Saturday 13 April 2013

Amelie (Teo Siek Nee)


Amelie -- A movie that is quite different from the movies that I have been watched.

This story began with a short introduction of the main actress– Amelie and a few important characters in the movie—her father and mother. The beginning of the story was successfully grabbed my attention. Director used a speed-up technique to start the film. I needed to pay my full attention so I won’t miss any scene and line in the opening of the movie.
During “introducing” the crew of the movie (beginning of the film), director is creative and he grabbed this good opportunity to describe the personalities of the main character when she was small. From there, I could roughly know that Amelie had an active imagination and fantasy life when she was young, for instance, put cherry at her ears as her earrings as well as making sound using wine glass. This was very important as this little introduction can make a good start for the rest of the story, the audience could know more about the personalities of Amelie.
     Besides that, the colour tone in the movie was very special and distinct from other movies. It was a warm movie infused in reds and greens, very few blues are in the shots. It was very suitable to the tone and atmosphere of the movie that the director wanted to create – a romantic comedy. Besides that, “black and white” as well as “flickering” were also the shooting techniques in the movie especially during flashback and Amelie’s fantasy. It provided a big contrast to give a different between “now” and “past” as well as the fantasy of Amelie in the movie. It was important in the movie because I could enjoy the movie to the fullest without confusing me. Besides that, the visual effects played a vital role in the film, for instance, Amelie used her camera and looked up at the sky at the clouds and she saw animals forming in the clouds. It was surprising me because Amelie was a 2001 movie and the visual effect was so real and advanced in that time.
     Director was good at describing every character in the story. He gave every character many special and broad characteristics even it was a cat (it liked to listen story). One way the director describe the character was the character’s likes and dislikes, for example, Amelie’s father hated urinating next to someone else, scornful glances at his sandals, and clingy swimming trunks; but he liked to peel old wallpaper and clean his toolbox. Every character was given a special position and did not ignore by the director in the movie. Not only the main characters, the supporting characters or even a stranger in the movie were given very clear personalities and their stories, for example, a blind old man in the film, Domonique Bredoteau, the owner of the box. It was just like in our life, everyone is special in the way they are and I think this was what the director wanted to show to us. Besides that, the actor and actress in this movie portrayed their characters well; their facial expression told me the story even without talking, for instance, the expression when Amelie met with Nino in her house. Language was no longer the barrier when watching this France movie.
     Throughout this movie,I could feel a quirky sense of humour and it was a credit to the narrator, the actor and actress as well as shooting technique (especially camera movements), for instance, when introduced Joseph, the camera tracked forward to his face. However, when narrator told that Joseph liked to press the bubble pack, the camera quickly glided to the bottom to show Joseph was pressing the bubble wrap. This is one of the scenes that made me laughed. The perfect combination of these three elements had tremendously brought out the genre – comedy. With these scenes as well as the way they composed contributed to the film’s overall tone, themes and visual style.
     However, to me, I feel that the “romantic” part was not so strong for the main character throughout the movie. In the movie, almost 60% was describing how Amelie helped the people around her (maybe this was what the director wanted). The length of the film was too long (221 minutes), i had lost concentration especially the middle part of the movie.
     In conclusion, this movie “Amelie” was successfully brought me into Amelie’s strange and fantasy world. The playful way of the director in producing the movie enlightens me a lot. The plot of the movie was simple as the tittle of the movie, but the way the movie presented to us was simply awesome. A movie that deserved 8.5 ratings (out of 10) in IMDb.

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