a jar of happiness in a nutshell, sis (a film review)
Amélie, an isolated woman, hears about Princess Diana’s accident lead her to a memorabilia box that would change her isolated life forever. “Le Fabuleux Destin d’ Amélie”, a 2001 French-romantic comedy film by Jean-Pierre Junet, revolves around a woman named, Amélie Poulain, born in Montmarte and a waitress at The Two Windmills— who grew up as an introvert but an imaginative and creative one, for ever since her childhood, she was only surrounded by her peculiar parents, her only friend— a goldfish, which was thrown away by her mother leaving her alone by herself. One night, as Lady Di, the Princess of Wales, died in a car accident, dropped a perfume-stopper rolled upon a wall tile and found a memorabilia box that impelled her to find its owner. From then on, as Amélie felt sudden contentment, she started fixing people’s messy lives— to sprinkle happiness and joy upon them. However, as she met Nico Quincampoix, a quirky guy who collects peoples’ torn and discarded pieces of photo booth pictures at Gare de l’Est ticket hall and was enchanted by him, Amélie began to feel anxious about her happiness as she struggles alone in her life. Le Fabuleux Destin d’ Amélie shall be watched for it was able to uniquely portray that patterns of life and innate human nature of inevitably craving for dreams, pleasure, love, and happiness to feel alive.
First of all, this film was something to be enjoyed and reflected on because of its fanciful narrative elements which are the following points; (1) the plot was well-devised that can provide the viewers to be enticed on the flow of its narrative. Starting from presenting Amélie’s childhood background or Amélie as a child [e.g. the physical environment, norms, habits, etc.] going to the core and connecting it to the protagonist’s conflict— which is “Man vs. Self” , that was deeply presented as she grew up by seeing how Amélie struggles in socializing and forming connections with people around her causing to resort on dreaming and trying to orchestrate events on the lives of the other characters but hesitant or unconscious of reciprocating it to herself. Moreover, it gives amusing scenes on how Amélie’s curiosity directed the happenings on the film. Also, (2) the use of an omniscient third point of view, an all-knowing one, as if Amélie’s journey was being watched by someone made the story more appealing. By the means of an omniscient narrator, it emphasized that an audience is expected to see a drastic change that would happen in the protagonist’s life— for at some point, it tells clichés in the story but not in an annoying way, [e.g. “Finally, on the night of August 30, 1997, comes the event that will change her life forever.”] leading a viewer to be more intrusive and intrigue by observing each step of Amélie. It also made the film wittier as someone was narrating each characters’ fetishes or quirks— giving the viewer such hints about their secrets or individualities that indeed, pleasure is innate to humans— and with those, it can actually raise a comparison between the other characters vs. Amélie by highlighting the differences of the general pleasures vs. hers. Another point, (3) the symbolisms which showcased significance on the development of its whimsical story are the following; (a) the treasure box or the childhood memorabilia of Dominic Bretodeau, who was a father longing for his childhood memories and his child, was the starting point of everything— it was the most influential thing in Amélie’s life because it is where she was able to suddenly feel a complete harmony within herself causing the events to flow naturally, (b) the painting of Raymond Dufayel, one of her neighbors whom described as The Glass Man, pertaining to Amelie as the girl with the glass water whom Dufayel can’t capture for he feels she’s an outsider, this symbolizes that Amélie, is an art on process— that is still needed to be released from her isolated realm making it more substantial and interesting to await for Amélie’s change, (c) her habit of skimming stones on the river, the movement itself, portrays sequence that once perfectly thrown can create continuous momentum and (d) the photo album of Nino Quincampoix, if it wasn’t because of this, she wouldn’t have the chance to fall in love with somebody as what Gina, Amélie’s fellow waitress said, [“Love is a great beautician”] and nothing would make a difference in her life. Thus, those components made the narrative well-composed, valuable and effective for people like seeing someone changing for good.
