Amelie: Interesting Premise and Beautiful Cinematography

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For our second assignment, we are assigned to watch one international film and study it thereafter. We are to identify its genre and its particular conventions such as themes, sub-themes and etc. However, the main idea of this assignment is the film theory. We are to apply one of the nine film theories into our film choices and analyze it thoroughly in terms of mise-en scene, narrative structure, character interaction and any other criteria.
For our film selection, we have gone through and watched a few international films which included Chinese films, Bollywood films and a few French films. After a brief discussion we have unanimously chosen a French film entitled “Amelie” which was released in 2001 and directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Audrey Tautou. We chose this film because of its unique view as well as the interesting premise and beautiful cinematography. Due to these reasons, we felt that “Amelie” would be a good choice for our assignment.

Background
Amélie was directed by and written by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. His films are amongst favorites of film-goers in this generation. Interestingly, his films are always the subject of critical analysis as many juries of French Film Festivals aren’t keen on his films, Amélie being turned down by the Cannes Film Festival. This is also due to the fact that Jeunet collaborated with other countries to help fund his films which made the juries question the authenticity of its French film status. Jeunet’s next film project which is starred by Audrey Tautou as well is A Very Long Engagement (2004). Set in France during the war period and in the French language, its status as a French film was called into question by the juries due to the fact that Warner Bros. Studios prov...

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...ugh it is a film of their own, a very rare case. It gained massive success in the U.K and the lead actress was invited to film some English language films as well such as Dirty Pretty Liars and The Da Vinci Code. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet received critical acclaim as well as earned a few Oscar nominations for his film. He is recently developing an English Language Film entitled T.S Spivet that will be released in 2014.
As film critic Frédéric Bonnaud has stated “To hear the French tell it, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film hasn't only saved French cinema as we know it, it has saved France”. This is very true as interest in the French Cinema rose high and bigger budgeted films were allowed to be produced as well as developing a working relationship with the United States of America to produce blockbuster films such as Arthur and the Minimoys as well as The Bourne Trilogy.

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