Amélie

Amélie – 2001, Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Would I have liked Amélie more if I had seen it at the cinema in 2001? Probably.
It’s a lovely, lovely film, but it’s not perfect. I wonder if any of the critics who at the time described it as ‘Breathtaking’ and ‘...everything that’s wonderful about cinema.’ have changed their minds.

Watching it for the first time in 2010 I don’t think it has aged so well. Amélie has the same distinctive look of other films by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, but I think JP is too keen on the yellow/green/sepia look he always employs. Yeah it’s a visual style, his trademark in fact, but I think it’s overdone in Amélie. In the digital age, it’s very easy to apply a filtered colour to a film in post production. So there’s no excuse for being uneven. Though to be fair, Amélie was only released one year after O Brother, Where Art Thou, so at the time it was the ‘in thing’.

I suppose ten years is a strange age for a film. It’s long enough for those who saw it on release to say ‘my god, it’s ten years old’, old enough for it to feel dated, but not old enough for anyone to know what its’ legacy will be. Maybe Amélie will have as much influence as Jules et Jim. Maybe Jean-Pierre Jeunet is the next Francois Truffaut.

Most people who watch Amélie become completely lost in it JP’s dream like vision. If you don’t get drawn all the way in, it’s easy to think that the film begins to drag after the first 80 minutes or so, and that there are a few loose ends that could be cut away entirely without compromising the plot. A shorter, more focused draft of the story may have made for a better film.

But these are all minor issues about what is a very good film. I just can’t forgive Jean-Pierre for what he did with Alien Resurrection.

Big Man Japan / Audition

Big Man Japan – 2007(JPN), 2009(UK), Hitoshi Matsumoto
Sometimes I see a trailer for a film and I think ‘I gotta watch that shit’

And afterwards I realise it could never have lived up to expectations.
Big Man Japan plays out a lot more slowly than I expected.
But the climax was completely unexpected and absolutely hilarious.

This film was written and directed by a Japanese comedian who plays the lead. For a reason I can’t explain, I really want to like Japanese comedy, but it just doesn’t translate. The funniest thing to come out of Japan is Takeshi’s Castle, and that’s not scripted. Why do Japanese horror films travel better than Japanese comedy? Because being scared shitless is universal.

Audition – 1999(JPN), 2001(UK), Takashi Miike
Sometimes I hear so much about a film that I think ‘I gotta watch that shit’

And afterwards I realise it could never have lived up to expectations.
Audition played out just as slowly as I expected.
But I expected more from the climax, only because I’d heard so much about it.

Why was Ringu remade in Hollywood and not Audition? Because Ringu is about a scary little girl, something we are familiar with (The Exorcist) and Audition is about a woman who tortures men to death.

Ringu started the whole ‘Scary little Japanese Girl/Young Woman’ craze, and is the reason the genre exists, but Takashi Miike’s Audition was only released a year later.

But why Ringu? Because Ringu does what Audition does, only better; slowly, slowly lures you in, revealing that you might be in store for something...preparing you...but no matter how prepared you are you still won’t be ready.

Horror films are a ‘love them or hate them’ thing, but I think being terrified by a film is underrated. Fear is uncomfortable, and discomfort reminds us we are alive. Horror films provide fear in a controlled environment. The most recent horror film I saw was the Spanish film [REC], which is also very good.