New film

Audrey Tautou's New Film

I think all the world fell in love with Audrey Tautou when the film Fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain, Le (or Amelie as it is better known) arrived in 2001. Not only was her character cute and adorable the film was wonderfully written and directed and beautifully photographed. It's on my list of favorite films
Audrey has a new film due out in April, Coco Avant Chanel, I'm hoping to see but doubt I'll get to until the DVD is released. Until then I'l just watch the trailer over and over.
Here's the link for a preview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEtwpSVSBKM&eurl=

Review of Fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain,


At first glance it would seem that “Amelie” has been made before. Perhaps in “Pollyanna” or in any novel-turned movie by Jane Austen, or even Flora in ”Cold Comfort Farm”, might be considered a forerunner to the character in “Amelie”. But, “Amelie” is different. It is a French film and teaches values other similar films lack. This film has that certain “ je ne sais quoi”---that particular way of showing French aesthetics in the manner that only the French can do. This film shows in an exceptional fashion a French woman taking time to understand who she is and to develop her own personal style and sense of mystic and whimsy with a cleverness and charm that is pure “la Parisienne”.
The popularity of “Amelie” speaks directly to the fascination American women tend to have with all things French. The word “French” being a superlative with anything that is elegant and refined and that has a well-deserved reputation of quality. There are lessons in “Amelie” that American women should take to heart.
At the beginning of the film the narrator makes a point of mentioning that Amelie becomes an observer of life. She learns to see things that other don’t see. Amelie sees so many things one really needs to watch the movie many times to see all the things she sees. She likes to eat berries off her fingers and coax music from wine glass rims. She experiences life through her senses. She catches small details in life. She sees the pain in others because she herself is wrapped in it.
Yet, she doesn’t seem unduly unhappy in her solitude she has accepted its inevitability. She learns tragedy can bring change, sometimes change for the better. Amelie rises above her calamities like a nice soufflé. She doesn’t remain childish, but child-like which she develops into spunk and spirit.
As an adult, Amelie does not hold a grudge against her father. She visits him every week and encourages him to grow—to travel. She doesn’t lecture him, or fight with him or try to appeal to his logic in typical American manner. She makes arrangements for his alter-ego, his gnome, to travel in his stead; thus allowing her father to see what he is missing.
In the event that changes Amelie life (the death of Lady Di and the finding of a childhood box), it would be easy to miss an important aspect. There is Amelie is perfectly fitted lingerie—a beautiful white full slip applying perfume. Amelie is probably more Monoprix, than Faubourg St. Honore, yet, like a true Parisienne she is attentive to detail, to look good and smell good, even if one is alone.
It is interesting to note, that Amelie never wears slacks or shorts. Her quirky off beat fashion sense, which is not quite vintage or retro, is timeless. When she goes to work her hair is neat and her look is polished.
Throughout the film, inwardly, Amelie is troubled but outwardly she is all poise. When she sits with Monsieur Dufayel (who cleverly helps Amelie take a reflective look at herself through the Renoir painting) her posture is straight and steady. She is not nervous personality. She is unique and she sees herself as such.
Amelie is typically French is her shopping habits. There is not a giant refrigerator in her neat and tidy tiny apartment. She shops daily, buying only what is needed. Being in the kitchen is creative and refreshing to her. She loves the feel of beans, and to crack the crust of the crème brulee and she carefully grates cheese over her hot pasta as she sits down to eat with a lovely place setting. She bakes bread and grows herbs on the window sill.
There have been comparisons of Audrey Tautou to the other famous Audrey—Audrey Hepburn. The comparison is rightly deserved. The Audrey of the 1950’s had the great sense not to follow the dictates of her era, but to follow she own gamine style. She didn’t fall into sex symbol hype and try to become something she wasn’t. Fifty years later when the 1950’s and elegance are spoken in the same sentence, no one says Marilyn or Jayne, but simple doe-eyed Audrey.
In the United States “Le Fabuleux Destin D’Amelie Poulain” is retitled either “Amelie” or “Amelie from Montmartre”. The Parisian backdrop is essential to this film because this isn’t the Paris of American travel brochures. The Paris of this film takes The City of Lights to a virtuoso level both literally and figuratively to the high hill of Montmartre. This bohemian section of Paris, which is home to both La Basilique du Sacre -Coeur and La Pigalle, provides its twisted streets for all the twists in “Amelie”. Montmartre is the only character in this film to appear as itself.
Perhaps the best advice to an American women watching this film is not watch it as a movie, but to view it like the colors in an impressionistic painting, a canvas that unleashes joy and style. For what do Parisians see when they look out the window? Not the Eiffel Tower, as American advertisements show, but each other.