In one of our first lessons back into the A2 course we watched the starting of the film Amelie (Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain), a charming french film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet and starring Audrey Tautou.
The film follows a girl named Amélie whose childhood was suppressed by her Father’s mistaken concerns of a heart defect. With these concerns Amélie gets hardly any real life contact with other people. This leads Amélie to resort to her own fantastical world and dreams of love and beauty.
The start of Amélie is very stylised and in my opinion very effective. The characters within the film (or more importantly in Amélie’s life) are defined by their likes and dislikes. For example, “I like looking back at people’s faces in the dark. I like noticing details that no one else sees… But I hate it in old movies when drivers don’t watch the road.”
Or via the narrator: “Raphael Poulain dislikes… peeing next to someone else. He also dislikes…catching scornful glances at his sandals. Clingy wet swimming trunks. Raphael Poulain likes… Peeling large strips of wallpaper… lining up and shining his shoes… emptying his toolbox… cleaning it out… and putting everything back.”
Since difference and identity are key factors in the course we were given the task of creating our own Amelie style introduction of ourselves.
I made a long list of my likes *Enter List Here* but found it more of a task coming up with ideas of personal dislikes.
Likes:
The feel of rubbing Vaseline on my lips.
People whispering in my ear.
Sitting in long grass on the river bank.
The ticking sound of my clock on the bed side table.
Attention to detail.
Dislikes
The smell of old copper coins.
When things aren’t symmetrical that should be.
I sketched a story board to illustate the different shots and framing I wanted to use in my sequence:
*Enter Storyboard Here*
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