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I always hate to praise
the French (sorry, the Freedom), but in this case, there's really
no way to avoid it. American movies seem afraid to take the kind of
chances that movies like Amelie take. You know, three dimensional
characters, quirky situations and chicks with black bob cuts. The
French are good at making magical movies that don't fall into the
same traps that so many American films seem to fall into--namely digressing
into action, violence and general anarchy. I know I'm going to sound
like a big pussy, but it was nice to see a movie devoid of guns, car
chases, drugs, etc. I supposed I could watch some Rugrats movie if
I wanted clean, family fun, but I have a feeling it would be missing
some of the nuance and subtleties present in this film. The film's
director, Jeunet, is the guy who brought you the awesome film, Delicatessen,
as well as the incredibly weird The City of Lost Children
and the not-so-good, but really cool-looking Alien: Resurrection.
The force behind all these movies is the amazing attention paid to
the filming process. Watching the bonus DVD, Jeunet shows you how
he storyboards every single shot, going over each camera movement
in painstaking detail. His anal approach shows, as his films are beautiful,
and somehow convey a love for his characters that is unrivaled in
most American cinema. The camera absolutely loves Audrey Tautou. She
is adorable, and through Jeunet's lens we can almost feel her male
counterpart falling in love with her. Granted, she is not your typical
heroine. The first ten minutes of the film shows her life growing
up (a ten minutes that is worth watching on its own), and sets the
table for a complex character who has some serious issues. No, she
isn't a hooker with a heart, or an undereducated loud mouth who saves
a bunch of poor folks from corporate greed with her cleavage. She
is a woman looking to make a little dent in the loneliness in the
world. She does this by pushing people to explore their desires and
playing little tricks on people to make love matches and make dreams
come true. Unfortunately, in making other people happy, she has forgotten
about her own happiness. Then, serendipitously, she finds love, and
spends the rest of the movie dancing around it. I know this whole
thing sounds pretty boring, but I'm certainly not doing it justice.
The other thing about this film is that it doesn't try to be anything
more than what it is. There's no bank heist subplot, no "whoops
I took the wrong bag at the airport--and it's filled with diamonds"
flakiness, and absolutely no identical twin murderers anywhere in
site. Even if you don't like the script or the plot, the film is great
to look at, and certainly worth a night on the couch with a loved
one, a nice afghan and a French/English dictionary. [DVD]
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