Bonnaud, Frederic. "The Amélie Effect." Film Comment (Nov.-Dec. 2001): 36-38. 27
Mar. 2008 .
"Amélie's triumph is the result of the reflexive nationalism of "the sacred union": let us all stand united behind our common folkloreand iconography" (38). Bonnaud discusses how Améile was such a national and international success that revived the fadinginternational respect for french cinema. Kaganski (a film critic who wrote "Amélie pas jolie") : he uses as his main source ofnegative criticism. He claims that the film is xenophobic, extreme right, and is "removed from the reality of present-day Paris".He accounts for the overwhelming success of the film by discussing how we are "seduced by the use and abuse of in your face devices-- like Amélie's heart beating under her sweater or any number of crazy, ostentatious camera stunts. (I found this really interestingbecause I wrote my RA II on the scene with her heart and found it too be fanciful and endearing). He dissects the "proliferation ofclichés and false surprises", that I personally love.
Andrew, Dudley. "Amélie, or Le Fabuleux Destin de Cinéma Français." Film
Quarterly 57.3 (Spring 2004): 34-46. 27 Mar. 2008
.
Andrew discusses the faults of Amélie; however, he also accounts for Jeunet's artistic andcinematographic intents. For Jeunet, Amélie takes place in "the Paris of my youth, a fairy-taleParis". Unfortunately, the magical, surrealist and artistic idiosyncrasies found in the film arenothing but a byproduct from carefully calculated "story boards" that lack imagination and truecreativity. He also dicusses how the film in precocious : "particularly in the litany of 'likes' and 'don't likes' that define the style and personality of each character" (35). ALSO he references photo booths, which is great considering there is nothing scholarly written on them... anyways he talks about how Jeunet believes "one idea per shot"-- each frame has a visual introduction and conclusion and he usually frames the figures in the center with emphatic camera movement. The idea that he breaks down this film into shots, or even smaller into each frame (24/second) is a very interesting way to look at the relationship to photo booths : he creates this reality that seems spontaneous, but he does so through carefully scripting and not deviating from his story boards.
2 comments:
Lauren, can you edit this so that the font isn't grey--it's really hard to read on the blog.
Tip for others: if you click on the comments and also "show post," you'll be able to see it clearly there.
In future assignments you need to push your summaries harder.
Lose the word "discusses" and replace it with "argues" as well as more information about the nature of that argument. For example, "Andrew discusses the faults of Amélie; however, he also accounts for Jeunet's artistic andcinematographic intents."
"Andrew aruges that Amelie's faults are X because of Y." Or "He asserts that Jeunet's artistice and cinematographic intents are A and B, and uses evidence M and N to support the sub-claim that..."
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