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It's better to help people than garden gnomes.
When Tracie rewatched cult classic Amélie, the 25-year-old film delivered visual metaphors, magical realism, and romance that delighted as much as they did a quarter century ago. There were also moments that did not age as well as nostalgia would have suggested, and others offered cultural commentary that wasn't quite fleshed out.
The assumptions underlying the central romance between Amélie and Nino seemed to suggest that each of us has one true love out there. Tracie calls bullshit. The titular character Amélie decides to make it her mission to help those around her, but is she really helping? Is it possible Amélie is on the autism spectrum? And if yes, what are the implications of that?
In the conversation between the sisters, they wonder about what might get lost–and found–in translation for American viewers of this film, or any consumers of movies created by and for a different culture. Whether the quirky characters (and their attitude toward romance) are quintessentially French or just delightfully weird, the visually beautiful film remains deeply enjoyable.
So, my little listener, you don't have bones of glass. You can take life's knocks. If you let this chance pass, eventually, your heart will become as dry and brittle as my skeleton. So, go listen, for Pete's sake!
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deep thoughts about stupid sh*t, romance, pop culture, film, cult classic, france, nostalgia, cultural commentary, mental health, psychology, storytelling, movies, film analysis, french, romcom, women, analyzing film tropes, comedy, audrey tautou, Paris
This episode was edited by Resonate Recordings.
Our theme music is "Professor Umlaut" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License
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We are the sister podcasters Tracie Guy-Decker and Emily Guy Birken, known to our extended family as the Guy Girls.
We're hella smart and completely unashamed of our overthinking prowess. We love 80s and 90s movies and tv, science fiction, comedy, and murder mysteries, good storytelling with lots of dramatic irony, analyzing film tropes with a side of feminism, and examining the pop culture of our Gen X childhood for gender dynamics, psychology, sociology, religious allegory, and whatever else we find.
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SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
And so again, she meddled and gave each of them
(00:04):
what she thought they wanted andneeded, but not what they
expressed that they wanted andneeded.
Have you ever had something youlove dismissed because it's just
pop culture?
What others might deem stupidshit, you know matters.
You know it's worth talking andthinking about.
And so do we.
So come overthink with us as wedelve into our deep thoughts
(00:26):
about stupid shit.
I'm Tracy Guy Decker, and you'relistening to Deep Thoughts About
Stupid Shit because pop cultureis still culture, and shouldn't
you know what's in your head?
On today's episode, I will besharing my deep thoughts about
the 2001 film Amelie with mysister, Emily Guy Birken, and
(00:47):
with you.
Let's dive in.
Okay, Em, I know you've seenthis movie because we have
talked about it.
Tell me what's in your headabout Amelie.
SPEAKER_00 (00:54):
There's quite a bit in my head about this movie.
I loved it, so people may or maynot know I was a French major in
college, in addition to being anEnglish major.
We've talked a little bit beforeabout my love for French.
I was very much a francophile.
And I spent six months in Parisin college.
And then my name is Emily.
And so when I was firstintroduced to this film, a
(01:16):
friend of mine was just like, ohmy god, you will love this.
The main character is namedafter you.
It's all in Paris.
It is delightful.
So that's how a friend of minetold me about it.
I think I saw it in the theaterwhen it was like independent
theater, like limited run typething.
And then I watched it over andover again.
(01:37):
I introduced my now husband toit.
And it was funny what he tookaway from it, because we met two
years later in 2003.
Uh a few weeks after I showed itto him.
We went to like Costco orsomething like that.
And we were looking at likethese giant containers of like
rice and like dried beans.
(01:59):
And he's like, I really don'tknow what I would do with that
other than make like a Frenchgirl and just put my hands in
it.
And I was just like, that is notat all what I took from the
film, but okay.
So, but what I remember, AudreyTattoo being just adorable.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(02:19):
I remember appreciating, becauseone of my quote-unquote favorite
things to do was critique thegeographical inaccuracies of
Paris in American movies set inParis.
So I really appreciated the justthe Paris of Amelie because it's
a French film made and made byFrench people who actually know
(02:40):
that you can't get from to NotreDame in 10 minutes.
So I loved that.
I loved the love story because Ilove love stories.
I loved how she helped all thepeople in her orbit because I
love found family misfits, thatcharming misfits.
I also really loved that becauseI was such a francophile, I
(03:03):
ended up seeing a lot of theseactors in different films
because I would watch Frenchcinema in other places.
And in fact, Nino has a verysmall part in the fifth element
because and now I'm blanking onhis name, but the director of
the fifth element is French.
So those are a few of the thingsthat are in my head, but there's
(03:26):
quite a bit.
I got really mad when whichevertravel site used the roaming
gnome as their mascot because itwas like, no, that belongs to
that delightful movie, and Idon't want it to be something
that everybody knows.
So I was a bit of a gatekeeper.
(03:48):
So tell me, why are we talkingabout it today?
SPEAKER_01 (03:52):
So, you know, it's on the list, and we were
planning, and I was like, oh,that film, I want to see that
again.
I watched it, I was already outof the house.
So we weren't, I had graduatedfrom college by the time this
was out.
So we weren't living in the sameplace, you and I, but like the
name and the French, it remindedme of you.
So I wanted to watch it.
And actually, Audrey's Tattoowith the dark hair and big eyes
(04:14):
reminded me of you as well.
And I found the there's a lot ofmagical realism in this movie,
and I found the sort of visualmetaphors like conveyed through
the screen, like so delightful.
It was just really like in mymemory, really, unlike any other
film, kind of gave me visualmetaphors, and I love metaphors
(04:38):
so much.
That's really what was in myhead about Amelie, and I wanted
to revisit it now.
So there's not a whole lot atstake for me.
There actually probably is moreat stake for you based on what
you just said than for me.
But it is a film that I haveloved.
And so that was why it was onthe list, and that's why I
wanted to do it now.
So before I tell you, sort ofremind you of like some of the
(04:59):
characters and things, let metell you some of the postcards
from the destination that I wantto talk about in our analysis.
I want to talk about, like youkind of named American movies
set in Paris versus this Frenchmovie set in Paris.
I want to talk about Frenchversus American perspective
because I found one articlewritten in English by a French
person who had some a bone topick with this movie that like
(05:21):
completely went over my head.
I don't want to spend a lot oftime there, but I do want to
like briefly talk about the waya piece of art made in one
culture, like when it's consumedin another culture, kind of want
to talk about in the abstract.
I saw one critic suggest thatmaybe Amelie is on the autism
spectrum, the character.
And I want to talk about that.
Like that really is interestingto me.
(05:43):
And I see why they say that.
So we'll spend some time there.
You named that like her helpingeveryone in her orbit was
something that you liked aboutthis movie.
I want to talk about helpingversus meddling because I think
that there's there are somecases where her help maybe she
should have kept it to herself,which I never I did not see on
the first watch, but on thisrewatch, I was like, you should
(06:05):
have left that alone,sweetheart.
We need to do the Bechtel testwith this movie.
And I want to talk about theromance that you loved so much.
Like, let's like dig into it alittle bit.
And finally, I do want to talkabout the magical realism that I
named and those visualmetaphors, because I think
that's really interesting andlike a cool tool for
storytelling.
(06:25):
It doesn't, it wouldn't work forevery film, but I think it's a
really interesting likestorytelling device that I'd
like to just spend some timetalking about.
So that's where I want to go.
We'll see if I get to all of it.
But quickly, I or as quickly asI can, I'm not gonna do a
synopsis like chronologically,because I don't think I could,
but I'm gonna remind you of thecharacters.
(06:45):
So Amelie Poulain, I think isher last name.
I get to correct your press mypronunciation if necessary.
Yeah.
So Amelie Poulain is theprotagonist of this film, the
titular character.
She is, we see her kind of growup with a narration over top.
And she it's has some of thatmagical realism and interesting
(07:07):
kind of quirky moments as she'sgrowing up.
We learn that like her daddoesn't touch her at all, except
for a monthly physical.
