Amazing Amelie

Have you asked yourself if there was any movie that has "intellectually" stimulated you lately? Difficult question if it requires a fast answer.

Luckily I was able to catch one.

Amelie is a French film nominated in the Oscars "Best Foreign Film" this year, but too bad it lost.

Since last week was a long weekend—meaning it was one of those "no-excuses" situations where I had to be dragged again by my mom to the movies—I accidentally found myself in the moviehouse watching a French movie. At first I dreaded my mom’s choice because I couldn’t stand reading subtitles (those Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon flashbacks), since instead of looking at the scene itself your eyes are glued to the bottom of the screen.

Amelie, however, was no drag. It’s a good thing that the Filipino audience is getting exposed to non-Hollywood flicks. The movie stars beautiful French actress Audrey Tautou; in some scenes she even resembles another Audrey, Audrey Hepburn.

The movie is not in the mode of the Hollywood special-effects-mega-bucks-budget flicks which at times use technical razzmatazz to make up for a very poor storyline. Amelie, it was obvious, was not a sky-is-the-limit budget; they only filmed around Paris. It was also obvious that this movie was made not for profit but for art’s sake. But it wasn’t so high-brow and unreachable. It was an engaging story telling. At first I thought I’d be sleeping throughout the movie, but I ended up laughing and enjoying myself.

Actually it made me think about a lot of things. That way it was provocative.

At first I thought it was playing with my mind — it was kinda deranged for my liking, like it emerged from the maker’s subconscious. It was just really different from the movie genre I’m used to. (I’m tempted to say, "Oh yes, it’s so French.")

Its plot is well-written, so simple, and yet wonderfully made. It’s about a young "weird" girl, Amelie, who had a very eccentric childhood. Her dad was a good man but emotionless, never hugged his daughter so that when he was checking her heart one day (he’s a doctor) and Amelie’s heart beat faster, out of happiness and excitement, he thought there was something wrong with her heart and pronounced her a heart patient for life. Her mom was a school marm, as prim and proper as they come. Grown up, Amelie works as a waitress in a small café. But because of some twisted events she ends up helping some individuals she encounters in her everyday life.

She lives in her own little world, and in one way or another plays guardian angel or Santa Claus to someone. If you’re nice you will be rewarded but if you’re not, be prepared to suffer the consequences because she’s the type who can play pranks and use psychological warfare. Though she helps others, because she lives in a fairy-tale world, she cannot help herself.

Perhaps this movie isn’t really for everybody, not just because there are some explicit scenes, and you must have the maturity to disregard those and focus deeper on what the movie is trying to say. It’s a rather philosophical movie because it made me realize that we have our own Amelies inside us and we need to snap out of our "own" make-believe world and start living. Or get a life. I don’t consider this as a romantic flick, even if I can’t put away the romanticism in this movie, it talks more about life.

Though for some Amelie might be a little boring; being able to appreciate things that are different just like Amelie, for instance, is a big achievement in itself. At the end it’s the type of movie that makes you a bit wiser, not dumber. I like to watch more Art Films since they always focus more on life and human expression—done not for profit alone.

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E-mail me at ketsupluis@hotmail.com.