Amelie Reflection

Superior Essays
Amelie, a beautifully constructed French film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, colourfully paints the fictional tale of a young French woman named Amelie. The story begins in a rather unusual way, through a series of seemingly arbitrary events that inexplicably lead up to Amelie’s birth, which makes the film that much more intriguing and appealing to the spectator. Jeunet’s unique style does not stop after the exposition. The exposition’s upbeat, playful, and creative style merely whets the appetite of the audience for what is to come. Following the explanation of Amelie’s birth the narrator gives a detailed description of what each character is like and why, starting with Amelie’s odd and particular family. The typical film will let each character’s …show more content…
Without the meticulously plotted narrative, the chain of cause and effect events, the film would not have had such a magical and impactful effect on it’s viewers and here is why. Each character is presented in such a way, through the development of the narrative, to add to the quirky, unique, and lively nature of the film and vice versa; the narrative would not be the way it is without the help of it’s character’s reactions and actions to each event that occurs in the narrative. The exploration of the relationship between character and narrative in Amelie is a path with many forks along the way. This essay is going to explore the relationship between narrative and character in Amelie, more specifically on the way that the two are codependent on one another. The relationship between the two is a major component in revealing and understanding the quirky and unique nature of the …show more content…
“If we do go on to be moved by engaging with the character on the level of allegiance, our responses are a tangent to those of the character: they are acentral, sympathetic rather than empathetic…in order to respond emotionally this way, the perceiver must first understand the narrative situation…”. Before the spectator can even begin to understand the character, we need to understand the narrative. Understanding the narrative situation first and foremost involves understanding the causality; the logical understanding of why a character has acted in a certain way: what event led the character to act or react in a certain way or what has caused the particular event to happen to said character. For example, throughout the film Mr. Collignon constantly abuses his worker, Lucien and Amelie constantly sees these acts of abuse. Even though the sequence of events building up to these particular scenes has portrayed Amelie as a harmless character, the spectator is still able to piece together previous events, where she goes out of her way to make help others, and is able to understand and even predict the upcoming act that Amelie performs when she breaks into Mr. Collignon’s apartment and vandalises some of his belongings. Even though she has done wrong to one character, it was only to help out Lucien. This change in the narrative

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Two Against The World (A Discussion on the Similarities and Differences of the Main Characters in “Checkouts” and “The Girl Who Can”) It’s amusing how the point of view of a story can change its entire meaning. If in first person, one character might seem like the antagonist, when in third they almost seem to be the hero. The difference between first and third person point of view is simple; in first person, the narrator is a part of the main action of the plot, while in third, they are outside of it, an stranger looking in, almost like a god.…

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Ms. Chopin uses great detail in her story, which creates an emotional connection between the characters and the readers; “She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion chair, quite motionless, except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who had cried itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams”. The author wrote with such descriptive emotion to express the genuine emotion of Mrs. Mallard to almost make the reader feel empathy for her. “The Story of an Hour” is also successful due to the amount of detail used to describe the character 's physique and features “She was young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength”. The details used to described the character gives Kate Chopin’s audience a real mental picture to follow along with a they continue to read further into the short story. Even though Kate Chopin wrote a well written article of literature, there are few corrections she could’ve made to create a masterpiece.…

    • 963 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    You know, there’s so much that you can talk about in this world – trust me, I get told that I talk way too much and yet speak such little. But there’s one thing I really find interesting, and that would be journeys. They’re an ongoing paradigm that really makes you wonder about what sort of world we live in – they constantly challenge the whole ideals and quirks that we know about not just only ourselves, but also the world around us. Take Peter Goldsworthy’s book Maestro for example, it’s constant use of tasteful contrast and setting arouses the concept of growing up primarily through the unique themes of both music and the development of interpersonal relationships.…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Identity Loss In the case of social classes, two distinct tiers of society come into play: the higher society and the lower class. Though most fall under the latter, many go to great lengths to achieve a lifestyle of glamour and prosperity, lengths that can lead to losing one’s entire identity. This easily recognizable line between lifestyles appears in both Thomas Hardy’s poem, “The Ruined Maid,” and Karen Russell’s story, “St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised By Wolves.” In Hardy’s poem, a “country girl” runs into ‘Melia, an old friend, in town who has adopted a lifestyle of misleading luxury which the girl envies and strives to achieve, unaware of the consequences behind it.…

    • 840 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Adele Blanc-Sec

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Throughout history individuals have described Paris for its architecture, cuisine, historical monuments or what the city is called, “The City of Lights”. But what most people do not know is how the women of Paris assisted in shaping the city over time. During and After, World War One, Paris was significantly impacted leaving many females in the workforce. In the book, which is set in 1912, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adele Blanc-Sec, Adele portrays herself as a heroism that is self-sufficient, independent and out spoken. Thru the course of the comic book the author is revealing his knowledge about the complex perspective of women.…

