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A French Take on the Life of an Eccentric
Yet Single Woman.
If I can say nothing else, the new French film Amelie
is very sweet. The film captures a childhood innocence
that is very oddball in sensibility yet still remains to be
fun and sexy. But candy is also very sweet. And sometimes
too much candy can make your stomach hurt. That's kind of
the only way I can describe the feeling I had after walking
out of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's take on the fantasy world of a
long distance crush. The romantic misadventures and childlike
pranks and tricks are very well done and clever the first
few times. But it's as though the script was afraid that the
audience would not understand the Austen-esque story unless
we got to see every setpiece more than a couple of times.
Amelie (Audrey Tautou) was born and raised in a household
with very little love. The only time Dad, who was a retired
Army doctor, gave her any kind of attention was when he was
doing his weekly physical exam. So, every time he did this,
her heart beat extra fast so he assumed she had a medical
problem. As a teenager, Amelie moved to the city to work at
a small and quaint cafe. And still, she cannot find a man
that will give her the love that she longed from her father
for so long. Then, on the day of Princess Di's death, she
discovers a box of childhood items that belonged to a former
resident of her apartment. The joy that she sees on his face
upon receiving the memorabilia gives her a new mission in
life: To find people out who are longing for something, to
find the thing the people long for, and then to unite both
in a fun, game-like fashion. Indeed, this becomes quite a
hobby for the young Amelie. One day, she finds an album devoted
to ripped-up photographs from asidewalk booth. She learns
through her research that the album belongs to Nino (Matheui
Kassovitz), a quirky young man who had a very similar childhood
to Amelie who now spends his time split between arranging
dildos at a local porn store and working in the haunted house
of a fun fair. Will these two lost souls get together and
CO-inhabit the same fantasy world? Perhaps, but there is a
lot of stopping and starting before the film ever gets to
that point.
I found that this film worked the best whenever it visualized
the imagination of children. The earlier scenes of Amelie
and her imaginary friends have a bit of wonder while remaining
mindful of her total and complete loneliness. This imagination
follows her desire for daddy's love into her early twenties
yet they grow up a bit as well. When Amelie fantasizes about
her life, she sometimes sees herself as Zorro in an adventure
or as an explorer going to the North Pole. Even her challenge
of bringing people happiness has the feel of a mischief playing
Lost and Found. While she's watching these people fall in
love or become reunited, the question of "Will Amelie
ever love again" floats around like it will never hit
the ground. When Nino does respond to Amelie, she merely backs
away. Then, she reaches out again and then backs away. Why
does she do this? Sadly, the filmmaker never really allows
us to know the main character very well. Most of the film
is done through narration. We hear other people's reaction
to Amelie and we see her blossom into a princess of joy while
a real Princess is being buried. (As a side note, I found
the film's observation of people's reaction to Di's and Mother
Teresa's death, both died within days of one another to be
quite telling and funny.) Yet we never hear her. We never
even to get to understand much about her or about what makes
her tick. So, when true love does come along, it's baffling
as to why she keeps pulling away. Eventually, it no longer
seems quirky or sweet and it ends up feeling like broccoli-flavored
medicine .
I'll never understand why movies and/or TV shows do this.
Are we supposed to find love to be as much of a nonsensical
game as these people do? It seems that very early on Amelie
places its finger on what love is: It comes from innocent
wonder or from the touch of someone who cares. But it still
feels like the whole film is search for this type of love.
The structure for the film ends up not like Austen but more
like two seasons of Ally McBeal making funny faces at her
neurotic fantasies while romance drifts back and forth out
of her life. For the most part, Amelie plays pretty
well as a film that asks us to look for all of the lovely
things in life. In the end, its most telling scene is when
Nino finds out who the mysterious character that keeps popping
up in his photo album is. It turns out to be fairly silly
explanation and not what he made it out to be in his head.
For later reference, a scene like that should never define
a movie.
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