perceptions of those different from us and how they see the world. There are reasons that Bergman, Kurosawa, Fellini, Ozu and Truffaut are important in the movie world – They are just great at what they do.

I intend to highlight a new film every week that is considered "foreign-language"; now that definition is simple, yet broad and complex. For example, if you need subtitles to understand the events of the plot, I will discuss it. If it is a film from a primarily English-speaking nation, but is *NOT* in English (i.e. Leolo or Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner from Canada), I will discuss. If it is a film from outside the U.S. and it *is* in English, I will not discuss (sorry, Brits & Aussies) – for now. My goal is to shed light on some of these gems, and help quell the insatiable appetites for those who can't live without seeing a new movie. Enjoy!

Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain: The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain

Country: France
Release Date: April 25th, 2001
Directed by: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Runtime: 122 minutes
Cast:
Audrey Tautou
Mathieu Kassovitz
Rufus
Claire Maurier
Isabelle Nanty
Dominique Pinon
Serge Merlin
Jamel Debbouze
Arthus de Pengerne
Maurice Bénichou

My dislikes are wind that whips snow into my face, dry cuticles, and when I rinse my hair and shampoo goes into my mouth. I like the smile of a baby, grooming my face (including plucking ingrown hairs) and when my wife touches the back of my neck. It is the little things that make life special, and the little things that make it complicated. These are happenstances that most of us take for granted, but are celebrated in Jean-Pierre Jeunet's French masterpiece, Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain - or Amélie for short.

Amélie made quite the splash when it was released in 2001, despite not being accepted at that years' Cannes Film Festival (I wonder if the film festival selector is kicking himself now.) It brought a lighthearted glimpse of Paris that most of the French had not seen for years – and when the tragedy of 9/11 occurred, this was a film many used to escape into happier times. It won critical and commercial success abroad as well, grossing over $173 million worldwide. It is a credit to the film's writer/director and star that makes Amélie truly one of the modern great films.



Amélie Poulain (Audrey Tatou) is a young girl that grows up isolated from other children. Her father, Raphael (Rufus) – an ex-army doctor - incorrectly diagnoses his daughter with having a weak heart. This is only because he is emotionally distant, and rarely shows any physical affection towards Amélie, so every time he gives her a check-up (the only time he would touch her), her heart would race. Insert any Freudian theories you may have, here. This causes Amélie to be home schooled by her mother, Amandine (Lorella Cravotta), a neurotic schoolteacher who has one of the best comedic "ticks" I can remember seeing. When Amélie was a little girl, she witnessed a freak accident involving a Québécoise woman who committed suicide by jumping off the top of Notre Dame Cathedral and landed on Amélie's mother, killing her instantly.

Amélie grows up lonely as a result and works as a waitress in a corner bistro, while her father withdraws even further and never travels. On the day that Princess Diana is killed in a car accident, Amélie's life will change: through a happy coincidence, she stumbles upon an old and tiny metal box hidden behind the tile of her bathroom. She decides that if she can find the owner of this box and it brings him happiness, she will be a "do-gooder" and spend the rest of her days bringing happiness to others. Of course, she doesn't just look for him and hand him the box (well, she does try at first) – but she devises a stratagem so this man (who has a particular way of cutting and eating roasted chicken) will find the box.

This opening sequence brims with so much life, color and exuberance, it is almost as if there are greater forces at work in the creation of the film. We learn about characters that we don't need to know about – or in a lesser film, would be throwaway characters that carry the clichés of modern romance-comedies, but in the world of Amélie, they become part of the whole – something that gives depth and a sense of empathy to the story (and their own stories.) A great sequence is where Amélie plays a game with herself, counting the amount of people who are having an orgasm at the same time, and we see how many – in an inspired montage that is both wonderfully hilarious, and brilliantly innocent at the same time. It is a tightrope that the film balances, where Amélie does not lose any of its optimist charm, even in moments that aren't so innocent (a shot of Amélie laying still with her pixie-ish smile while another thrusts over top of her is so quick and casual in its placement that I spit my drink out the first time I saw it.)



