Good Essay On The Impact Of Amelie In Foreign Exposure To French Film

Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie was a breakthrough in exposing international audiences to French film – the film remains the highest-grossing French film to date in America (Box Office Mojo, 2014). There are many factors inherent to the film that contribute to its success, not the least of which is the film’s stylistic appeal – Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s unique, slightly grotesque yet endlessly quirky style made it a very entertaining and unconventional film compared to many domestic and international releases. Jeunet’s use of unconventional coloring and cinematography (making heavy use of CG) modernized the French film in ways previously unheard of. The star power of newcomer ingénue Audrey Tautou created a new kind of sex appeal, playing into the “Manic Pixie Dream Girl” that is so often the center of these kinds of quirky independent films. The film is quintessentially French, as well, providing a heightened representation of its country of origin – from the Yann Tiersen score to the whimsical settings of Montmartre, the film mines its sense of French unconventionality for maximum effect. Because of these attributes and more, Amelie became an independent international hit.
1) Amelie became an independent international hit because of a combination of innovative new film techniques and style that worked with the modern trend toward quirkiness.
2) Bonnaud, Frederic. “The Amelie Effect.” Film Comment 37.6 (November/December 2001):
3) Hoad, Phi. “Why does Amelie’s sweet smell of success linger on?” The Guardian Film Blog
(Oct 18, 2011). http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/oct/18/amelie-sweet-smell-success.
4) “Foreign Language Movies at the Box Office.” Box Office Mojo. Mar 16, 2014.
<http://www.boxofficemojo.com/genres/chart/?id=foreign.htm&sort=gross&order=DESC&p=.htm>.
5) Vanderschelden, Isabelle. Amelie. IB Taurus, 2007.
6) Nah, Somi. "A Study on Fantasy Images represented on the Films: Focused on Mise-en-Scène
Element." Proceedings of World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology. No. 66. World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology, 2012.