Hymn To Life and The Little Things. Amelie ("Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain" (original title) ) is a French film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. It is a romantic comedy that tells the story of a girl who had a limited childhood related to her father's false concern that she had a heart condition, and she had to be overprotected. Under these “apparent” conditions, Amelie Poulain had almost no contact with other children when she was a child. This led her to use her own fantasy world, and learn to use her imagination for everything. This film is a tribute to France, which reflects the influence of the Impressionist movement. Thanks to this film there was a change in the visual perception of the world, with the influence of light and color. …show more content…
If he feels moved she will dedicate her life to helping others, for nothing. This kind of attempt to change her life, although conditioned by external factors, marks the beginning of her thoughts and altruistic behavior. Amelie begins to look for the owner of the metal box, and after great efforts she manages to return the box. After meeting with his childhood box 40 years later, its owner gets excited and surprised, promising himself to reunite with his daughter before he himself ends up in a box of memories. After this experience, Amelie undergoes a drastic change in her way of conceiving life: “Amelie feels in total harmony with herself…an outburst of love, and a desire to help mankind suddenly invades her.” Amelie fulfills her promise and begins to develop a series of altruistic actions, and to devote time to this new mission in her life she must break with her daily routines and deliberately seek opportunities to do good to …show more content…
But, anyhow, these fantasies remain under the gaze of Amélie, because she constantly looks at us and even tells us what she likes to do. When she goes to the cinema to watch the faces of people in the dark; when she imagines how many couples are having an orgasm at the same time. In such scenes we understand the character, because we identify ourselves with her. It is not just the fantasies which show her inner journey; her feelings are disclosed for purposes that border on the fantastic, like the comments from a lamp-light-piggy to a duck and a dog framed on the wall, who noticed the infatuation of Amelie, or when the animation of a beating heart beats relentlessly when she turns to see Nino Quincampoix in the train station, or the moment when she becomes water when Nino leaves the Coffee Two Mills where she works as a waitress. All these resources talk about Amélie, and her feelings, and therefore how she sees the world from within. The film invites us to reflect in the importance of our inner world, our desires, and to observe our emotions. It is clear that there is not only an inward journey but also an external trip. Another meaningful travel takes place between Amélie and Raymond Dufayel, nicknamed “ the man of fragile bones,” who to some extent is the alter
My main argument will cover what was behind Night and Fog. This controversial piece of art is entwined with post-war French politics and censorship - for example how France, post-war, wanted to be perceived in an official capacity durin...
Rife with different themes in every storyline, Les Misérables entices critics to examine the numerous themes and speculate as to their meanings. These themes that they elicit from the text include, but are not limited to, fate dictating the course of one’s life, good works saving every soul, evil being the root of all of the problems of humanity, society weighing a person down, misfortune being the sole cause of faults in a person, love being the meaning of life, and the ability of love to alter a person. Many who read the novel are enamored with the many themes and agree that they are all explicitly explored. First, according to the critic Reeves, one can try to shape his own destiny all that he wants by “[chiseling] the ‘mysterious block’” from which his fate is made. However, no matter...
