Amelie pt2

After reading everyone’s post in the first discussion form one, I feel like everyone one said pretty much the same thing, but everyone worded their responses differently. One thing I noticed that was similar between a lot of my peers posts were reasons why Amelia was so popular post 9/11. A lot of people mentioned that Amelie was a feel good movie. I can agree with this because we see Amelie watching her mother killed in the most obscure way and she ends up being like a guardian angel to many people as an adult; when she could have easily been a gloomy and evil person. I also noticed a lot of people said that this movie was somewhat of a comedy. I agree with them because Amelia had a lots of funny moments. My favorite is when Amelie gets an extra set of keys made to the farm stands owner’s apartment. Amelie proceeds to mess with his apartment. Amelie switch the guy’s foot cream and toothpaste, put sugar into the guy’s liquor and set back the guys alarm until 4 a.m. The last thing I noticed in the forum is how a lot of people noted on Amelie’s weird tendencies. One example is how she picked up flat rocks around the city only to skip the rocks across the water later.   

Amelie

Robert Ebert says, “It is so hard to make a nimble, charming comedy. So hard to get the tone right and find actors who embody charm instead of impersonating it. It takes so much confidence to dance on the tightrope of whimsy. "Amelie" takes those chances, and gets away with them.” I found Amelie to be a funny movie even if it did not attend to a comedy. I was actually very surprised that Amelie had a rating of R. The movie seemed to me not deserving of an R rating. The realm differs between public and the private realm of Amelie’s mind. The private realm of Amelie to me isn’t really seen by the public, but when it is people give her advice. Some of the people are the old painter and the old lady who owns the restaurant. It helps the wider community by helping people. We see Amelie help a blind old man and give him a colorful commentary of the scenery. I do see some influence of Tykwer in the movie with the pictures shot as a movie. Films take their time and build charters while moving the story along. I think the movie Amelie is at a different role than other films. I personally feel it deals with young adult hood. A lot of problems that Amelie has are a lot of problems that adults face.   

Elevator to the Gallows- First Impression

After watching the “Elevator to the Gallows” for the first time, all I can say is that I’m very impressed by this movie and is probably the movie that I have enjoyed watching the most so far during this winter semester. I would have to say the reason for this is because this movie is similar to movies that I watch in my spare time. To me this movie seemed like an older version of a James Bond. I have never seen another French crime film from the 1950’s, but I like what Roger Ebert says about this movie, “These 1950s French noirs abandon the formality of traditional crime films, the almost ritualistic obedience to formula, and show crazy stuff happening to people who seem to be making up their lives as they go along.”

I think the age of Louis Malle and the fact that this was his first film are very important. Since we has so young he could have played it safe and done what other directors have done and wanted until he become older to do a different style. I really like Mile Davis’ improved jazz throughout the movie, I think it gave it a nice touch. The one odd thing I found while watching the movie was when Julian kills Simon in the beginning of the movie. That wasn’t the weird part, the weird part was the black cat outside walking on the railing outside the room. My first question was how did the cat get there or did the director put the cat there to symbolize that Julian’s luck has run out?