Amelie: Interesting Premise and Beautiful Cinematography

2480 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Amelie analysis

For our second assignment, we are assigned to watch one international film and study it thereafter. We are to identify its genre and its particular conventions such as themes, sub-themes and etc. However, the main idea of this assignment is the film theory. We are to apply one of the nine film theories into our film choices and analyze it thoroughly in terms of mise-en scene, narrative structure, character interaction and any other criteria.
For our film selection, we have gone through and watched a few international films which included Chinese films, Bollywood films and a few French films. After a brief discussion we have unanimously chosen a French film entitled “Amelie” which was released in 2001 and directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Audrey Tautou. We chose this film because of its unique view as well as the interesting premise and beautiful cinematography. Due to these reasons, we felt that “Amelie” would be a good choice for our assignment.

Background
Amélie was directed by and written by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. His films are amongst favorites of film-goers in this generation. Interestingly, his films are always the subject of critical analysis as many juries of French Film Festivals aren’t keen on his films, Amélie being turned down by the Cannes Film Festival. This is also due to the fact that Jeunet collaborated with other countries to help fund his films which made the juries question the authenticity of its French film status. Jeunet’s next film project which is starred by Audrey Tautou as well is A Very Long Engagement (2004). Set in France during the war period and in the French language, its status as a French film was called into question by the juries due to the fact that Warner Bros. Studios prov...

... middle of paper ...

...ugh it is a film of their own, a very rare case. It gained massive success in the U.K and the lead actress was invited to film some English language films as well such as Dirty Pretty Liars and The Da Vinci Code. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet received critical acclaim as well as earned a few Oscar nominations for his film. He is recently developing an English Language Film entitled T.S Spivet that will be released in 2014.
As film critic Frédéric Bonnaud has stated “To hear the French tell it, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film hasn't only saved French cinema as we know it, it has saved France”. This is very true as interest in the French Cinema rose high and bigger budgeted films were allowed to be produced as well as developing a working relationship with the United States of America to produce blockbuster films such as Arthur and the Minimoys as well as The Bourne Trilogy.

Show More
Related

  • 400 Blows: Antoine Doniel's Misunderstood Journey

    650 Words  | 2 Pages

    Additionally, I would recommend this movie to anyone who loves classic movies, because this classic french drama film was the first time a director had ever done this type (especially with the zooming in on the face). Furthermore, for people who say they had old movies and reading subtitles I would tell them to give this one a go, it might change their minds about these types of movies, and inspire them to watch more classic wonders such as this

    Read More

  • Love is Close at Hand: The Age of Innocence

    1279 Words  | 3 Pages

    November 1998, written for FILM 220: Aspects of Criticism. This is a 24-week course for second-year students, examining methods of critical analysis, interpretation and evaluation. The final assignment was simply to write a 1000-word critical essay on a film seen in class during the final six-weeks of the course. Students were expected to draw on concepts they had studied over the length of the course.

    Read More

  • Censorship in the 1950's: How did this affect the making of “Night and Fog” one of the first ever cinematic documentaries on the Holocaust? A film by

    928 Words  | 2 Pages

    Greene, Naomi(1999) Landscapes of loss: The national Past of Postwar French cinema (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press)

    Read More

  • Alain Robbe-Grillet and The Secret Room

    913 Words  | 2 Pages

    Robbe-Grillet was one of the foremost filmmakers and the novelists of the French new novel, of the twentieth century. Frustrated about the lack of progress and innovation in the art of the novel since the nineteenth century, Robbe-Grillet and Nathalie Saurrate began to write complex novels that interrogated and challenged conventional narrative modes, novels that altered or abolished fictional elements such as character, plot, setting, point of view, and chronological time in favor of repetitions, an absence of emotion, minute objective and sometimes geometric descriptions, the lack of authorial analysis, and the deconstruction of time. His films also reflect his desire to challenge the conventions of filmmaking, but he is recognized principally as a novelist.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Editing In The Film Amélie

    649 Words  | 2 Pages

    Editing plays a vital role in the film Amélie. Jean-Pierre Jeunet uses editing to express the characters emotions and personalities throughout the movie. Without editing, this film would not be able to present a good message to the audience. For example, editing is important when the director adds animations such as the pounding hearts and the talking stuffed animals to emphasize the characters’ emotions within a particular scene. The film uses a mixture of continuity editing and discontinuity editing. For example, continuity editing is present in the scene when Améli calls the phone booth in the park and Nino answers. The two characters have a conversation with the camera transferring back and forth and they speak to each other. There is a

    Read More

  • California And Hollywood: The Evolution Of Hollywood And Filmmaking

    1742 Words  | 4 Pages

    Movies will become less as of a political standpoint to more of a storytelling platform. Many filmmakers achieved this idea of storytelling by using narrative perversity (Berliner 9). According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, one of the definitions of the word “perverse” is “improper, incorrect” (“Perverse”). Given this, narrative perversity is when the filmmaker turns away from the narrative’s linear timeline. Most movies, prior to the seventies, used the technique of scene x and scene y, scene x then scene y, or scene x therefore y (Berliner 10). The French Connection, a 1971 film directed by William Friedkin, used this technique which allowed it bring in a gross amount of $51,700,000. The plot of this movie consisted of two New York cops are trying to bust a heroin drug shipment from France; this five oscar winning thriller is considered one of the best crime movies of its time (“The French

    Read More

  • Babette’s Feast

    602 Words  | 2 Pages

    Babette’s Feast Like probably most of the people in our class, I grew up watching and enjoying Hollywood movies and have never really tried to appreciate European cinema. I initially thought of it as something boring or something that required too much analysis and interpretation. took the “fun” part out of watching a movie. However, watching the film, Babette’s Feast, certainly changed my viewpoint. Though it didn’t fully transform my view into instant admiration and outright appreciation, my viewpoint on European cinema definitely changed.