Second, its cinematography. It was tremendously apparent that this film’s cinematography used a lot of extreme close up shots using center and rule-of-thirds framing, to accent the significance of character’s facial expressions [wincing, smiling, crying, etc.], bodily movements in almost every scenarios creating a comedic and serious vibe and effectively presenting emotions [e.g. pleased, ecstatic, disgusted, awe, grief] of the characters for the details— not just details but extreme ones of their expressions were indeed, accentuated. One of the best scenes of extreme close-up in this film was the opening remarks, where it showed frames of portraying Amelie’s childhood giving the viewer a glimpse of the protagonist’s isolation for it was clear that she was just only enjoying her own company as well as, the innocence of youth. Some techniques that leading to this kind of shot was starting from a wide-angle shot then suddenly zooming in or tilting the frame as it introduces characters, complimenting a deeper analysis on their personalities and characteristics [e.g. fetishes, likes, dislikes, habits, etc.] Furthermore, it was also used for the objects that serve as clues or hints on Amélie’s complex schemes of dwelling into people’s lives— which is really interesting. Another example, the use of panning and combining it with center framing was also recognizable for the sequence of events in one scenario giving the effect of continuous movement of happenings [e.g. young Amélie taking a photo shifted to another character to make it look like it is just really happening naturally and portraying what’s on the environment] it gives a sense of involvement for the viewer which helps to build the intensity of events. The shaky camera technique— which is a unique way of portraying captured moments and how rapidly things are happening. This can be observed on some montage on the films [e.g. Amélie going to the train station and the last scene, where Nico and Amelie were riding in a motorcycle]. This kind of technique is something fresh on my eyes, it’s not a conventional type, as what is written on the former part which makes it unique. Also, Bruno Delbonnel’s color grading was astonishingly aesthetic. If someone would not notice how aesthetically pleasing Le Fabuleux Destin d’ Amélie is, then that someone is probably blind. At the utmost, it is the most critical part of the film that made everything wholesome. The combination and manipulation of vibrant and deeply saturated hues of red, green and yellow set the atmosphere of the film creating a French-vibe, what that context feels like, a dreamy, imaginative, whimsical, fanciful as if you were involved in the love-story of Amélie and Nico, the color grading was immensely, extraordinarily and exceedingly remarkable— setting the mood and the atmosphere throughout the film. The strong visual look of this film was everything, any viewers cannot deny it. The cinematography was meticulously planned and well-executed, I am almost out of words.
Third, to associate different scenes and to maintain its continuous state, this film is edited with the use of creative combinations of transitions. I think the transitions played the role of escalating the sequence of events— (a) how Hervé Schneid, the editor, used whip transitions to exemplify the change of season and time while focusing on one subject, (b) the cut-aways where Amélie got her revenged to the neighbor that fooled her, where there was an exchange of contrasting emotions— where it is obvious that Amélie was having fun messing with her neighbor while the latter was tremendously disappointed with what was happening, the transition made the scene really hilarious, (c) the used of match cuts especially on the scenes when Amélie was counting people who were having orgasms as well as, the scene where Georgette, the resident hypochondriac and Joseph, Gina’s rejected lover was having sex in the toilet room and how it wittingly conveyed the vibrations that the both characters felt while doing the action, I felt that, (d) the cross-cuts that was used to get inside the head of Amélie as she thinks about the pattern of possible actions of Nico making that scene feels extra saddening, and (e) how Amélie’s happiness was conveyed by the means of fast forwarding and jump cuts while riding the motorcycle with Nico, it was so good to feel the happiness of our dear protagonist. However, I think some standard cuts in the film were not consistent for some looks like unfinished and it made the motion looked not so natural— like it became a void to represent different scenes making the transition look odd and not effective.
Overall, Le Fabuleux Destin d’ Amelie, is indeed, a must be watched film for it expounded the following; for the narrative it serves— (1) a well-written plot, (2) the wittingly use of omniscient point of view, and (3) mind-blowing symbolisms, for the cinematography presented— (1) detailed subjects with the use of extreme close-ups while combining it with other angles to create connection of juxtaposed effect, (2) panning which imitates continuous movement and (3) aesthetically pleasing color grading, for the editing— how it used creative combinations of transitions, (1) match cuts, (2) cut-away, (3) cross-cut, etc. indeed, this film deserves its recognition for it would let the viewers to take chances, to take risks, to live our lives in pursuit of happiness. Thus proving that humans are inevitably craving for dreams, pleasure, love, and life to feel alive.