He's a doctor.
And so her heart rate speedsbecause she's excited to have
her father touch her at all forany kind of infection.
And so he thinks she has a heartproblem because her heart rate
is always elevated when hechecks it every month.
(07:28):
Her mom is very, I don't knowthe word.
She's also standoffish.
You know, we learn that herfavorite thing is both of them.
Her favorite thing is to emptyout her purse, vacuum it out,
and then put everything back.
Her dad's favorite thing is toempty out his toolbox, vacuum it
out, and put everything back in.
And then we her why how could wepossibly think that Amelie might
be on the spectrum?
(07:48):
Where might that have come from?
Right.
Well, that's her parents.
So and her mother dies when atourist is trying to commit
suicide by jumping off of NotreDame and lands on Amelie's mom,
which is sort of a ridiculousway to go.
So then it's just her and herdad.
Anyway, most of the movie takesplace now.
She's an adult.
(08:09):
She's we figure she's in herearly 20s, she's moved to Paris.
She is a waitress.
So the people around her, thissort of inciting incident of the
film, actually, this incitingincident is she's doing her
nightly routine, and the news ison, and she hears the news of
Lady Diana's passing, Lady D.
(08:30):
And she drops the lid of thewhatever cream or whatever that
she's using, which is spherical,and it rolls on the bathroom and
hits a tile that is loose andcomes out, and there's like a
hollowed out space.
And she puts her hand in thereand she pulls out this little
tin box and opens it up, andit's got like the treasures that
like maybe an eight ornine-year-old boy would have
(08:50):
saved.
There's like a photo of uh anathlete, there's a little
bicycle toy, marbles.
So it's clearly like a youngboy's treasure.
And so she decides to maybe tryand return this to the man who
left it when he was a boy inthis apartment.
So there's a whole series whereshe's trying to find him.
His name is Julian Bretodo.
(09:13):
And like first she thinks it'sBredotto, like with the D's and
the T's switched, and she meetsa bunch of people who are not
in.
So she finds the guy.
She puts the tin in a telephonebooth and then calls the phone
booth as he's walking by.
So he steps in, answers, shehangs up before she talks, and
then he sees the tin.
(09:33):
He starts crying and ends up inthis bar where she also is.
And he overhears him say that hehad lost touch with his daughter
and he heard she had a son, andmaybe it's time for him to get
back in touch.
So her helping, her returningthis thing, like ends up
reuniting this man with hisfamily.
Okay, great.
(09:54):
So this starts her, this ideathat she's gonna help people,
everyone.
It's gonna, and she has thesebeautiful fantasies where she's
watching TV and the TV is likeabout her.
And so she has these fantasiesof just being this like guardian
angel sort of thing, likehelping people around her.
She has a neighbor in thebuilding that she's in has like
(10:15):
a courtyard.
So she has a neighbor across thecourtyard who they call the
glass man because his bones arevery brittle.
So he doesn't go out.
All of his furniture has theseweird padding around it.
He's often wearing bandages onhis hands and he's painting and
he's painting one of Renoir'spaintings over and over again.
He has a name, I don't rememberit, but they call him the glass
(10:37):
man.
So she ends up interacting withhim.
He's the one who tells her thename was wrong with the D's and
T's.
And they start sort of hangingout a little bit.
There's also the characters wemeet at the sort of fruit and
vegetable stand near her house.
It's like a little grocery storewith fruit and vegetables
outside.
There are two people who workthere.
There's the boss, who is umMonsieur Collignon, and then a
(11:01):
young man who has only one armand seems to be slightly
intellectually developmentallydelayed as well.
Just slightly.
His name is Julian.
And M.
Colognon is really mean toJulian, like really mean in
front of customers.
We also, there is also a blindman who we see who busks in the,
(11:24):
I don't know, the metrostations.
He holds a record player andlike a cup, and he's playing
this old music.
So we see and we see him arounda couple of times.
In her restaurant, the twowindmills, where she waitresses,
we meet the other charactersthere.
So there's the owner, Suzanne.
There's Georgette, who has atobacco stand, like a cigarette
(11:45):
stand.
Joseph is a regular.
He is kind of crazy.
And he's the one who likes topop bubble wrap.
He does.
Yeah.
And he is Gina's ex-boyfriend.
And now he's basically stalkingher.
Gina is another waitress at therestaurant.
We learn, too, that she has afriend who is a stewardess, and
(12:06):
Amelie watches the stewardess'scat while she's away.
And then we meet Nino.
We first meet him, we don't knowhis name yet.
He's like using a ruler orsomething to get trash out from
under a photo booth.
And he and Amelie sort of lockeyes, and there's clearly like
(12:27):
some sort of spark.
And we see him throughout themovie, he collects the discarded
photos from these photo boothsand he puts them into a
scrapbook, which drops off ofthe sort of saddlebag on his
motorized bicycle when he'schasing someone.
She picks it up and is likereally intrigued by this book.
(12:50):
They end up having aconversation back and forth with
like photos from the photo boothwhere she took a bunch of
pictures in costume and said, Doyou want to meet me?
which she's stuck in thedescription, which she returns
to him.
And then he puts up stuff allover like the photo booths in
the Metro stations that sayswhere and when.
Say it.
(13:11):
Where and when.
So they are destined to betogether because they're both so
friggin' quir quirky.
And they do end up together, butshe like creates these
complicated treasure hunts forhim to try and meet them.
(13:31):
Finally, he finds out where shelives from Gina, the one of the
other waitresses, who says, I'mworried for Amelie because I
like you and I have terribletaste in them.
And she's trying to like runaway again, but the glassman and
Amelie kind of spy on each otherwith binoculars and like a spy
(13:53):
glass.
And he has put a VHS in her roomand she watches it and he says,
if you don't act, you're gonnaend up like me.
Your bones are not made ofglass.
You need to go get him.
She opens the door, he's waitingthere, and they have this quirky
connection.
And then the final minutes ofthe movie is them on his
(14:15):
motorized bike, like uh having agreat time.
Some of the things we learnabout Amelie through the
narration is that she doesn'treally, she tried romance and
she didn't really like it.
She was the results were aletdown, and we see her just not
getting it while having sex.
And so now she takes pl pleasurein simple things, including, as
(14:36):
your husband remembered, shelike looks around and she'll
stick her hand down in like thebig barrel of lentils or
whatever, or bean, like driedbeans for the sensory thing.
She loves skipping stones.
So throughout the movie, we seeher picking up flat stones at
different places.
She likes to imagine how manycouples are having orgasm right
(14:57):
now.
And we see like the film showsus a whole bunch of couples, and
then she turns and she looksdirectly at the camera and says,
15.
No, it's 15.
SPEAKER_00 (15:06):
I thought it was eight.
SPEAKER_01 (15:09):
Yeah.
I guess Paris is a big city.
There's a lot of actually fourthwall breaking where she talks to
us directly, like not as much assay flea bag, but she definitely
is aware of us as the viewer,which is kind of cool.
And there are moments of magicalrealism where, for instance, she
gives Nino a note on the back ofa like four quadrant photo from
(15:33):
the photo booth with of a dudewith a mustache, and the dude
talks to her, talks, excuse me,talks to Nino because he has it
taped up.
So the photos are talking tohim, and each of the four like
has his own voice.
There are moments, there's onemoment where she thinks that he
has stood her up and she sort ofturns into water and like falls
(15:54):
on the ground.
Yeah.
Her, I already told you, likethe TV is like about Amelie
Pulan.
It's like a newsreel orsomething that clearly is part
of her imagination.
Above her bed, she has apainting of a dog in like a cone
and a goose.
And they sort of talk to eachother at one point.
So there are a lot of moments ofthis magical realism within this
(16:16):
play, within this movie.
She interferes or helps in likea lot of people's lives.
So after the initial returningthe treasure to the man 50 years
later, or I guess 30 yearslater.
So she makes Joseph andGeorgette, so the obsessed
ex-boyfriend and the she's ahypochondriac working at the
(16:40):
cigarette stand, think that theylike one another and they end up
getting together.
