– “Mais non, crétin. Elle est amoureuse.”
– “Mais je la connais même pas.”
– “Mais si, tu la connais.”
– “Depuis quand?”
– “Depuis toujours. Dans tes rêves.”
Watched Amélie again last night (my third time). I love that film… Subtitles off this time, which lent a whole other dimension to the movie, one that I particularly enjoyed, since I wasn’t distracted by the yellow type at the bottom of the screen. It’s a feast of details, color, and sweeping, gradiose shots that are a bit self-indulgent, but no less endearing. The aspect of the film I love most, I think, is that there are moments in it that are poetic without a reason, without overtures of symbolism, but just poetic and beautiful for the sake of their own beauty. I think that’s part of the reason I love Joe Versus the Volcano as much as I do–that same arbitrary poeticism, the fact that I can sit down and ponder all the diverse pieces of supposed symbolism and not arrive at a cohesive theory about their existence in the grand scheme of the movie. The mystery intrigues, all the more because in a lot of ways the mystery seems to exist for its own sake–there may not be an explanation… It’s the “just because” quality of the films that I love.
Orientation here tomorrow, which is going to consume the whole morning. Not looking forward to that, but at least I’ll get details about insurance, gym privileges, time off and whatnot. Gotta do it.
It’s also kind of neat to leave the subtitles off when you don’t speak a bit of French.
That would be fun. I watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon a while back with the subtitles off–it was quite engrossing… I got caught up in the candence, the rhythms, the ebb and flow of the language. Of course I wouldn’t do that the first time, but when you have at least a passing familiarity with the plot…