Amélie is a 2001, French romantic-comedy set in Montmartre, Paris, France during the late 1990s. The film follows Amélie as she wanders through the city, and portrays a variety of perspectives on daily life in the city. The film is set in and around iconic areas of Paris, France, where viewers are given glimpses of classical French architecture and landmarks. This essay will argue that the film Amélie portrays daily Parisian life through a romanticized lens. This essay will offer discussion on how the film provides a commentary on urban life in Paris. The following paragraphs will offer a discussion on the portrayal of the city, the reasoning for these portrayals, how they might affect the audience and how such portrayals impact one’s …show more content…
What is important to consider is what is missing from this representation of the city. Jean-Pierre Jeunet is the director of the film, he is quoted as saying, “I wanted to make a fake Paris, a very nice Paris, like in my head when I was twenty and I arrived in Paris for the first time. I wanted to avoid the bad things: traffic jams, dog shit on the street, the rain” (Portegies, 2010, p. 55). What Amélie projects is simply a cinematic version of Paris (Durham, 2008, p. 178). Jeunet was criticized for this depiction of Paris, “which appeared to erase, as if by magic, all traces of graffiti, crime, pollution, and social unrest” (Ezra, 2004, p. 301). The film’s setting used more than eighty separate locations, and is, “so vetted and filtered that the manufactured Paris-scape resembles little more than a sustained advertisement for a traditional French product” (Portegies, 2010, p. 56). This romanticized version of Paris is then exacerbated by the traditionally associated French clichés which are present throughout the film. Thus, Amélie seeks to contrast the dark and gritty imaginings of the city and instead make it an attractive place to be. Jeunet’s contemporary Paris, creates astonishing adventures out of the everyday life. For some, this reimagining of the city erases the experiences and lives of actual people within the city. The focus of the film does not give the viewer an honest
This appeal arises out of a judgment awarded to appellee, Amelie Kemogne (“Kemogne”), against appellant, Charles Ndeumeni, (“Ndeumeni”), following a bench trial in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County. Ndeumeni challenges the denial of his motion for summary judgment, the admission of certain testimony offered against him, as well of the sufficiency of the evidence that sustained the judgment against him. On appeal, Ndeumeni presents four issues for our review. We rephrase and reorder the questions as follows:
The Virgin of Jeanne d’Evreux was commissioned by Queen Jeanne d’Evreux, wife of King Charles IV, sometime between 1324 and 1339, and donated to the royal abbey church of Saint-Denis in 1339 according to the inscription on the pedestal (Barbier). French royals in the 13th and 14th centuries often had luxury works of metal and enamel commissioned for churches, palaces, or their private homes (Kleiner).
Within the film, Ma Vie en Rose (Alain Berliner, France, 1997) we are encouraged to sympathize with the main character, Ludovic (Georges Du Fresne), a seven year old boy that insists that he is actually a girl. The importance of viewing this movie and being able to identify with the character of Ludovic shows us as an audience the absurdity of gender norms, while simultaneously encouraging us to have a more empathetic viewpoint in regards to such topics.
The novel seems to focus more on the problems caused by the department store. Furthermore, the novel depicts the transitioning state of Paris, mainly discussing the social realm. The
This paper will discuss various elements of mise-en-scene, specifically; character development, lighting, performance, costume, makeup in the film "Casablanca".(Michael Curtiz,1942) The setting of the story sets the tone for the entire film. Shots of tanks and planes show the violence of war that coincides with the cutthroat city that is Casablanca. From there, those sentiments are reinforced when a man is shot in the street while another man pick pockets someone whom is distracted. The mood of the movie stays on the dark side of things when we enter Rick's Café, where we meet our protagonist played by Humphrey Bogart. In this scene we are treated to the jaded portrayal of night club owner. We see his utter disregard for a French woman
In Charles Rearick’s book, Paris Dreams, Paris Memories, he describes the various ways in which Paris is “represented” through various images he identifies as the City of Light, Old Paris, the Capital of Pleasures, and Paname. Rearick further writes how and why these images of Paris came of importance and how they shaped the geographical layout of the city we know today. All of these images together have likewise produced the city of Paris while also providing the framework of Parisian events and experiences.