    • 678 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Laura Esquivel’s film adaptation of Like Water for Chocolate and Kate Chopin’s stories, A Pair of Silk Stockings and The Storm, share a similar theme. They all focus on the complexity of women’s struggles to discover their freedom and individuality against social norms and traditions. At first they all place their desires aside because they feel a sense of duty whether they are forced or self imposed. Eventually, each woman takes a step to fulfill their desires if only for one brief time. In the film Like Water for Chocolate Tita is struggling with the desire to be with her true love and find her independence and individuality.…

    • 1110 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    At the young age of twelve Marie-Laurie and her father fled the city she has grown to know every step, stair and crack of to a foreign city of Saint-Malo to her great-uncle’s six floor town home. Already, the readers can see Marie-Laure’s resistance and confusion to leave the place she has always known; the first example of Marie-Laure's limited free will. Marie-Laure's papa has always built models of the city for Marie-Laureto study and learn. When she was newly sightless, he made her walk the same route every day until she learned it. After they moved to Saint-Malo, her father began to make another model of the new neighborhood.…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    A story that includes a description of a character’s turmoil may cause readers to relate to the character’s emotions, whereas a story that is told from the external point of view might not produce the same empathy in readers. In the same way, how character is portrayed influences a story as well. There are different types of characters in literature; the main characters in “Cathedral” are complex, dynamic, and static. A complex character is one whose personality is described in detail. Moreover, the difference between dynamic and static characters lies in the fact that a dynamic character changes throughout the story, while a static character stays the same.…

    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Disney Comparison When we think of Disney princess movies, we always remember the happily ever after that happens in the end. But are those ending all true? Unfortunately, Disney puts its own spin on a lot of those tales to make them that way.…

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “I think with any characterization there's a point where you empathize, no matter how much of a deviance his or her actions may be from your understanding of humanity.” Actor Benedict Cumberbatch states, humanity will influence one to empathize with the character no matter what. Writers, through direct and indirect presentation, can provoke empathy for a character who was thought to be black-hearted. With direct presentation, the reader explicitly receives presented information about a character. Indirect presentation occurs when the author shapes a character through the dialogue or actions of the character, as well as the dialogue or actions of another character.…

    • 1333 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Visual Analysis In the film “The Long Day Closes” the scene of Tammy’s in Love helped demonstrate the film maker’s use of the cinematic elements such as mis en scene, cinematography, editing and sound to help the audience understand the protagonists feelings of loneliness, and being conformed into a routine, as well as having a hard time of being an individual. The purpose in this film was quite an interesting one. In this particular scene of Tammy’s in Love, the filmmaker was very intricate when it came to the purpose of the films mis en scene.…

    • 823 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Princess Bride Comparison

    • 1173 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Stories and fairytales play a role in a person’s lives from the time the young age of reading stories every night before bed to adulthood when reading is a rare pleasure. If written well, a story captures a person’s mind and imagination. Every character, place, and adventure is pictured, making it feel as if the reader lived it with a character. After the success of a novel in bookstores, many novels transform from pages in a book to actors on the silver screen. Often, the portrayal of the movie differs greatly from the ideas of the characters and adventures readers pictured in their head.…

    • 1173 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A Piece Of Cake Analysis

    • 1388 Words
    • 6 Pages

    A Piece of Cake is a sincere and wonderfully written autobiography by author Cupcake Brown. Her memoir is one that tells the riveting story of her as a young African American woman going through tough times and ends with her finding herself and pulling her life together. Through the experiences presented in her book, she gave an inside look to readers about African American culture, conflict and violence, self-esteem. The story follows a plot line of a little girl whom at first has a great life; her family, although not together, is happy.…

    • 1388 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Character Analysis of Mrs. Mallard By analyzing The Story of an Hour, Chopin employs several techniques in her writing to effectively characterize the protagonist, Mrs. Mallard. One can perceive Mrs. Mallard in a variety of perspectives due to the deliberate planning of characterization that allow the reader to identify with her, employing different writing techniques in the plot to create symbolic meanings that indirectly give the reader a sense of who she is becoming, and by incorporating the notion of liminality. These elements help to “shape” Mrs. Mallard’s personality and allow the reader to comprehend Chopin’s reasoning for portraying Mrs. Mallard in that specific manner. Chopin’s thoughtful formation of Mrs. Mallard help the reader…

    • 980 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    For the purpose of this essay, I will be speaking about Mieke Bal’s theory of narratology and applying the theory to a piece of narrative culture. The piece I've chosen to speak about is the movie ‘Se7en’. It was produced in 1995 , it is filmed in an unnamed american city and director of the movie is David Fincher. I have chosen to focus on the final scene and the sequence in which the narrative is told. Bal’s theory helps to decipher, understand and evaluate narratives.…

    • 1390 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics