Movies from the Heart—Amélie

It’s rare that a non-English speaking film gets a large following, but that’s what happened with the French film Amélie [2001] by Guillaume Laurant and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Both audiences and critics loved this film. And word of mouth saw to it that many people saw the film—it grossed over $175 million in the U.S. alone.

The story is simple. Amélie is a young woman who was sheltered all her life and had little interaction with others. This happened because her father mistakenly thought she had a heart condition and, consequently, didn’t let her do things that other children did.

But once an adult, she ventures to the big city—Paris, of course, as the film is set in France. She works as a waitress and interacts with people… well, sort of. She observes what people want or need and tries to help them to get that—sort of on the sly, not wanting people to know she’s helping.

Take a look at the trailer for the film as originally released for English-speaking audiences.

It gives you a good overview of the film, right? Now take a look at the trailer they released widely with absolutely NO French in it and NO subtitles—all just action and voiceover:

https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=Py7cDXQae2U&t=65s

Interesting, right? One way to get English-speaking audiences into the film is to NOT make a point of telling them that it’s in French!! And that’s what the second trailer did.

It’s true that Americans, for decades, haven’t liked subtitles. “I don’t go to the movies to read,” is something your average American movie-goer says. Of course, if you live in Europe or Asia, you’re quite used to reading subtitles. Because all the big American movies have to be subtitled in your language—French, German, Chinese, etc.—and it’s no big deal to read the translation as the dialogue is happening on screen.

As cinema has become more global, that’s changing a bit, as more and more films are subtitled. Let’s hope that change continues.

To its credit, Amélie was a bit of a ground-breaker in this regard. It exudes charm and whimsy in a very clever way. It combines some elements of fantasy film with filmic techniques that bring that fantasy to life. And it has a main character who is charming and disarming. We like her so much we really hope that all of her helping of others ends showing her that it’s possible to make changes in her own life that will lead to satisfaction and love—that the kind of help she gives to others is help she can give herself to lead to a more fulfilled, happier life.

Fantasy—and especially the kind of fantasy that comes to life in Amélie—is difficult to pull off. Because you have to be able to describe the filmic techniques that will showcase the fantasy. And that kind of description takes precision and a gift for making the visual understandable just through words. So yes, lots of work and a real sense of the visual is necessary to write something like Amélie. But if that’s you, hey, give it a go!!

Next week, a film that’s not at all fantasy, but pure comedic camp—My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

Copyright © Diane Lake

02Jun24

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com