    Read More

  • The Vanishing Film Analysis

    1810 Words  | 4 Pages

    Both the French and American versions of The Vanishing, directed by George Sluizer a Belgian director, had good plots, different ideas, and also the different symbolism behind the golden egg in the French original version and the infinity bracelet on the American remake of the film. Overall, the American version is better than the French version because the characters have a more dramatic approach to the situation, the way the film is cleaner, and more action-packed and realistic which makes a suggestion that us American viewers enjoys emotional, dramatic, violent, and action-packed films. Hollywood film director and author of the article “Film – European Movies: Looking for an American Audience” Fred Hift once said, “When it comes to theaters in America, everybody is looking for a blockbuster and you don’t find those among the imports” (1). We need and expect action in all our films even if it’s a love film because a little excitement can change the whole mood in the room. This is why American films are way better than foreign

    Read More

  • Classical and Post-Classical Hollywood Cinema

    2472 Words  | 5 Pages

    During the course of this essay it is my intention to discuss the differences between Classical Hollywood and post-Classical Hollywood. Although these terms refer to theoretical movements of which they are not definitive it is my goal to show that they are applicable in a broad way to a cinema tradition that dominated Hollywood production between 1916 and 1960 and which also pervaded Western Mainstream Cinema (Classical Hollywood or Classic Narrative Cinema) and to the movement and changes that came about following this time period (Post-Classical or New Hollywood). I intend to do this by first analysing and defining aspects of Classical Hollywood and having done that, examining post classical at which time the relationship between them will become evident. It is my intention to reference films from both movements and also published texts relative to the subject matter. In order to illustrate the structures involved I will be writing about the subjects of genre and genre transformation, the representation of gender, postmodernism and the relationship between style, form and content.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of The Intouchables

    1718 Words  | 4 Pages

    Often times people neglect the fact that the things- such as films- that they see and hear day to day can actually be worthwhile in teaching them. They come into contact with them purely for the purpose of being entertained and, sometimes, do not even realize that they are being taught valuable life lessons in the process. In conjunction with this theory, Professor Michael Taylor once said, “We don’t often think of the value of media beyond its entertainment, but there is a whole area that has to do with education through entertainment. As filmmakers, the work that we do has a huge impact on our culture. With that comes an opportunity, and may be even a responsibility, to use that impact for greater good.” Many French and Francophone films

    Read More

  • Rocky

    746 Words  | 2 Pages

    movie had some flaws, it did closely represent the feelings of the era that was depicted. This paper intends to analyze and give

    Read More

  • Jean-Luc Godard´s Breathless

    1367 Words  | 3 Pages

    Breathless is in many ways the antithesis of the classical Hollywood cinema; the changes have a direct effect on the relationship the film has with the viewer. Classical Hollywood cinema includes standards such as continuity editing, highly motivated, character-driven stories and a coherent narrative structure. Breathless defies these elements of traditional filmmaking, instead defining what we know as French New Wave.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Movie Moulin Rouge

    1933 Words  | 4 Pages

    Analysis of Movie Moulin Rouge In this essay I will be analyzing in depth four scenes from Baz Luhrmann's critically acclaimed Moulin Rouge that was released in 2000. I will be analyzing the opening sequence, the sequence in the Moulin Rouge itself, the two dancing sequences 'Like a Virgin' and 'Tango Roxanne' and the final scenes of the film. Throughout this essay I will be commenting on the filming techniques that Luhrmann uses and what affects these have on the audience, also I will be analyzing how the film is similar and different to typical Hollywood Musicals.

    Read More

  • Sound and Editing Analysis

    1023 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since the creation of films, their main goal was to appeal to mass audiences. However, once, the viewer looks past the appearance of films, the viewer realizes that the all-important purpose of films is to serve as a bridge connecting countries, cultures, and languages. This is because if you compare any two films that are from a foreign country or spoken in another language, there is the possibility of a connection between the two because of the fact that they have a universally understanding or interpretation. This is true for the French New Wave films; Contempt and Breathless directed by Jean-Luc Godard, and contemporary Indian films; Earth and Water directed by Deepa Mehta. All four films portray an individual’s role in society using sound and editing.

    Read More

  • Inequality In Amelie

    1309 Words  | 3 Pages

    Amelie is a young French woman who finds pleasure in life by rearranging the lives of others to fulfill them with happiness, yet she has become so preoccupied fixing the lives of others that she has detached herself from finding her own happiness. Amelie’s detachment from pursuing her own happiness is no surprise. In the film she is depicted as a quiet female who was raised by her father who never taught her to have a voice for herself. Amelie’s character can be categorized along with other characters from other films/television that would demonstrate similar scenarios filled with scenes portraying inequality towards females. The film Amelie itself took a different approach and decided to take a stand against female inequality by persuading

    Read More

More about Amelie: Interesting Premise and Beautiful Cinematography

Open Document