In Midnight in Paris, Gil tags along with her fiancées family to a trip in Paris in order to become more inspired by the ambiance of the beautiful city, by having Gil experience the golden age without any help of technology, he is deliberately opposing the idea of postmodernism and how people tend to connect to people and places. According to Jameson, everything we experience is mediated by technology or capitalism, so we no longer experience things as “natural” unmediated. It is inferred that Gil understands this, and therefore decides to get out of Los Angeles in order to experience Paris for himself, instead of through the use of technology. We see how his fiancées opposes his views in the scene in which it is raining, and she attempts to avoid the rain while Gil is happily enjoying walking in the rain. In this film, we can see how Inez’s character represents popular culture which does not bother experiencing things without being mediated, while Gil attempts to accomplish the opposite. He attempts to have a fell for the mood and ambient of the city in order to regain the inspiration and motivation he had lost while in the city, where mostly everything is mediated by modern items.
In late 19th century Paris, cafés-concerts (best described as “glorified beer halls” (Clark 206)) were a very popular destination for the people of Paris. Cafés-concerts became an integral part of Parisian social life, as they were visited by hundreds of people each night, regardless of class. A bar at the Folies Bergère became the topic of Edouard Manet’s last painting, as Manet tried to portray the new, “modern” Paris, and the introduction of mass production during this time. A Marxist art historian, T.J. Clark finds this particular painting important because it revealed a lot about the new, modern Paris, and Manet’s intentions with the painting. Clark focuses more on the emergence of the new social class during this time, and how this affected the role of women in Paris. The painting, A bar at Folies Bergère, has historical significance because of how it depicts modernity in the context of the emergence of a new social class (the petite bourgeoisie), the introduction of mass production, and the changing role of women.
Those scenes weren’t necessary, but in the French culture they might have been because they value the littlest things. It also shows how life in France is. Being in France, I noticed that many people go to the Cafe, where Amelie works, they also use telephone booths, and they all seem to live in apartments. Throughout the film, I
exhibition of his longing for the familiarity of Paris and the sanctity of his past, a
In the short story, The Old Chevalier by Isak Dinsen, the male protagonist, Baron von Brackel reflects on his past sexual encounters with two women whose personalities are extremely different from one another. In many novels, short stories and comics authors would create two women as “polar opposites” for a man’s sexual and/or possessive gaze, which is evident in the text. In order to understand, why a man may be attracted to different character traits in women, I will examine The Baron’s attraction to Nathalie and The Mistress by looking at how literary works men portray women, what they find attractive and the fulfilment that men seek from a woman.
This has been the basis for many French filmmakers, as this is the type of France audience finds most pleasurable to watch. Jeunet has presented to his viewers a stereotypical view of France. Jeunet chose to set Amelie in Montmarte because it deisplays stereotypical qualities of a French wonderland, as well as being aesthetically pleasing. Included in the shots are many stone buildings, clean streets, and beautiful colours, all of which have been cautiously selected, adding to the director’s aspiration of creating a French wonderland. “We worked on everything: moving cars, removing signals, graffiti's...” (Jeunet, JP, 2001). It can be seen that the narrative, characters and underlying message of Amelie are all incredibly positive, and Jeunet has clearly found inspiration from Paris being the city of love, as well as memories from his own life. “I had in mind a box full of tiny happy events and stories. I wanted to use them to make audience feel happy.” (Jeunet, JP, 2001)
Throughout history, women have constantly been objectified and forced into submission by the male dominated society. Simone de Beauvoir’s philosophical work, The Second Sex, echoes the intense oppression of women and reflects the first wave feminist movement. Her existentialist decoding of genders resulted in the idea of the Other, which explores the phenomenon of women forced into the role of an object, while men are the subject. In the second chapter, “The Girl”, Beauvoir further studies the idea of this oppression during one’s transition from a girl into a woman. Beauvoir states that no matter how much freedom and sense of self a girl holds, she is always forced into the role of the Other in society. Beauvoir 's idea of the Other held
The short story Desiree’s Baby by Kate Chopin provides a sobering depiction of how the dark forces of prejudice and social hierarchy tore apart a plantation owning family in the state of Louisiana. Desiree’s character is that of a lady who carries the burden of being submissive to a domineering husband, a role she keeps until the very end of the narrative. Desiree is portrayed as an agent of light so to speak throughout the plotline but is seriously blinded by her doglike allegiance to her husband Armand, who is in essence her master and her livelihood. The struggle for female independence is a signature theme in a number of Chopin’s works and was a struggle for women in the South during this
Les Miserables is a characteristic romantic work in both theme and form. In theme the novel assaults the traditional social structure, glorifies freedom of thought and spirit, and makes a hero of the average individual. In this novel the several characters were portrayed as heros. It follows the lives and interactions of several French