Amelie??

So, some of you might have noticed in some of my previous posts that I only have two weeks (yeah!!) left until I leave. My friend (and travel buddy) and I have started our %26quot;get in the mood%26quot; movie watching to %26quot;prepare%26quot;. Haha. Actually just an excuse to be lazy and watch movies, but oh well! One of the ones selected, based on recs and comments from this forum, was Amelie. Ya%26#39;ll--truly one of the most bizarre movies I%26#39;ve seen. And I%26#39;m a huge fan of movies...old, new, classics--you name it, I%26#39;m a fan. But, wow...this one? I%26#39;ll admit, this is one of the first French films I%26#39;ve seen. And the movie kind of %26quot;leveled out%26quot; towards the middle (ie became less bizarre).

I thought I would post a comment about it and see what your feedback was.

But, I have to admit...I%26#39;ve been to Paris before, and it was wonderful to catch glimpses of the sites!!

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I thought it was a very unique and refreshing twist on the usual hum-drum formula-driven romantic comedy. I don%26#39;t know many people who disliked it.

if you want more movies, try %26quot;French Kiss%26quot; for fun, and another Audrey Tautou movie that is EXCELLENT and takes place in Paris is %26quot;He Loves Me He Loves Me Not%26quot;.

And of course DaVinci Code

Les

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Everyone in Europe loves Amelie except me I think, I dont disslike it, but I dont realise the fuss, and the caracters are cool but not realistic...

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My girlfriend and I also planned to watch a couple of films set in Paris prior to our trip in May but we only got around to watching %26quot;Charade%26quot; with Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn. A bit dated but a wonderful film with some very witty dialogue.

It was mostly shot indoors, but did have one scene on a cruise on the Seine and a pivitol scene in a park (off Champs-Elysses or Champs de Mars?). Oh, yeah, and another scene in the Opera Garnier, I believe.

If you have a chance, check it out... and of course, bon voyage!

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tcgirlie, I watched Amelie twice and I thought it was kind of weird. But French films in general are very different from American films/movies. I like to watch them to learn new expressions in French, but there are very few that I really like. I find them heavy on dialogue and long pauses but light on plot.

%26quot;Le Divorce%26quot; is a good one to watch before your trip, as it compares French and American culture and plays on all the sterotypes -- on both sides.

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%26lt;%26lt;.%26quot;Le Divorce%26quot;..............plays on all the sterotypes -- on both sides.%26gt;%26gt; and fails miserably, IMHO.

National Geographic magazine once reported that France was the third largest film producer in the world, after India (first) and the US but the majority of those films do not have wide distribution in North America, unless they are big blockbusters like.....Amélie. So the opinion of moviegoers in North America about French movies might be different if they had wider access to French cinéma.

I am not suggesting that all French movies are good, but certainly many good French films are virtually unknown to the average North American moviegoer; just as an example: Bon Voyage with Gérard Depardieu, Isabelle Adjani, Peter Coyote (US actor that performed in two foreign languages in this movie, French and German) and Virginie Ledoyen amongst others. Most of the action takes place in Bordeaux, so not too many views of Paris in this film

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Maestrissimo, you may be right. I get to see very few French films in the U.S. In the past 20 years, I%26#39;ve probably liked 2 of the ones I%26#39;ve seen. Only one comes to mind actually -- the American title was %26quot;Intimate Strangers.%26quot;

I still like %26quot;Le Divorce,%26quot; though.

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I love Amélie - but that%26#39;s maybe because I am (as opposed to njutning the Swede) from the native country of H.C.Andersen, the fairy tale poet.

Every time I see the scenes with her father receiving postcards from his globetrotting garden-gnome, I roll on the floor with laughter.

And the totally crazy story about her mother getting killed in front of Notre-Dame by a suicide-jumper.

And all the totally screwy characters she meet when she set out to find the boy who had left his treasure-box in the hole in the bathroom-wall !

And the sickly jealous guy in the café to records to his dictaphone about his ex-girlfriend%26#39;s every move.

How can anyone NOT love this film ?

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Sorry for the bad spelling...

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There are a few French movies Americans might know, because they were remade later in the US with American actors, like:

- True lies (US remake of %26#39;La Totale!%26#39;)

- Breathless (US remake of %26#39;À bout de souffle%26#39;)

- The Birdcage (US remake of %26#39;La cage aux folles%26#39;)

Others are %26#39;Point of no return%26#39;, %26#39;Jungle 2 jungle%26#39;, %26#39;Three fugitives%26#39;, %26#39;Fathers%26#39; day%26#39;, %26#39;Three men and a baby%26#39;, %26#39;Sommersby%26#39;, %26#39;Pure luck%26#39;, %26#39;Cousins%26#39; and %26#39;Down and out in Beverly Hills%26#39;...

I have to say that, though I%26#39;ve seen probably many hundreds of US and English movies over the years, the films I consider really memorable are not seldom French.

The introduction of the DVD has made it much easier to see foreign films (though you still have to be aware of the region code issue). Often, you can buy DVD%26#39;s for not more than the price of one or two movie tickets.

If you%26#39;re into %26#39;bizarre%26#39; and French, I recommend %26quot;Delicatessen%26quot; - one of the directors later made %26quot;Amélie%26quot;!

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