Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain is a French masterpiece directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and premiered in February, 2002. Following the ‘cult’ line of Jeunet’s productions, this movie has nothing to leave the telespectateur in the lurch. Immersed in a masterful cinematography, with a unique vintage color palette and scenario, Audrey Tautou as Amelie Poulain takes ourselves to a voyage through a contemporary Montmartre, letting us to know, in a meticulous way, the Parisian way of life. The movie gets off showing us Amelie’s childhood. It’s enough for us to map her characteristics and develop a penchant for the French shy, perfectionist and curious girl.
THE POWER OF THE PLOT
It’s important to mention that the plot of Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain has, in general, no action or conflicts, it’s totally based in the way Amelie Poulain experiences life and how she gets to grips with a mystery. On a usual day, at her home, Amelie had listened to the news of the death of Lady Dy, so that she had dropped the cover of a perfume on the floor, then, when she sat down to catch it, behind the tile, a little box appeared. It was the turning point to start this narrative and to reinforce the way she thinks and deals with life. Amélie started, this way, looking for the owner of the object, which contained toys, papers and childhood’s memories.
THE CONNECTION WITH CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHY
Although it seems to look like kind of a boring story, it caught a spell on me like nothing else. It is impossible, after watching the movie and being affected by Amélie’s behavior, to face life the same way we did before. As the contemporary philosopher Merleau-Ponty says: the world is inexhaustible and it always hides mysteries, life is what we enter in contact with by our sensitive knowledge. This philosophy is reinforced and it has a spotlight on this movie because of the marvelous Amélie Poulain. It’s more than a movie, more than a character, it’s a light for us to walk though the world paying attention to the smaller things, to be open to the new ones and, also, to expect everything from the unexpected. We never know where the epiphany moments live.
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The article above was edited by Mariana do Patrocínio.
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