Foreign Film Critique

1. Amelie

2. 2001

3. French

4. Jean-Pierre Jeunet

5. Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovits, Rufus

6. Amelie grew up isolated from her parents and from kids her age, so she turned to

imagination to entertain herself. She grew up with this same separation from people until

she found a box of toys in the wall of her apartment. She found the owner of the box and

returned it as a good deed. This led her to do other good deeds, and each one brought her

closer to the people around her. She helped people find love, feel appreciated, follow

dreams, and appreciate the world around them. She realized, though, that good deeds

alone wouldn’t make her happy. By always doing things for other people, she ignored her

own reality. This is why she finally decided to do something for herself. She allowed

herself to fall in love a boy she’d done a good deed for and let him into her life. Ending

her isolation allowed her to be truly happy for the first time.

7. Amelie ​was released in 2001. This is right in the middle of the new movement of positive

psychology and the study of happiness. People in the wealthier countries of the world

have more than enough material possessions to satisfy the capitalist views of happiness,
but still aren’t truly happy. This development has sparked an interest in people to find the

secret to happiness. This film is one example of this idea. Amelie believes that the secret

to happiness lies in selfless good deeds. No matter what she does, however, her own life

doesn’t improve at all. The happiness she finds is fleeting and momentary, but it does

nothing to improve her life as a whole. For her, giving to others was not enough to create

a sense of satisfaction in her life. She felt like an outsider. When she finally accepts love

instead of just giving love, she feels included and experiences true happiness. Amelie’s

journey is a message to the audience that the path to happiness isn’t just giving love, it’s

also being open to receive it. When a person accomplishes both of these things, they can

find happiness. This shatters the notion that happiness can be found by good deeds alone.

Her good deeds benefit the lives of others, though. The benefits others receive from

Amelie’s deeds support the concept of Utilitarianism. Amelie attempts strategies to

provide good for the most amount of people, and it works. But, it doesn’t provide any

benefit for her. The point of the film is that while Utilitarianism provides good for many

people, it doesn’t provide any good for the person organizing it unless they can receive

some good themselves. A social issue that the movie brings up is sexism. Throughout the

movie, Amelie and the other female characters are subject to blatant sexual remarks,

glances, and actions from the male characters. For example, three men follow Amelie

through the train station and stared at her. Amelie is clearly uncomfortable with the

situation and walks faster to get away from these men. While they don’t act on their

glances, the film still brings attention to the sexism and predatory attitudes women have

to deal with on a daily basis. It also shows the sexist comments aimed towards women
 that men get away with saying everyday at Amelie’s work and at the strip club in which

her love interest works. These comments are mostly sexual in nature and none of them

are aimed towards the men of the film. The women in the film are forced to just ignore

and put up with these comments for fear of losing their jobs or getting ridiculed by their

male peers. ​Amelie​ shows that sexism is so ingrained in our culture that it is just ignored

or brushed away by the women it antagonizes. Sexism from men is just accepted as

normal and expected in our society when it really shouldn’t be. Women are worn down

by these subtle comments and actions over time to a point where they submit to the men

in their lives in order to survive in society.

8. I really enjoyed watching this film, and I connected with many of the ideas presented in

it. I was particularly intrigued by the main argument of the movie: a person cannot be

happy unless he/she makes his/her own happiness a priority. No matter the good deeds a

person accomplishes, he/she has no value or satisfaction unless he/she improves

himself/herself. I have seen this manifest itself in my own life. People always praise me

for my accomplishments and remark on how great my life is. Really, I am constantly

under an immense amount of stress. I have difficulty allowing myself to be happy

because I never focus on myself. My attention is constantly turned outward towards my

grades, relationships, responsibilities, etc. ​Amelie​ reinforced the idea which I have

known for a long time. I need to spend time on my own happiness. While my situation is

not the same as Amelie’s, I still spend too much of my energy on things outside of my

own person, just as she did for the majority of the movie. I think I do this, in part, due to

my drive for success. I have always been taught that I can only add value to my life by
 becoming educated and working in a prestigious job. I have become so focused on

accomplishing these things that I have fallen into an unhealthy mindset of ignoring my

mental and physical needs to satisfy my need for success. I consistently do homework or

work on projects instead of exercising, relaxing, or socializing with others. I need to learn

from ​Amelie​ and turn my attention inwards.

