Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain
2001 - Dir: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Shown at FeckenOdeon 2 on 16th April, 2010
This utterly beguiling fable from one half of the team behind "Delicatessen" and "The City of Lost Children" whipped up a storm of controversy across the Channel, with some commentators arguing that its nostalgic whimsy brushed the realities of modern multicultural Paris under the carpet. Audiences didn't seem to mind though, over seven million French people saw it in the first weeks of its release, and the film earned accolades from both Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and President Jacques Chirac. Since the historic setting of Amélie is at the time of Lady Di's tragic car accident, one can safely assume that the film was a while in the making. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet admits that he got called on to make “Alien Resurrection” in between and had to let it go for a while. Jeunet loves cartoons and did art work for sophisticated French comics called 'Fluide Glaciale', 'Charlie Mensuel', and 'Fantasmagorie'. Bringing cartoons to life is what Jeunet seems to do best. You can imagine him sitting on this film many years, refining it, polishing it and hand crafting it.
Fun and charm aside, this film is a triumph of technical wizardry. The camera work shows a Paris that is vivid and full of extraordinary colours, almost a fairyland where Amélie is the lonely princess without love. M.Jeunet talked about the film with Monty Python animator Terry Gilliam and the style owes something to the latter’s facility for creating a world within a world. Barely a frame is un-retouched or digitally un-adjusted and the result is a fantasy Paris that we fervently wish was real. It could be the Paris of 50 years ago: no McDonald's, no Pompidou Centre, certainly no glass Bibliothèque Nationale towers or Grande Arche de la Défense. It is a sumptuous confection of a city, a virtual-reality CGI-Paris.
It's a rare pleasure to see a film where the parts gel so well that the finished result is so perfect. The comedy is subversive enough to satisfy the most cynical of tastes and performances all round are first rate. The film is not only a mix of genres - romance, comedy, drama - but is also a mix of the sweet gooeyness of marzipan, rich strawberry cream cake, pure sugar... Energised with its own sugar-rush quality, the film's pace is athletic. Overall, “Amelie” is a tribute to randomness and imagination and you can dig your sweet tooth into it, without fretting about the calories. Bon Appétit!
2001 - Dir: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Shown at FeckenOdeon 2 on 16th April, 2010
This utterly beguiling fable from one half of the team behind "Delicatessen" and "The City of Lost Children" whipped up a storm of controversy across the Channel, with some commentators arguing that its nostalgic whimsy brushed the realities of modern multicultural Paris under the carpet. Audiences didn't seem to mind though, over seven million French people saw it in the first weeks of its release, and the film earned accolades from both Prime Minister Lionel Jospin and President Jacques Chirac. Since the historic setting of Amélie is at the time of Lady Di's tragic car accident, one can safely assume that the film was a while in the making. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet admits that he got called on to make “Alien Resurrection” in between and had to let it go for a while. Jeunet loves cartoons and did art work for sophisticated French comics called 'Fluide Glaciale', 'Charlie Mensuel', and 'Fantasmagorie'. Bringing cartoons to life is what Jeunet seems to do best. You can imagine him sitting on this film many years, refining it, polishing it and hand crafting it.
Fun and charm aside, this film is a triumph of technical wizardry. The camera work shows a Paris that is vivid and full of extraordinary colours, almost a fairyland where Amélie is the lonely princess without love. M.Jeunet talked about the film with Monty Python animator Terry Gilliam and the style owes something to the latter’s facility for creating a world within a world. Barely a frame is un-retouched or digitally un-adjusted and the result is a fantasy Paris that we fervently wish was real. It could be the Paris of 50 years ago: no McDonald's, no Pompidou Centre, certainly no glass Bibliothèque Nationale towers or Grande Arche de la Défense. It is a sumptuous confection of a city, a virtual-reality CGI-Paris.
It's a rare pleasure to see a film where the parts gel so well that the finished result is so perfect. The comedy is subversive enough to satisfy the most cynical of tastes and performances all round are first rate. The film is not only a mix of genres - romance, comedy, drama - but is also a mix of the sweet gooeyness of marzipan, rich strawberry cream cake, pure sugar... Energised with its own sugar-rush quality, the film's pace is athletic. Overall, “Amelie” is a tribute to randomness and imagination and you can dig your sweet tooth into it, without fretting about the calories. Bon Appétit!
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