Amelie

Amelie

The film "Amelie" (2001) is a romantic comedy that tells the tale of "Amelie"(Audrey Tautou) who has had very little social interactions during her lifetime, but carries a blooming imagination. Amelie's daily routine surprisedly changes when she finds a small box of knick-knacks that a previous apartment tenant had. She decides if his response is positive with the box returned she will continue doing favors for people. During this process she helps plenty of people in her community including: her widowed father, an old brittle artist, and potentially-- the love of her life, Nino (Mathieu Kassivitz).

"Amelie" is filmed in Paris and gives its viewers a close look at the city through a closer lens. The book, The Art of Watching Films, states that, "[setting's are] an essential ingredient in any story and makes an important contribution to the theme or total effect of a film. When watching this film viewers may experience temporal factors of France during the late 1990's. One recurring event portrayed in "Amelie" was the death of Princess Diana. I believe the Director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet used the death of Princess Diana as a temporal symbol in not just explaining the era of the film, but to foreshadow the kindness that "Amelie" will do when she looks away from the TV. I believe  this was a good way for Jeunet  to connect with his viewers by using an event fresh in our minds, but not too fresh to cause agony.

Throughout this film, the viewer not only follows the plot, but gets thrown off the ride on occasion. Unique to this film I noticed the social theme of being told too much of the wrong information. When Amelie first starts looking for the box owner she visits her neighbor, who goes into great depth about her personal love life, and then states a one sentence response about Amelie's question. I believe this theme is a cultural symbol of developed nations, who as societies have become so focused intra-personally that even basic questions are sometimes reinterpreted to be about one's self.

 The theme of intra-personalism can also interpreted to be about Amelie as a character. Amelie grew up in a house that gave her the resources to get educated, but gave her little opportunity for social exploration. When Amelie is going around Paris looking for clues to help people out, she is rarely given a definite answer and usually just a clue after a story has been told. I interpret the symbol to be Jeunet's way of showing the viewers what it could be like to grow up away from a social environment, become an adult, and then be successful with people that have been socialized their whole lives. For example, a person from a closed-childhood environment will most likely take longer to make friends in a high school setting than a person who has attended public schools their whole life.

Boggs, Joseph, & Petrie, Dennis. (2012). The Art of watching films. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill College.