9. From the very start of the movie, there were a few obvious cultural differences. The most

shocking to me was the casual attitude toward sex and birth. The movie showed with

multiple sex scenes. None of these scenes portrayed sex in the way Americans are used

to. Firstly, they focused specifically on female orgasm rather than the male orgasm. This

is very rare in American movies. I don’t think I can remember ever seeing the female

orgasm in a Hollywood movie. These scenes were also quite comical in nature. They

poked fun at Amelie’s past relationships and boyfriends as well as French couples in

general. Besides the sex scenes, the dialogue was often focused heavily on sex but in a

casual way. It is rare that an American movie whose subject doesn’t have to do with sex

would talk so casually about sex. It is rather a taboo topic in the U.S. which people tend

to avoid when possible. It is not that way in French cinema. While the movie wasn’t

focused specifically on sex, ​Amelie​ showed it as a normal part of life that people

shouldn’t be ashamed of. The movie also showed the process of Amelie’s birth from

conception to pregnancy to the actual birth scene. American films never show these

things in their raw form unless it is for a sexual education class. Another cultural

difference I saw was the morbid humor. Death was not only a topic in the movie, it was

also a comedic release. While this is sometimes utilized in American movies, it is much
 more rare than it is in French movies, particularly ​Amelie​. Finally, drinking was a normal

part of everyday life. It was offered as much as sodas are offered here in Utah. It didn’t

matter what time of day it was either. Drinking is less common in the U.S. and even rarer

in Utah. The frequency of drinking as well as the availability of alcohol are major cultural

differences shown in this movie.

10. Something I noticed was the constant fantasy elements incorporated into the movie. One

of these elements was that the narrator was present throughout most of the movie. While

this may be common with children’s movies, it is not often that you hear an omnipresent

narrator in an R-rated movie. The narrator drove the plot forward and described each of

the characters in depth as they were introduced. This, along with Amelie’s fourth wall

breaks, gave the whole movie a story-book feeling. Another fantastic element was the

saturated colors in each shot. Each setting had a different color saturation which created a

fanciful atmosphere for each scene. The lighting focused on the primary and secondary

colors for a simple way to create a mood and add to the fantasy. Something that furthered

this theme were the occasional computer-generated graphics and effects. They broke up

the reality of Amelie’s world with the fantasy in her mind. Either objects were

exaggerated or completely made up with computer graphics. All of these elements were

assisted in their nonsensical nature by the quick cuts between shots and scenes. The

camera never lingered on one person or object for very long, and the cuts between

different scenes were abrupt. These techniques gave the entire movie a
 stream-of-consciousness feeling. It was almost as if the audience was looking through

Amelie’s eyes throughout the entire movie.

11. The main theme of the film applies to the unit we are currently studying in class:

Happiness and the Good Life. ​Amelie​ studies the ways in which different people attempt

to achieve happiness in their lives. Some throw themselves into their work, others try to

relive past happiness, and still others (like Amelie) use other people’s happiness as their

own. The movie shows, however, that not one of these people is truly happy. Something

is missing from each of their lives. The film makes the argument that a person can’t have

real happiness and contentment unless they first focus on themselves. A person must love

himself/herself before they can love their life. This is precisely what we are discussing in

this unit: What is the best way to find happiness and the good life? ​Amelie​ takes the

approach of improving oneself to have meaning in life. This is similar to Buddhism and

its ideas of happiness. No matter what the circumstances, a person can find peace within

themselves. While Buddhism relies on meditation rather than self-love as ​Amelie​ does,

the concept is much the same. Instead of trying to control your circumstances and the

world around you, turn your attention inward to find lasting happiness.

12. It is important that everyone learn about other cultures in order to appreciate them. This is

the only way to really understand people from across the world. A solid foundation of

understanding is the best way to create cooperation and trust among different peoples.

From there, we can address the global issues that affect humanity as a whole. On a

smaller scale, this base of understanding helps individuals to have compassion for people

different from themselves. By understanding other people, we can interact in a

meaningful way without bias or prejudice. One of the ways a person can understand other

cultures is through absorbing their media and art. These things give us a small peek into

the complicated culture of the country or group the media comes from. Movies are a

particularly excellent way of sampling a culture’s media. They absorb the audience more

fully than other works of art. They can therefore relay more information to the viewers

than other mediums. Movies are also easy to access for most people. This makes them an

ideal method for learning about and becoming more tolerant of other cultures and

peoples.