Genre Grandeur – Amelie (2001) – Sweet Archive

For this month’s first review for Genre Grandeur – Derivative Work Films, here’s a review of Amelie (2001) by Reut of Sweet Archive.

Thanks again to Summer of Serendipitous Anachronisms for choosing this month’s very unique genre.

Here’s Summer to explain her choice:

Basically it is anything based or inspired by pre-existing source

for example:

Amelie takes its relationships from the Luncheon of the Boating Party

The Magnificent Seven is borrowed from the Seven Samurai

Sunday in the Park with George is based on painting by George Seurat

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is loosely based on Hamlet

My Own Private Idaho borrows from Henry the IV

Cosi is about a director directing the musical Cosi Fan Tutti

Pride Prejudice and Zombies borrows from Pride and Prejudice

Clueless borrows from the novel Emma

Monty Python and the Holy Grail borrows from the Arthurian Legend

Basically a film that borrows from pre-existing source but reinvents the source material into something else

Next month’s Genre has been chosen by Jordan of Epileptic Moondancer.  He has chosen a genre that is well out of my own comfort zone but I am up for the challenge.  We will be reviewing our favorite Foreign Language Films From 2013-Present.

Please get me your submissions by the 25th of July by sending them to foreignjordan@movierob.net  Try to think out of the box! Great choice Jordan!

Let’s see what Reut thought of this movie:

_________________________________

Amélie (2001)

Amélie is an innocent and naive girl in Paris with her own sense of justice. She decides to help those around her and, along the way, discovers love. (Via IMDb)

For this month’s GG of Derivative Work Movies I went with Amélie, a whimsical romantic comedy written and directed by one of my most appreciated film makers, Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

What fascinates me most about the film, other than our sweet and beautiful protagonist, is the lighting and filters that add some warmth and color to every scene. It makes Paris, and the Montmartre area, especially, look graphic, almost like a painting. It seems that Jeunet decided, most cleverly, to use special camera lenses that accentuate the characters facial features and expressions. Comic. Almost like a French animation. I really love that about Jeunet’s films. It makes him extremely particular and innovative as a director.

As explained by Summer of Serendipitous Anachronisms, Amelie does take its relationships from the Luncheon of the Boating Party, a famous painting by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

When Amélie finds an old box full of child’s toys in her apartment, she’s most determined of finding that boy (who’s a grown man by now) and make him happy by bringing him his box back. Inquiring amongst former residents of the building and neighbors, she stumbles upon a reclusive neighbor named, Raymond Dufayel, an artist with brittle bone disease who repaints the Luncheon of the Boating Party.

Occasionally visiting Dufayel, the two begin discussions on his repeatedly painted project, focusing particularly on the girl drinking a glass of water. Dufayel explains his constant difficulty of capturing this specific character’s expression every single time he paints it. She’s in the middle yet looks so detached from everyone else. She seems lonely. Amélie slowly projects her on own loneliness on the talked about girl. She expresses her own fears and kind intentions as if she was the girl in the painting. Helps everyone, but what about herself. Dufayel uses the painting to push Amélie to go follow her desires with no fear and examine her infatuation with a quirky young man who collects strangers’ photos.

Other than the fantastic derivation of the Renoir painting, the film is always fun to watch. Amélie’s character shines a certain purity and innocence over me. Her beautiful, child-like features reflect such simplicity and beauty. I always feel like being exactly like her when I watch the film. Her happiness and contempt, her sadness, her desires… everything so pure. All the other characters are absolutely brilliant, a quirky bunch of people, each with his / her own sad story. The stocker, the hypochondriac, the blind man, the poet, the odd young man, Amélie’s closed up father, the stewardess, the flaky Mrs. Wells…

Amélie is my favorite film to watch for the perfect escapism. It relaxes me in so many ways. I’m in love with the soundtrack and all the characters, and fantasize of a love story very much like this one.