c’était un film pour les rêveurs et les amoureux
What a stellar film. Watched Amélie (or its proper French title Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain) last night with Donald (who slept through, according to his estimate, 40% of the movie) and Leslie. I won’t make sweeping generalizations about French films and certain qualities in which they completely surpass American movies, but just speak of the film in question. There was visual poetry to the imagery and cinematography, an admirable amount of restraint in the actual romance, and the movie was just so chock-full of little intimate details that that alone makes it worth repeated viewings. It appealed to me immensely on many levels, but two main ones: I’m a dreamer by nature, and certain (okay, most) of the movie has a surreal, augmented-reality feel to it, where we overlap more often than not into the character’s thoughts, but as a matter of course, not self-consciously at all, and seamlessly integrated into the overall vision of the film. In this regard it was very dreamlike, very fantasy-driven. The other level is simply the movie’s French-ness, the visuals, the locations, the discourse, the reactions, the mannerisms… It makes five years of my life come tumbling back onto the brim of my subconscious, just enough to press upon emotions and memories long dormant. Oh, it was so good.
yes, a flim for the dreamers.
Wow, Matt, you just successfully described why I like Amélie so much. I’m glad you liked it.