French professor Robert Hudson lectures on the French film “Amélie” during the semester’s first International Cinema lecture and film showing.
PROVO, Utah (Sept. 9, 2014) If French professor Robert Hudson were to only recommend two or three French movies to the budding cinephile, Amélie would have to be one.
During an International Cinema lecture, Hudson explained the value of the 2001 film Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, or as known in the U.S., Amélie. Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Amélie, according to Hudson, is a complete mastery of film-making elements, including cinematography, sound, and editing.
Hudson said that the film is intimately tied with key historical moments, such as the end of “les trente glorieuses” – 30 glorious years following the end of the War and colonization, as well as the beginning of the European Union. Hudson says the film “celebrates Paris and its own Frenchness.”
While studying at the University of California, Los Angeles, Hudson had the chance to hear director Jeunet explain Amélie. Jeunet was tired of the persistent New Wave obsession with sad or enigmatic endings, saying, “People deserve to be happy.”
So he directed Amélie, whose French title insists on the “fabulous destiny” of Amélie. Hudson explained that older definitions of “fabulous” relate to being mythical or without a basis in reality, which coincide with the idea that Amélie aligns itself with the literary tradition of magical realism. Hudson explained the elements of magical realism seen in the film – elements that “first familiarize and then defamiliarize.
Hudson mentioned the enhanced color. “We can recognize Paris, but Paris doesn’t really look like this. Paris doesn’t have these greens, yellows and brick reds,” Hudson said. He also explained the film’s enhanced reality and improbabilities, quirky yet human stories about what people like and dislike, two extremely awkward people who manage to find love and who bring joy to their circles of influence – all these aspects contribute to Jeunet’s vision of magical realism in Amélie.
Hudson ended by quoting the film, “Les temps sont durs pour les rêveurs – Times are hard for dreamers.” But Jeunet, through Amélie, offers the antidote and shows how people can be happy.
For more information on International Cinema and the semester schedule, visit their website.
—Stephanie Bahr Bentley BA English ’14