But then he turns, he does thesame thing to Georgette that he
was doing to Gina.
She sees the blind man at a curbat one point, and he's like
using his cane.
She grabs him by the arm andwalks him to the metro and
describes everything aroundthem.
(17:01):
And it is a delightful scene.
And the film makes us know thathe liked what just happened.
They sort of show like a kind ofgolden glow around him.
She also, there's she sees anews story about a mailbag that
is found from a plane crash,like from the 60s.
This is in 2001, and there's allthis mail.
And she has a neighbor who stillhas her husband's portrait up,
(17:26):
even though the man left her forhis secretary and moved to Peru
or something.
And she has she got a letterthat her husband had died in a
car crash in South America withwhen he left her for this woman.
But she's sorry.
Oh, okay.
Wait, the letter is real?
Well, wait, there was a therewas in fact a plane crash with a
(17:50):
mailbag.
Okay.
Amelie sees a news story about.
Okay.
That gives her the idea becausethe woman with the dead husband
who had left her kept all of hislove letters, kept all of his
love letters and reads them, oneof them to Amelie.
She's still obsessed with thisman.
So Amelie somehow has ends upwith keys.
Oh no, the woman leaves her doorpartially ajar.
(18:11):
So Amelie like goes in and takesall the letters, reads them all,
and then photocopies them andlike cuts it all up to make a
new letter, which she like dieswith T- and delivers it with a
cover letter that says, This wasfound in this mailbag from a
plane crash in 68 with apologiesfor the very long delay.
(18:34):
And it basically says, I made ahuge mistake and I'm coming
back.
So she sort of redeems the Oh,okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00 (18:40):
So the husband has been dead.
Oh, yeah.
The husband's dead.
SPEAKER_01 (18:45):
Okay, okay.
And has been dead.
Gotcha.
Yeah.
So she sort of Amelie's fakeletter from the husband, which
is believable because it's hishandwriting and she had cut up
the thing.
Mm-hmm.
Sort of redeems him for thiswoman.
So that's one of the ways shemeddles.
And the blind man to the metrois one of the ways she meddles.
The Joseph and G and Georgette.
(19:06):
She also Collignon is so mean toJulian, and she likes Julian
because he's sort of simple andhe loves the vegetables and
whatever.
Yeah, it's really sweet.
So she basically likes gaslightsalmost literally the Colignon.
She ends up in his apartment.
She has a key to his apartmentbecause he left his keys in the
(19:26):
lock.
And she tries to give them backand he's so mean.
She's like, never mind.
So she goes in and like justlooks around, but then she
replaces his slippers withexactly the same slipper, but
it's like a size too small.
And she like changes the bulb sothey're not in in his light
bulb, so they're not as bright.
She changes his alarm, like onhis clock, to wake him up at
(19:50):
four.
She switches the two the footcream and the toothpaste because
they look very similar.
She changes the, he has like oneof those phones with the speed
dial.
And she changes the speed dialfor his mother to like a
psychiatric hospital.
So we see this guy like gothrough all these things and
like really think he's crazy.
(20:11):
And so she so that's another waythat she meddles.
Her dad, she meddles with herdad.
He like doesn't want, she says,You're retired.
Why don't you travel?
And he's like, you know, yourmom and I always wanted to
travel and we couldn't becauseof your heart.
And he's just sort of stuck.
And he's like playing in hisgarden and he puts a garden
gnome on the top of this shrinefor his wife's ashes.
(20:34):
And so she chisels out the gnomefrom the shrine, gives it to the
stewardess friend, who thensends Polaroids of the gnome
from like famous places aroundthe world, like Moscow and New
York and Beijing.
And then she brings it back andAmelie puts it back where it
belonged.
And that works.
Dad ends up traveling.
(20:56):
There's probably another waythat she interferes, but that's
what I remember.
So all of these things arehappening while the kind of like
extended and like complicatedtreasure hunt romance is coming
together.
And and that's sort of themovie, like in buckets as
opposed to a thread.
(21:17):
So I would like to actuallystart with helping versus
meddling.
And then get to the other thingsbecause I think that there are
things.
So we know that when she's likegaslighting collinal, that's not
helping, really.
Like it in some ways it feelslike justice because we watch
the man be absolutely horrendousto Julian.
SPEAKER_00 (21:40):
But also to someone who's not a not able to stand up
for himself, really.
SPEAKER_01 (21:47):
Yeah.
And the glass man, like, sort ofis coaching Julian too, like to
be like instead of calling himMonsieur Colignon, like calling
him like Colignon down the John,and it like Rhymes in French and
like other things, rhymingthings about Colinol.
But Julian gets on the glassman's nerves too.
(22:07):
Like at one point he's like,enough already, you know?
And Julian gets upset andleaves.
So, but the it's funny, but alsolike kind of cruel the way that
she like gets back at him.
And is it really gonna changehis behavior?
You know, like is it reallygonna make Julian's life any
(22:27):
better?
SPEAKER_00 (22:28):
Yeah.
Shit runs downhill.
SPEAKER_01 (22:30):
So yeah.
Yeah.
So like on Rewatch, I was like,yeah, this is still really
funny, but also like maybe nothelping.
SPEAKER_00 (22:38):
Maybe she could have helped Julian get a different
job.
SPEAKER_01 (22:40):
A different job.
Yeah.
And the scene with the blindman, actually on Rewatch, really
bothered me because she does notask him where he's going.
She assumes where he's going andthen she just kind of bulldozes
in there and she's entertaininghim along the way.
But like there was no consent,and there was no, it was like it
(23:03):
was, it felt saviorist.
SPEAKER_00 (23:05):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (23:06):
Yeah, saviorist and ableist in that.
And it's very quick, you know,it's just one scene that's maybe
a minute and a half, twominutes.
But on rewatch, I was like,that's meddling, friend.
Like, like you did not talk tothe man about what he needed.
Like maybe he was standing therelistening and like happy to be
(23:26):
like maybe he was where hewanted to be.
Yeah.
And you just, without asking,took him someplace else.
And that on rewatch, I was like,I feel like we need to talk
about consent here.
SPEAKER_00 (23:38):
Yeah.
When I was in in Paris, there'ssomething it's still it sticks
in my head.
There's a wheelchair user.
We were crossing the street.
And just like any major city,there's there's the cutouts for
wheelchair users, but there'salso a lip.
And this man, he tumbled out ofhis chair.
(24:00):
Oh no.
And he was embarrassed.
And like he was assuring, like,like the entire crowd was like
there trying to help him up.
And it stuck in my head, likeexactly what he said, Ah, ça
arrive de temps en temps, whichit happened sometimes.
And like, I don't know if I knewthat phrase before he said it,
but I knew exactly like thatphrase is now in my head.
(24:21):
And I just remember like wantingto give him that his dignity,
and like, and it felt like allthe commuters that morning, all
of us were just like, yes, ithappens sometimes, and we're
here to, and it happenssometimes that's that we all
need a moment of help becauselike city planners don't realize
(24:42):
that lip is treacherous or theythey don't maintain it or
whatever.
And I don't know, it just it wasa like this very human moment.
That moment in Amelie, likeshe's trying to help, but she's
not giving him the human moment.
(25:03):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (25:04):
She's helping based on what she thinks he wants and
needs rather than what he hasexpressed he wants and needs.
SPEAKER_00 (25:09):
Yeah.
So like we didn't rush to helpuntil the man had fallen out of
his chair.
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01 (25:16):
Yeah.
I think that's sort of what shethinks they want and need.
That's also true of Joseph andGina, who she does get together.
Like her meddling gets You meanGeorgette.
You're right, Georgette.
Thank you, Joseph and Georgette.
She does get them together.
And like they're happy, both ofthem, for a moment.
But then it turns into somethingreally ugly because he's not
(25:39):
healthy.
Yeah.
And so again, she meddled andgave each of them what she
thought they wanted and needed,but not what they expressed that
they wanted and needed.
So each of her meddling, each ofher interventions actually work,
right?
Like with Joseph and andGeorgette, with the glass man,
(26:00):
like all with her dad to get himto travel.
But like, is it for the better?
Like, I'm not sure for each ofthem it is.
Some of them it is.
So I think that was a reallyinteresting, like, nuance that I
did not see when I was watchingit in the early 2000s that I
think is worth sort of namingabout this.
Like it's sort of an immature,which is appropriate for Amelie.
(26:23):
She's very young and was verysheltered.
Early 20s, yeah.
And had a very sheltered life asa young person.
So it makes sense and also itgoes without comment.
So that was something that Ijust wanted to kind of name
about this movie.
Okay.
So let's talk about thepossibility of Amelie being on
(26:43):
the spectrum.
So the person that I saw, andthis I didn't spend a lot of
time reading this.
I just saw like kind of theheadlines was like her sensory
things, like the hand in therice, and the fact that she
actually sort of avoids humaninteraction and is
(27:04):
uncomfortable.
Like she has to work up to itwith Nino and with the others as
well.
That this person sort of thoughtmaybe she was on the spectrum.
I think it's an interestingquestion and one that, like, in
some ways, I don't know if it isthis accurate.
I was gonna say I don't know ifit matters.
I don't know if that's accurate,though.
(27:25):
To have a character who is sodelightful and beloved on the
spectrum is in some ways greatfor sort of acceptance and
representation, etc.
But the fact that she's notnamed that way, is it actually
doing that?
So I think it's like a both andlike she's not named as being on
(27:47):
the spectrum.
Like there, this is like afterthe fact commentary, wondering,
speculating.
So on the one hand, the sort ofquirks are seen as delightful
and a good thing, which I thinkhelps for folks who are not
literary characters who may beon the spectrum and have what
(28:08):
neurotypical folks think of asquirks, that we can think of
them as delightful and not assomething to be fixed or
changed.
But that she's not named thatway, is it actually
representation?
I don't know.
This is like an open questionfor me.
SPEAKER_00 (28:23):
It's also they're delightful and quirks, and she's
played by the absolutelyadorable Audrey Tattoo.
Would they be delightful andquirks if she were played by
someone who wasn't asphotogenic?
SPEAKER_01 (28:38):
Yeah.
Yeah, that's an interestingquestion.
Yeah.
So I don't I don't have ananswer to that, but I thought it
was an interesting sort ofthought exercise.
Like, is this characterpotentially on the spectrum?
And if so, what then are theimplications for its influence?
So that was just like a I don'thave anywhere else to go with
(28:59):
that, but like kind of grapplingwith those questions as I've
been thinking about the moviesince after rewatch is just
something sort of interesting.
I mean, the movie like cat ittackles ableism in some ways
because Julian is has only onearm, and we are meant to know
that he is developmentallydelayed or has intellectual
(29:19):
disabilities.
And we're meant to really likecare about Julian and think
badly of those who abuse himbecause of his disabilities.
So in that way, it's like sortof tackling ableism.
But then we also have thatsaviorist ableist moment of the
walking the blind man to themetro, which who knows if he
even wanted to go to the metro.
So anyway, you were gonna saysomething.
SPEAKER_00 (29:41):
Well, and that's you were maybe gonna talk about
French versus Americanperception.
The other aspect of this is likethe kind of quirkiness is also I
see as kind of French.
Like, because Nino's quirkiness,like I think if you plopped them
in New York, they would be a lotodder interesting than they are
(30:07):
in France, because I think thereis a level of expected
quirkiness, like or embrace ofquirkiness.
And so, like, the culturerewards lack of conformity.
Yes.
I think the culture is charmedby being unexpected like
unexpected in a quirky kind ofkind of way.
(30:30):
So, and I it's hard for me toarticulate it because it's not
something I can quite put myfinger on.
It's a slippery thing.
It's a slippery cultural thing.
SPEAKER_01 (30:39):
I hear you though.
And thinking about this movie, Ithink that jibes because each of
the characters we meet has somesort of like unexpectedness,
right?
Like the glass man, he'spainting this renoir painting,
and we learn that he has paintedit every year for 20 years.
So he has this copy of thisrenoir over and over and over
again because he's trying to getit right.
(31:00):
So he's an artist, but likethat's quirky.
And like the woman whose husbandis dead after he left her for
his secretary, like herobsession with him, like feels
kind of quirky.
I mean, it's it's a magicalrealism movie.
And some of the these charactersfeel that way because they have
sort of a singular definingcharacteristic.
(31:20):
I mean, Georgette, who thetobacconist, yeah.
Tobacconist, thank you, who andher hypochondria, like that also
feels quirky.
Like she even at one point,Joseph says, You're gorgeous
when you blush.
And he she says, It's mydyspepsia.
Except they say it in French.
SPEAKER_00 (31:42):
Yeah, yeah.
Um so and that's I'm justthinking of French actors who
have gotten have become Americanactors or have gotten into
American movies.
So I'm thinking, I cannot thinkof his name, but the guy who's
in the professional.
Yeah.
And Depardu.
Yeah, Girard Depardu and MarionCotillard, like they do bring
(32:04):
like a kind of slant-wisequirkiness to their work.
Yeah, so that's interesting.
SPEAKER_01 (32:11):
So so the question of like in America, we would be
like, well, that person's weird,but in France they're like,
yeah, quirk, cool.
SPEAKER_00 (32:19):
Yeah.
It's more like instead of what'syour astrological sign, it's
like, what's your quirk, baby?
So and family tends to be justmore qu quirkier than usual.
SPEAKER_01 (32:30):
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And we are meant to believe it'ssort of because her imagination
is so vivid, powerful, and vividin part because of her
childhood.
Yes.
Like we are meant to see thatit's because of her childhood.
She was forced to like playalone.
And so she created theseplaymates in her mind.
Mm-hmm.
So, well, let's stay with theFrench versus American and talk
(32:50):
about that a little bit.
I read I skimmed.
I'm gonna be honest.
I skimmed this article by aFrench person.
They were writing in English,and they had a bone to pick with
this movie.
They said that like they I don'tsee it, I don't understand, but
they were talking about how itsort of felt almost like
nationalistic in the ways thatit portrayed France.
(33:12):
Like it had all thesestereotypical points of like
Montmartre and Notre-Dame andlike some of the things that
like are quintessentially Frenchthat this movie just sort of
celebrated and leaned into in away that felt kind of
nationalistic and xenophobic tothis writer, which I didn't get.
(33:37):
But I'm not French.
And so I think there'ssomething, some interesting
thought experiments and likethreads to pull in the abstract
about this question of likesomething that is made by French
people for French people, or bya culture for that people of
(33:58):
that culture when anotherculture consumes it in the
different context.
Like there's something reallyinteresting to me about what
gets lost in translation and butwhat is also found in
translation.
Right.
Like there's something really,really interesting to me.
And I don't, I'm speaking indraft.
(34:18):
I don't have like a finalinsight to share here.
But reading that let me justfinish this thought.
Reading that essay and beinglike, oh wow, I didn't see that
at all, like created thisquestion for me.
SPEAKER_00 (34:32):
So I have that experience in reverse from when
I was a I was studying abroad inFrance.
I was there from January to June2000.
And the movie Three Kings cameout then.
Do you I don't know if you eversaw it?
It was George Clooney.
I remember that when it cameout, but I have not seen it.
So it is a like comedy actionfilm that was very critical of
(34:57):
our war in Iraq.
So I went to see it, and thenthe host mother I was living
with, who was was French, shespoke, she was trilingual,
English, French, and Russian,which is a very impressive
woman.
And she went to see itseparately, and then we were
talking about it later.
And I loved the film.
I thought it was just very, verywell done.
(35:19):
And she came home and she said,That is the silliest thing I've
ever seen.
I realized what was lost intranslation.
Now, one of the scenes that wasso important to me, there's a
point where the Americansoldiers are captured and
they're being tortured by anIraqi who has a CD, a CD in a
jewel case, and he like forcesit in the soldier's mouth and is
(35:42):
pouring oil down his throat.
It was like great visualmetaphor.
And part of the reason why Iliked the movie is because it
felt like it wasquintessentially American,
because the Americans, theybreak off from what their
mission is and to do somethingbased on greed.
Like they are going to, theythink there's this cache of
(36:03):
gold, they're gonna go steal itbecause they're greedy
Americans, because that's whatwe are.
But in the midst of this, theydiscover something horrible that
is happening that is targetingwomen and children.
And so they abandon the gold torescue these women and children
because there's no one else whocan do that for them.
And so they end up likesacrificing this greedy dream to
(36:24):
help people.
And the moral of the story wasbasically like Americans are
venal and greedy, but when thechips fall down, we do what's
right.
And I want to believe that aboutus.
And did not connect with my hostmother at all because she didn't
grow up in America.
Very long story to say.
Yeah, I can imagine, like, ifyou're watching Amelie and you
(36:47):
have like consistently gottenlike French flag, nationalism,
xenophobia that is like clear toyou, like that dog whistles are
so loud you can't possibly hearanything else.
Someone from another countrycomes and is just like, what are
you talking about?
SPEAKER_01 (37:06):
Yeah, that's and that's basically what this
commentator was saying.
In fact, referred, they saidthere were so many cliches,
which they must be Frenchcliches because I didn't see
them.
So that was really interestingfor me.
And just thinking about the waythat that happens is an
interesting, I think, thoughtexercise.
Yeah.
So let's talk about the romance.
(37:27):
It's delightful.
And also, I have some questions.
SPEAKER_00 (37:32):
They don't actually like meet or spend any time
together, right?
SPEAKER_01 (37:36):
Right.
Like in the fine when theyfinally do meet face to face, he
starts to talk.
She puts her finger on his lipsto like stop him.
She gives him three kisses, onekind of on the side of his
mouth, one on the other side ofon his neck, and then one like
kind of on his eyelid.
And then she points to her ownmouth and he does the same three
(37:57):
kisses.
And then from outside, we seelike the glass man and Julian
are in his apartment across thecourtyard and they're watching,
and we see in silhouette thatthey're kissing.
And then later we see they'reboth naked in bed, and he's
resting his head on her chest,and she's kind of rubbing his
hair.
And then the final minutes, as Isaid, they're on the motorbike
(38:20):
and clearly having a good time.
She's behind, and like there aremoments where she rests her head
on his shoulder and she kisseshis shoulder, and she's smiling,
and they're like pointing atthings, and they're just they're
just having a great time.
And it was delightful.
I loved it.
And when I step back from sortof the delightful of like Audra
Tattoo, who is, as you say, justlike she's like a cartoon
(38:43):
princess come to life with thosehuge eyes.
She's just so gorgeous anddelightful, like gorgeous, but
not in a almost not in a malegay, sexy way, just in a like
this delightful energy.
And the man who plays Nino, too,is like his look is quirky and I
(39:06):
don't like comforting somehow.
Like he does not, like, Iimplicitly trust that he's not
gonna hurt her on purpose.
I mean, nobody, you know, he buthe's just I just trust that he's
like gonna follow her lead andall those things.
So, and like the way they gettogether with the sort of quirky
(39:28):
back and forth that they likeeach other's weirdness feels
like it's pointing to anunderlying assumption that every
pot has a lid and like he's likethe one, and that's how we know
because they have these likeechoing weirdnesses.
Complimentary quirks, yeah.
Yeah, that I don't know, I don'ttake issue with complimentary
(39:51):
quirks finding one another andenjoying one another.
That I don't take issue withthat.
That's great.
But sort of the implicationbecause of the magical realism
that there's like a one, I dotake issue with.
And I feel like the film subtlyreifies that idea that these two
(40:12):
people have to find each other.
They were made to be together,that they're, you know, that
this is inevitable.
And that feels icky.
Well, it feels like a dangerousidea that like younger Tracy had
in her head and like hasrejected, but it's still like
(40:33):
like one of those things that,like, yeah, I've rejected that,
but where's my one?
Like so that piece, like, I justwanted to name that as something
that I definitely did not see orbe able to name in 2001.
And it was getting like it wasreifying the programming.
(40:55):
It was like ex like underliningthe programming.
SPEAKER_00 (40:59):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, and the fact that theydon't actually have a
conversation with each other,really.
SPEAKER_01 (41:07):
I mean, they have an extended conversation through
their actions.
Yeah.
But yeah, there's no actual likeverbal communication that we see
on screen ever, actually.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (41:20):
Yeah.
Which I mean, I guess the Idon't know.
I like I'm just thinking thisisn't what I would this isn't
what I would want for my kids.
SPEAKER_01 (41:30):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (41:31):
Yeah.
And it's not what I would wantfor me.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (41:35):
It's an interesting, it's a little bit troubling, but
also like it is so ingrained insort of Western culture, because
this isn't American even, like,this is European, but Western
culture and also like theromance genre.
It's like so ingrained in thatthat like I'm not mad at these
(41:56):
movie makers.
Like they're tapping into athing that is independent of
this film.
Yeah.
Well, and it resonates.
I mean, every like I loved it in2001.
SPEAKER_00 (42:09):
I loved that every pot has a lid in 2001.
It's even, well, I'm alsothinking like there are so many
assumptions baked in.
Even the like when she's like,she's imagining how many couples
are having orgasms right now,they're all straight, aren't
they?
Yes.
Not in Paris.
(42:31):
At no point in Paris' historyever has that been true.
Also, not in Paris, has it everbeen true that at any one time
has it just been couples?
Yeah, that's funny.
(42:52):
I mean, and like we can say thatthat because it's her
imagination, that's and she wassheltered.
Sure.
That's a good point.
I I did not think of that.
SPEAKER_01 (43:00):
That's a very good point.
SPEAKER_03 (43:02):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (43:10):
All right.
But that's also part of what'slike built into this story.
And I guess part of like it'snot what the not the criticism
that that author was was talkingabout that you you mentioned,
where it's like verynationalistic, but it's part of
it, is like it is a verysanitized version of what Paris
(43:33):
is.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (43:34):
Yeah.
All right.
The last thing that was on mylist, and then we need to wrap
up, is actually Bechtel, whichusually is a quick thing for us,
but I want to spend a little bitmore time on it.
You would think that this filmwould pass Bechtel with flying
colors, because there are somany named female characters.
But pretty much they're alltalking about men.
(43:55):
So, like even she goes to a um,there's a newspaper stand.
And she speaks to the womanthere.
And they do talk briefly aboutlike a news item, but mostly
they're talking about Joseph andGina.
I'm sorry, Joseph, Gina, andJoseph and Georgette.
(44:15):
She talks to the neighbor withthe dead husband about the dead
husband.
She talks to, I suppose she doestalk to the stewardess who has a
name about the gnome.
Does the gnome count as a man?
I guess not.
So I suppose it does passBechtel.
But then there are all theseother, there's a lot of
(44:37):
conversations that happenbetween Amelie and another named
female character that are abouta man.
Yeah.
Which is without Alice andBechtel's test, like I I never
would have noticed that.
So once again, I have to thankher for naming this.
But it's it's a reallyinteresting sort of when you're
talking about what's baked in tothis movie that we kind of don't
(45:00):
see because of the way that it'sbaked in, that kind of centering
of men, even though it's a filmabout a woman, it still in many
ways centers men, which is aninteresting thing to note.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (45:15):
Does in the childhood sequence, when does
she talk to her mother?
SPEAKER_01 (45:20):
No, they that it's all narration.
It's a lot of narration.
So there's very little actuallyin like talking dialogue in that
section.
Yeah.
The mom we see like freaks outbecause the fish, blubber, her
only friend, it's a goldfish, issuicidal and keeps jumping out
of the fishbowl.
And Amelie screams when the fishis, and then mom gets very like
(45:44):
she's neurotic and she gets veryupset about the screaming.
And so eventually she saysenough and they return Blubber
to the wild.
So they dump him into like thenearby stream, including the
fishbowl, but they don'tactually talk.
We just hear narration from amale narrator, and then we see
that happen.
So yeah, no.
(46:04):
Okay.
So we are running short on time.
So I'm gonna see if I canreflect back some of the things
that we talked about, Amelie.
So I mean, this film isdelightful and it's gorgeous.
Like, not just Audrey Tattoo,gorgeous.
Like it's just a gorgeouscinematography is amazing.
It really is.
And the magical realism momentsare so well done that it you
(46:28):
just accept it that thisphotograph is moving or that the
paintings are talking orwhatever.
It's really still a delightfulwatch.
We talked a bit about helpingversus meddling.
And of all the people thatAmelie helps, some of them she
genuinely helps.
(46:50):
Like the very first man, Bretot,Julian Bretodot, she does help
him by returning this box tohim.
She does help her dad kind ofget over his fear and travel,
which is what he wants to do.
But some of the other peoplethat she helps, like, I don't
know if she actually helped theblind man that she walked from
(47:10):
one spot to another.
I don't know if that's what hewanted.
I don't know that her meddlingwith Georgette and Joseph was a
help.
Like, I think Georgette's worseoff now that she has this
ex-boyfriend.
Yeah.
She certainly didn't helpMonsieur Colignon.
She wasn't trying to, but I'mnot even sure she helped Julian
by kind of torturing Colignon.
(47:31):
So that's an interestingquestion that I did not see on
first watch at all.
Like it was not, I just wasenjoying the machinations and
the skin in the schemas.
We talked about whether or notAmelie might be on the spectrum
and whether or not, like whatdiff what implications that
would have if in fact thischaracter is for kind of
(47:53):
representation and for folks inthe world who are on the
spectrum and their greateracceptance or not.
And that actually led to ourtalk about cultural differences,
about the way that sort ofoutside the norm, outside the
expected path is received inFrance versus received here in
the US, where it seems thatperhaps like quirkiness or not
(48:20):
like weirdness or being like notexpected, not normal, is
accepted and celebrated inFrance more so than it is here.
Even if you don't look like AjuTattoo.
Or Nina.
That or Nino K I can't remember,except for the Q.
And then that led to additionalconversations about sort of the
(48:45):
cultural differences and takinga piece of media that was
created by people of a culturefor people of that culture and
watching it in a differentculture, and sort of the
experience of me watching Amelieand not seeing French
nationalism at all, and theexperience of your host mother
watching Three Kings and likenot getting why this is a
(49:07):
feel-good movie because shedoesn't have those fears and
hopes about who Americans reallyare.
We talked about the romance andhow it like pushes all the right
buttons, but are those buttonsactually healthy for us?
And lastly, I brought theBechtel test in and noted that
(49:31):
though it does pass Bechtel, alot of the conversations don't.
And that just sort of issymptomatic of some of the
patriarchal, heteronormativeassumptions that are baked into
this film that you don't seeuntil you start really examining
it, in part because, well, wedon't see them because of our
(49:52):
own privileges in many ways,that we don't have to see it.
It's not a threat or it's not adanger to us that the
heteronormativity and the andthe patriarchy, well, the
patriarchy actually is a threatto us, but we're so accustomed
to it that that's why we don'tsee it.
I think that's everything thatwe talked about.
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00 (50:08):
Yeah.
The only thing is just the wemight be able to assume that
some of this comes from howsheltered Amelie is.
SPEAKER_01 (50:16):
The film definitely suggests that.
SPEAKER_00 (50:19):
Yeah, but the film doesn't give us any indication
that like this isn't what Parisis like.
Right.
Or that like her helping ismaybe not helping.
SPEAKER_01 (50:28):
It doesn't there's no critique at all of her in
some ways immature.
I mean, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's still well worthwatching.
I have to tell you, like, I hadforgotten that it's in French
with subtitles because the storyis just so I know it's
ridiculous, but like the storyis so powerful in my mind that
like I just forgot that it's inFrench with subtitles because I
(50:51):
I just love it so much.
So that was really interesting,also for me at on Rio Ash.
I was like, all right, allright, it's in French, which is
sort of silly.
SPEAKER_00 (50:59):
So, anyway, what are you bringing me next week?
Next week, I am going to bringyou my deep thoughts on uh
Madonna's material girl musicvideo.
SPEAKER_01 (51:08):
Of course, which we are gonna do in front of a live
virtual studio audience.
Listeners, if you would beinterested in that, it is a
benefit of patronage over on ourPatreon at our two highest
tiers.
So check out our Patreon if thatsounds like a thing you would
like to do and be a member ofour live virtual studio
audience.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
(51:28):
All right.
Well, I will look forward tothat, Em.
Yeah, I'll see you then.
This show is a labor of love,but that doesn't make it free to
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You can support us at ourPatreon.
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(51:49):
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Find full music credits in theshow notes.
Thank you to Resonate Recordingsfor editing today's episode.
(52:10):
Until next time, remember, popculture is still culture.
And shouldn't you know what's inyour head?
And so again, she meddled and gave each of them
(00:04):
what she thought they wanted andneeded, but not what they
expressed that they wanted andneeded.
Have you ever had something youlove dismissed because it's just
pop culture?
What others might deem stupidshit, you know matters.
You know it's worth talking andthinking about.
And so do we.
So come overthink with us as wedelve into our deep thoughts
(00:26):
about stupid shit.
I'm Tracy Guy Decker, and you'relistening to Deep Thoughts About
Stupid Shit because pop cultureis still culture, and shouldn't
you know what's in your head?
On today's episode, I will besharing my deep thoughts about
the 2001 film Amelie with mysister, Emily Guy Birken, and
(00:47):
with you.
Let's dive in.
Okay, Em, I know you've seenthis movie because we have
talked about it.
Tell me what's in your headabout Amelie.
SPEAKER_00 (00:54):
There's quite a bit in my head about this movie.
I loved it, so people may or maynot know I was a French major in
college, in addition to being anEnglish major.
We've talked a little bit beforeabout my love for French.
I was very much a francophile.
And I spent six months in Parisin college.
And then my name is Emily.
And so when I was firstintroduced to this film, a
(01:16):
friend of mine was just like, ohmy god, you will love this.
The main character is namedafter you.
It's all in Paris.
It is delightful.
So that's how a friend of minetold me about it.
I think I saw it in the theaterwhen it was like independent
theater, like limited run typething.
And then I watched it over andover again.
(01:37):
I introduced my now husband toit.
And it was funny what he tookaway from it, because we met two
years later in 2003.
Uh a few weeks after I showed itto him.
We went to like Costco orsomething like that.
And we were looking at likethese giant containers of like
rice and like dried beans.
(01:59):
And he's like, I really don'tknow what I would do with that
other than make like a Frenchgirl and just put my hands in
it.
And I was just like, that is notat all what I took from the
film, but okay.
So, but what I remember, AudreyTattoo being just adorable.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(02:19):
I remember appreciating, becauseone of my quote-unquote favorite
things to do was critique thegeographical inaccuracies of
Paris in American movies set inParis.
So I really appreciated the justthe Paris of Amelie because it's
a French film made and made byFrench people who actually know
(02:40):
that you can't get from to NotreDame in 10 minutes.
So I loved that.
I loved the love story because Ilove love stories.
I loved how she helped all thepeople in her orbit because I
love found family misfits, thatcharming misfits.
I also really loved that becauseI was such a francophile, I
(03:03):
ended up seeing a lot of theseactors in different films
because I would watch Frenchcinema in other places.
And in fact, Nino has a verysmall part in the fifth element
because and now I'm blanking onhis name, but the director of
the fifth element is French.
So those are a few of the thingsthat are in my head, but there's
(03:26):
quite a bit.
I got really mad when whichevertravel site used the roaming
gnome as their mascot because itwas like, no, that belongs to
that delightful movie, and Idon't want it to be something
that everybody knows.
So I was a bit of a gatekeeper.
(03:48):
So tell me, why are we talkingabout it today?
SPEAKER_01 (03:52):
So, you know, it's on the list, and we were
planning, and I was like, oh,that film, I want to see that
again.
I watched it, I was already outof the house.
So we weren't, I had graduatedfrom college by the time this
was out.
So we weren't living in the sameplace, you and I, but like the
name and the French, it remindedme of you.
So I wanted to watch it.
And actually, Audrey's Tattoowith the dark hair and big eyes
(04:14):
reminded me of you as well.
And I found the there's a lot ofmagical realism in this movie,
and I found the sort of visualmetaphors like conveyed through
the screen, like so delightful.
It was just really like in mymemory, really, unlike any other
film, kind of gave me visualmetaphors, and I love metaphors
(04:38):
so much.
That's really what was in myhead about Amelie, and I wanted
to revisit it now.
So there's not a whole lot atstake for me.
There actually probably is moreat stake for you based on what
you just said than for me.
But it is a film that I haveloved.
And so that was why it was onthe list, and that's why I
wanted to do it now.
So before I tell you, sort ofremind you of like some of the
(04:59):
characters and things, let metell you some of the postcards
from the destination that I wantto talk about in our analysis.
I want to talk about, like youkind of named American movies
set in Paris versus this Frenchmovie set in Paris.
I want to talk about Frenchversus American perspective
because I found one articlewritten in English by a French
person who had some a bone topick with this movie that like
(05:21):
completely went over my head.
I don't want to spend a lot oftime there, but I do want to
like briefly talk about the waya piece of art made in one
culture, like when it's consumedin another culture, kind of want
to talk about in the abstract.
I saw one critic suggest thatmaybe Amelie is on the autism
spectrum, the character.
And I want to talk about that.
Like that really is interestingto me.
(05:43):
And I see why they say that.
So we'll spend some time there.
You named that like her helpingeveryone in her orbit was
something that you liked aboutthis movie.
I want to talk about helpingversus meddling because I think
that there's there are somecases where her help maybe she
should have kept it to herself,which I never I did not see on
the first watch, but on thisrewatch, I was like, you should
(06:05):
have left that alone,sweetheart.
We need to do the Bechtel testwith this movie.
And I want to talk about theromance that you loved so much.
Like, let's like dig into it alittle bit.
And finally, I do want to talkabout the magical realism that I
named and those visualmetaphors, because I think
that's really interesting andlike a cool tool for
storytelling.
(06:25):
It doesn't, it wouldn't work forevery film, but I think it's a
really interesting likestorytelling device that I'd
like to just spend some timetalking about.
So that's where I want to go.
We'll see if I get to all of it.
But quickly, I or as quickly asI can, I'm not gonna do a
synopsis like chronologically,because I don't think I could,
but I'm gonna remind you of thecharacters.
(06:45):
So Amelie Poulain, I think isher last name.
I get to correct your press mypronunciation if necessary.
Yeah.
So Amelie Poulain is theprotagonist of this film, the
titular character.
She is, we see her kind of growup with a narration over top.
And she it's has some of thatmagical realism and interesting
(07:07):
kind of quirky moments as she'sgrowing up.
We learn that like her daddoesn't touch her at all, except
for a monthly physical.
He's a doctor.
And so her heart rate speedsbecause she's excited to have
her father touch her at all forany kind of infection.
And so he thinks she has a heartproblem because her heart rate
is always elevated when hechecks it every month.
(07:28):
Her mom is very, I don't knowthe word.
She's also standoffish.
You know, we learn that herfavorite thing is both of them.
Her favorite thing is to emptyout her purse, vacuum it out,
and then put everything back.
Her dad's favorite thing is toempty out his toolbox, vacuum it
out, and put everything back in.
And then we her why how could wepossibly think that Amelie might
be on the spectrum?
(07:48):
Where might that have come from?
Right.
Well, that's her parents.
So and her mother dies when atourist is trying to commit
suicide by jumping off of NotreDame and lands on Amelie's mom,
which is sort of a ridiculousway to go.
So then it's just her and herdad.
Anyway, most of the movie takesplace now.
She's an adult.
(08:09):
She's we figure she's in herearly 20s, she's moved to Paris.
She is a waitress.
So the people around her, thissort of inciting incident of the
film, actually, this incitingincident is she's doing her
nightly routine, and the news ison, and she hears the news of
Lady Diana's passing, Lady D.
(08:30):
And she drops the lid of thewhatever cream or whatever that
she's using, which is spherical,and it rolls on the bathroom and
hits a tile that is loose andcomes out, and there's like a
hollowed out space.
And she puts her hand in thereand she pulls out this little
tin box and opens it up, andit's got like the treasures that
like maybe an eight ornine-year-old boy would have
(08:50):
saved.
There's like a photo of uh anathlete, there's a little
bicycle toy, marbles.
So it's clearly like a youngboy's treasure.
And so she decides to maybe tryand return this to the man who
left it when he was a boy inthis apartment.
So there's a whole series whereshe's trying to find him.
His name is Julian Bretodo.
(09:13):
And like first she thinks it'sBredotto, like with the D's and
the T's switched, and she meetsa bunch of people who are not
in.
So she finds the guy.
She puts the tin in a telephonebooth and then calls the phone
booth as he's walking by.
So he steps in, answers, shehangs up before she talks, and
then he sees the tin.
(09:33):
He starts crying and ends up inthis bar where she also is.
And he overhears him say that hehad lost touch with his daughter
and he heard she had a son, andmaybe it's time for him to get
back in touch.
So her helping, her returningthis thing, like ends up
reuniting this man with hisfamily.
Okay, great.
(09:54):
So this starts her, this ideathat she's gonna help people,
everyone.
It's gonna, and she has thesebeautiful fantasies where she's
watching TV and the TV is likeabout her.
And so she has these fantasiesof just being this like guardian
angel sort of thing, likehelping people around her.
She has a neighbor in thebuilding that she's in has like
(10:15):
a courtyard.
So she has a neighbor across thecourtyard who they call the
glass man because his bones arevery brittle.
So he doesn't go out.
All of his furniture has theseweird padding around it.
He's often wearing bandages onhis hands and he's painting and
he's painting one of Renoir'spaintings over and over again.
He has a name, I don't rememberit, but they call him the glass
(10:37):
man.
So she ends up interacting withhim.
He's the one who tells her thename was wrong with the D's and
T's.
And they start sort of hangingout a little bit.
There's also the characters wemeet at the sort of fruit and
vegetable stand near her house.
It's like a little grocery storewith fruit and vegetables
outside.
There are two people who workthere.
There's the boss, who is umMonsieur Collignon, and then a
(11:01):
young man who has only one armand seems to be slightly
intellectually developmentallydelayed as well.
Just slightly.
His name is Julian.
And M.
Colognon is really mean toJulian, like really mean in
front of customers.
We also, there is also a blindman who we see who busks in the,
(11:24):
I don't know, the metrostations.
He holds a record player andlike a cup, and he's playing
this old music.
So we see and we see him arounda couple of times.
In her restaurant, the twowindmills, where she waitresses,
we meet the other charactersthere.
So there's the owner, Suzanne.
There's Georgette, who has atobacco stand, like a cigarette
(11:45):
stand.
Joseph is a regular.
He is kind of crazy.
And he's the one who likes topop bubble wrap.
He does.
Yeah.
And he is Gina's ex-boyfriend.
And now he's basically stalkingher.
Gina is another waitress at therestaurant.
We learn, too, that she has afriend who is a stewardess, and
(12:06):
Amelie watches the stewardess'scat while she's away.
And then we meet Nino.
We first meet him, we don't knowhis name yet.
He's like using a ruler orsomething to get trash out from
under a photo booth.
And he and Amelie sort of lockeyes, and there's clearly like
(12:27):
some sort of spark.