The parents’ different views and outlooks on the world influence their daughter’s decisions and alter how she reacts to Gaston throughout the story. One difference among the parents is their financial status. While on the phone with her mother, the mother said she was, “sending the chauffeur to pick her up…” This dialogue from the mother illustrates that she is wealthy. Earlier in the story, the girl was describing her dad saying, “He was at home. She was with him in his home in Paris, if you could call it a home.” The girl’s opinion demonstrates how different her life is at home. The opinion also shows how the dad’s house is not nearly as nice as her home. These quotes portray the differences in the financial aspects of the two parents’ lives. Another demonstration of the distinction between the parents is how they react to the bug. When the dad sees the bug, he proceeds to name it and defend it. The girl says, “Everybody hollers when a bug comes out of an apple, but you don’t holler or anything.” The dad replies by saying, “Of course not. How should we like it if somebody hollered every time we came out of our house?” This conversation shows how the dad is creative and accepting things that are odd. In contrast, when the mom sees the bug she immediately rejects it. The mom says, “Somebody gets a peach with a bug in it, and throws it away, but not him. He makes up a lot of
First, Doctor Manette, seen as a decrepit, unstable, worn-down man, immediately comes off as a man deserving of a second chance. His release from the Bastille marks the beginning of his being “recalled to life,” and his vast physical and mental recovery over the next five years concretes his new, happier second life. Manette’s regained sense of self can be largely credited to his daughter Lucie, whose maternal care for him helped speed up improvement. She acted as a strong anchor for
Foufoune, who promises her a better life, brings Gwo Manman, who is shown to live comfortably and happily in Haiti, to the Americas. However, Gwo Manman feels that Foufoune kidnapped her from the place she feels most comfortable with and slowly deteriorates while living with Foufoune. Gwo Manman had a much happier life in Haiti but her freedom – the long walks along Route des Frères with friends, the taste of Barbancourt in her mouth, the pleasure of wild drum music, being shirtless under the noonday sun – is stolen from her. For Gwo Manman, America becomes her solitary confinement. Her troub...
The central characters, setting, and tone of the story help create the central idea of the psychological and internal desires of a woman. Through the view of the central characters it is established that the lawyer’s wife wants more than her average day and is searching for more to life than the daily routine of a house wife. Jean Varin is believed to be the desire she is looking for; however, she is not fulfilled or happy with the outcome of her choices. The setting and the tone reveal the psychological need for the wife to have an adventurous, lavish, and opulent lifestyle that she feels can only be achieved in Paris.
When first approaching this work, one feels immediately attracted to its sense of wonder and awe. The bright colors used in the sun draws a viewer in, but the astonishment, fascination, and emotion depicted in the expression on the young woman keeps them intrigued in the painting. It reaches out to those who have worked hard in their life and who look forward to a better future. Even a small event such as a song of a lark gives them hope that there will be a better tomorrow, a thought that can be seen though the countenance by this girl. Although just a collection of oils on a canvas, she is someone who reaches out to people and inspires them to appreciate the small things that, even if only for a short moment, can make the road ahead seem brighter.
As stated earlier, de Fombelle often sees himself in his stories as a way of rediscovering his childhood. The same is true for this novel. De Fombelle portrays himself through the main character, Vango. This vision of himself in the book contributes to the tone of this book, which is worrisome.
Dr. Manette starts his life as a young successful man but then is traumatized by imprisonment and again becomes successful with the comfort of, his daughter, Lucie. Lorry rescues Dr. Manette from his prison in St. Antoine and essentially brings him back to life. At first Alexandre seems unstable and much older than his years, but as Lucie nurses him back to life he transforms into the vibrant man missing throughout hers. Doctor Manette has no recollection of his successful past: “Doctor Manette, formerly of Beauvais . . . the young physician, originally an expert surgeon, who within the last year or two has made a rising reputation in Paris” (298). After his unnecessary imprisonment he is very weak and frail: “[h]e had put up a hand between his eyes and the light, and the very bones of it seemed transparent” (36). He is found in a dark garret hunched over a cobbler’s bench making shoes to pass time. At first Lucie is apprehensive about approaching her father, but as she observes his actions she is overcome with joy; she has now found her father whom she thought was dead for seventeen years. As he spends more time with Lucie and Miss Pross he gradually gains more and more strength and is beginning to reach his capacities in life. “This new life of the Doctor’s [is] an anxious life, no doubt; still the sagacious Mr. Lorry [sees] that there was a new sustaining pride in it” (253). The changes in Dr. Manette are not all by his own doing. He started life prosperous and fortunate, and after an ill-fated imprisonment it takes him a long while to accomplish the ability to endure life again.
This film captures this class distinction without subduing the atmosphere through the use of a variety of cinematic devices. “A good film is not a bag of cinematic devices but the embodiment, through devices, of a vision, an underlying theme” (Barnett, 274). The audience can see this theme of the realities of the oppression, poverty and despair of this time period through the use of the things mentioned, but also through the character development that is driven by the character’s hopelessness. Each of the characters associated with the lower class is motivated by the conditions, which are viewed through the cinematic devices mentioned above: color, spherical lenses, long shots, and high angle shots. Sources Cited:.
The script’s opening image defines the film’s POV, by using the camera to subjectively identify our protagonist’s recent affliction as he awakens paralyzed from a stroke induced coma. Jean-Dominique Bauby, a.k.a. Jean-Do, is informed of his condition by the doctor. He is unable to respond to the doctor’s questions, which sets-up the conflict that he will struggle to communicate his thoughts throughout the script. As Jean-Do looks around his hospital room, we are informed by pictures and drawings beside his bed that he was a successful editor of a fashion magazine who led a comfortable and pleasurable lifestyle. There are images of his children alongside drawings that they have made for him. There is a sense of hopelessness and despair expressed through his interior monologue when he asks, “Is this life”? There are several unified themes stated in the opening pages of the script. First, there is a bell heard in the distance which informs the reader that our protagonist is trying to somehow communicate with others, but cannot do so throug...
The film had stunning scenery and beautiful interior designs of the palace in which Antoinette lived. Coppola used over the top props and furniture’s to show the life of glitz and glamour that Marie Antoinette lived in. The production crew was given unprecedented access to the Palace of Versailles which is where it takes place. This also gave the film authenticity and realism, making it easier for the audience to get a better look into the life of Marie Antoinette and the courtiers of that time. The director used many pastels, bright pinks and blues in its backgrounds in the beginning of the film to show Antoinette’s innocence but as it progressed the colors went darker to show a sign of maturity. Even though the film is set in Versailles, some scenes were taken in various locations around France. This kept the au...
...t is Impressionism. We see that without Paris and its artists there would have been be no break from the traditions and regulations laid down by the L’École des Beaux-Arts and Le Salon. Without Paris the movement would not have gained the recognition that it did. It was aided by the industrial revolution, the Haussmann project, the growth of le café and the revenue from trade by Parisian art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. We also note how Paris was highly influential in the subjects of impressionist paintings. We see how the camera and colour theory influenced their work as well as how the modern cityscape and social interactions consumed their creations. Even today Paris plays a role in Impressionism. Its museums house some of the greatest examples of period impressionist work on view, showing that nearly two centuries later Paris is still at the heart of Impressionism.
This exhibit was put on in a studio in Paris that was owned by the famous photographer Nadar and featured around 30 different Impressionist artists (Lewis 149). In the beginning of the impressionist 's “career” as impressionists, they were mocked and not always credited as real artists, but they accepted the name of Impressionist 's, turning the derogatory term into one to identify themselves with. The entire Impressionist art movement was “an unthinking form of naturalism” and also “… the fruitful renovation of the French schools…” (Lewis 23, 155). This oppression can be seen as synonymous with that of the actual oppressed people of France of which Karl Marx was calling to change their future. Impressionists took control of their own art and didn 't back down when mocked, they found the passion inside themselves. They were mocked since Impressionism was a shift of creativity that was now “…identified with the individual, not within the social…” (Lewis 26). When one looks at an impressionism painting from that period of time, the passion and emotions of the scene come through the painting causing the viewer to feel how the artist felt when they experienced this scene while painting
She sets up the lives of individuals in order to make them feel loved again, or to give them a taste of their own medicine. By becoming so preoccupied with fixing the lives of others, she soon realizes that everyone else is happy except her. Amelie eventually realizes that no one will rearrange her life in order to find happiness, she must learn to take action and arrange her own life so she can achieve happiness and love. Viewers who watch this movie will eventually start to consider some of their own desires and the idea of having to pursue their goals shall awaken within them. Through this film the audience can learn that if they want to reach happiness and other goals in life they must take action, because if they decide to sit around and wait, they can find themselves sitting around waiting eternally unhappy. By audience I refer it mainly towards females because throughout time women have been neglected of wanting to pursue their desires and goals in life. This film persuades women into taking action and following their heart in order to obtain what they truly