Eventually, Amélie becomes a secret matchmaker and guardian angel, executing complex, but hidden schemes that impact the lives of those around her with subtle, arm's length manipulation. She escorts a blind man to the Metro station, giving him a rich description of the street scenes he passes (in one of the most beautifully complex, simple and delicate moments ever captured on film.) She steals her father's garden gnome and gives it to an air-hostess friend to send pictures of it from all over the world to inspire him to travel (I know that traveling gnomes have been around for a while, but I think this truly sparked the whole "Travelocity Gnome".) She matches a hypochondriac co-worker with one of the customers in the bar (who used to stalk his ex, another co-worker.) She convinces the unhappy concierge of her building that the husband who abandoned her had in fact sent her a final love letter just before his death. She supports Lucien (Jamel Debbouze), the young man who works for Mr. Collignon (Urbain Cancelier), the bullying neighborhood greengrocer; by playing practical jokes on Collignon, she undermines his confidence until he questions his own sanity.

To say that there is a ton going on and a plethora of ideas brewing in the story of Amélie would probably be undermining the film. Every scene is given importance and every character is more than just a two-dimensional caricature. Amélie befriends a reclusive painter, Raymond Dufayel (Serge Merlin) – who is known as "The Glass Man" because of his brittle bone condition. He spends his time re-creating Renoir's "Le Déjeuner des canotiers" ("Luncheon of the Boating Party".) He has repeatedly painted the same piece because he cannot quite capture the excluded look of the girl drinking a glass of water. They repeatedly discuss the meaning of this character and although it is never explicitly said, she comes to represent Amélie and her lonely life. Through their discussions Amélie is forced to examine her own life and her attraction to a stranger, a quirky young man who collects the discarded photographs of strangers from passport photo booths, with whom she has never spoken.



What I think is astounding about Amélie is that if one was going to slap a genre label on this film, it would be a romantic-comedy, but Amélie carries almost none of the conventions of the rom-com. There are no hapless misunderstandings. No "idiot plot" (the kind where the movie would not exist if one or both main characters weren't idiots and just told the truth/spoke their minds.) No stereotypical archetypes. Nino Quincampoix (Mathieu Kassovitz), the man Amélie falls for works at an adult video store. He isn't the most glamorously handsome man in Paris. He is in fact, just as eccentric as Amélie. Their romance doesn't even blossom until more than halfway through the movie. Jean-Pierre Jeunet is more concerned with fleshing out his universe (correctly) than just moving the plot along – because the plot would not work if the audience didn't believe in the world in which these characters inhibited.

And what a world this is. The Paris that exists in Amélie is a brightly colored, magical, fairy-tale world where photographs give multiple insights, television shows clue characters in on their destiny and rejects from Where the Wild Things Are are used as faux patients for a little girl's imagination. There is no crime, no social angst and no political detachment. I've heard this as a criticism of the film, and I've always shook my head at their cynicism. Not every great film needs to be a downer, nor does every film need to display the "ugliness" of mankind. Those kind of filmmakers and critics are probably lacking something very fundamental in their hearts.



Speaking of that "ugliness", Amélie was such a departure for Jean-Pierre Jeunet that people were certain it was another man of the same name who made this film. Jeunet previously made three pictures, all dark and depressing fare: Delicatessen, about cannibals, The City of Lost Children, which dealt with a child murderer, and he worked for Hollywood as the director of Alien: Resurrection (which was depressing for its own unique reasons.) It's like Jeunet was knocked over by a Care Bear Stare and decided to make this film. He collaborates with cinematographer Bruno Delbonnel to color the film in washes of golds and bright accents. Yann Tiersen's score crackles with a nostalgic, old-world feel that feels like the sun happily beating down on a lazy day at the beach. Jeunet is known for his visual flare and excessive ideas that border on whimsical parables. When the film lists the likes and dislikes of certain characters, Jeunet is sure to show them in total bliss or the sheer agony of their plight. He holds the camera on them long enough so the audience is fully aware of the surroundings.

Even though this film carries a hefty ensemble, Amélie lives or dies on the performance of Audrey Tatou, who walks a thin line between Tinkerbell, Audrey Hepburn and Anna Karina (from Vivre sa Vie.) She exudes a charm and innocence that is remarkably difficult to pull off, even in our overly cynical world. As Roger Ebert puts it, Tatou "looks like she knows a secret and can't keep it." She plays the title character, not as a dreamy woman, but as a young girl who hasn't quite grasped the concept of the hardships of adulthood and it works because of her fresh face and breathless charm. Amélie is easily one of the most likable film characters ever created, and the movie is one of the most likable as well. I almost wonder what the films likes and dislikes are. What do you think?



{Film Passport Stamped]

Coming Attractions: I take a look at more "Modern Masterpieces": Next up, a little tale out of Brazil where the kids' behavior would make Tony Montana and Larry Clark blush.

Questions or comments? Completely disagreed with any of my picks? Are you in love with me? Leave comments below or email me at [e-mail]!!!

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