And we see him throughout themovie, he collects the discarded
photos from these photo boothsand he puts them into a
scrapbook, which drops off ofthe sort of saddlebag on his
motorized bicycle when he'schasing someone.
She picks it up and is likereally intrigued by this book.
(12:50):
They end up having aconversation back and forth with
like photos from the photo boothwhere she took a bunch of
pictures in costume and said, Doyou want to meet me?
which she's stuck in thedescription, which she returns
to him.
And then he puts up stuff allover like the photo booths in
the Metro stations that sayswhere and when.
Say it.
(13:11):
Where and when.
So they are destined to betogether because they're both so
friggin' quir quirky.
And they do end up together, butshe like creates these
complicated treasure hunts forhim to try and meet them.
(13:31):
Finally, he finds out where shelives from Gina, the one of the
other waitresses, who says, I'mworried for Amelie because I
like you and I have terribletaste in them.
And she's trying to like runaway again, but the glassman and
Amelie kind of spy on each otherwith binoculars and like a spy
(13:53):
glass.
And he has put a VHS in her roomand she watches it and he says,
if you don't act, you're gonnaend up like me.
Your bones are not made ofglass.
You need to go get him.
She opens the door, he's waitingthere, and they have this quirky
connection.
And then the final minutes ofthe movie is them on his
(14:15):
motorized bike, like uh having agreat time.
Some of the things we learnabout Amelie through the
narration is that she doesn'treally, she tried romance and
she didn't really like it.
She was the results were aletdown, and we see her just not
getting it while having sex.
And so now she takes pl pleasurein simple things, including, as
(14:36):
your husband remembered, shelike looks around and she'll
stick her hand down in like thebig barrel of lentils or
whatever, or bean, like driedbeans for the sensory thing.
She loves skipping stones.
So throughout the movie, we seeher picking up flat stones at
different places.
She likes to imagine how manycouples are having orgasm right
(14:57):
now.
And we see like the film showsus a whole bunch of couples, and
then she turns and she looksdirectly at the camera and says,
15.
No, it's 15.
SPEAKER_00 (15:06):
I thought it was eight.
SPEAKER_01 (15:09):
Yeah.
I guess Paris is a big city.
There's a lot of actually fourthwall breaking where she talks to
us directly, like not as much assay flea bag, but she definitely
is aware of us as the viewer,which is kind of cool.
And there are moments of magicalrealism where, for instance, she
gives Nino a note on the back ofa like four quadrant photo from
(15:33):
the photo booth with of a dudewith a mustache, and the dude
talks to her, talks, excuse me,talks to Nino because he has it
taped up.
So the photos are talking tohim, and each of the four like
has his own voice.
There are moments, there's onemoment where she thinks that he
has stood her up and she sort ofturns into water and like falls
(15:54):
on the ground.
Yeah.
Her, I already told you, likethe TV is like about Amelie
Pulan.
It's like a newsreel orsomething that clearly is part
of her imagination.
Above her bed, she has apainting of a dog in like a cone
and a goose.
And they sort of talk to eachother at one point.
So there are a lot of moments ofthis magical realism within this
(16:16):
play, within this movie.
She interferes or helps in likea lot of people's lives.
So after the initial returningthe treasure to the man 50 years
later, or I guess 30 yearslater.
So she makes Joseph andGeorgette, so the obsessed
ex-boyfriend and the she's ahypochondriac working at the
(16:40):
cigarette stand, think that theylike one another and they end up
getting together.
But then he turns, he does thesame thing to Georgette that he
was doing to Gina.
She sees the blind man at a curbat one point, and he's like
using his cane.
She grabs him by the arm andwalks him to the metro and
describes everything aroundthem.
(17:01):
And it is a delightful scene.
And the film makes us know thathe liked what just happened.
They sort of show like a kind ofgolden glow around him.
She also, there's she sees anews story about a mailbag that
is found from a plane crash,like from the 60s.
This is in 2001, and there's allthis mail.
And she has a neighbor who stillhas her husband's portrait up,
(17:26):
even though the man left her forhis secretary and moved to Peru
or something.
And she has she got a letterthat her husband had died in a
car crash in South America withwhen he left her for this woman.
But she's sorry.
Oh, okay.
Wait, the letter is real?
Well, wait, there was a therewas in fact a plane crash with a
(17:50):
mailbag.
Okay.
Amelie sees a news story about.
Okay.
That gives her the idea becausethe woman with the dead husband
who had left her kept all of hislove letters, kept all of his
love letters and reads them, oneof them to Amelie.
She's still obsessed with thisman.
So Amelie somehow has ends upwith keys.
Oh no, the woman leaves her doorpartially ajar.
(18:11):
So Amelie like goes in and takesall the letters, reads them all,
and then photocopies them andlike cuts it all up to make a
new letter, which she like dieswith T- and delivers it with a
cover letter that says, This wasfound in this mailbag from a
plane crash in 68 with apologiesfor the very long delay.
(18:34):
And it basically says, I made ahuge mistake and I'm coming
back.
So she sort of redeems the Oh,okay, okay.
SPEAKER_00 (18:40):
So the husband has been dead.
Oh, yeah.
The husband's dead.
SPEAKER_01 (18:45):
Okay, okay.
And has been dead.
Gotcha.
Yeah.
So she sort of Amelie's fakeletter from the husband, which
is believable because it's hishandwriting and she had cut up
the thing.
Mm-hmm.
Sort of redeems him for thiswoman.
So that's one of the ways shemeddles.
And the blind man to the metrois one of the ways she meddles.
The Joseph and G and Georgette.
(19:06):
She also Collignon is so mean toJulian, and she likes Julian
because he's sort of simple andhe loves the vegetables and
whatever.
Yeah, it's really sweet.
So she basically likes gaslightsalmost literally the Colignon.
She ends up in his apartment.
She has a key to his apartmentbecause he left his keys in the
(19:26):
lock.
And she tries to give them backand he's so mean.
She's like, never mind.
So she goes in and like justlooks around, but then she
replaces his slippers withexactly the same slipper, but
it's like a size too small.
And she like changes the bulb sothey're not in in his light
bulb, so they're not as bright.
She changes his alarm, like onhis clock, to wake him up at
(19:50):
four.
She switches the two the footcream and the toothpaste because
they look very similar.
She changes the, he has like oneof those phones with the speed
dial.
And she changes the speed dialfor his mother to like a
psychiatric hospital.
So we see this guy like gothrough all these things and
like really think he's crazy.
(20:11):
And so she so that's another waythat she meddles.
Her dad, she meddles with herdad.
He like doesn't want, she says,You're retired.
Why don't you travel?
And he's like, you know, yourmom and I always wanted to
travel and we couldn't becauseof your heart.
And he's just sort of stuck.
And he's like playing in hisgarden and he puts a garden
gnome on the top of this shrinefor his wife's ashes.
(20:34):
And so she chisels out the gnomefrom the shrine, gives it to the
stewardess friend, who thensends Polaroids of the gnome
from like famous places aroundthe world, like Moscow and New
York and Beijing.
And then she brings it back andAmelie puts it back where it
belonged.
And that works.
Dad ends up traveling.
(20:56):
There's probably another waythat she interferes, but that's
what I remember.
So all of these things arehappening while the kind of like
extended and like complicatedtreasure hunt romance is coming
together.
And and that's sort of themovie, like in buckets as
opposed to a thread.
(21:17):
So I would like to actuallystart with helping versus
meddling.
And then get to the other thingsbecause I think that there are
things.
So we know that when she's likegaslighting collinal, that's not
helping, really.
Like it in some ways it feelslike justice because we watch
the man be absolutely horrendousto Julian.
SPEAKER_00 (21:40):
But also to someone who's not a not able to stand up
for himself, really.
SPEAKER_01 (21:47):
Yeah.
And the glass man, like, sort ofis coaching Julian too, like to
be like instead of calling himMonsieur Colignon, like calling
him like Colignon down the John,and it like Rhymes in French and
like other things, rhymingthings about Colinol.
But Julian gets on the glassman's nerves too.
(22:07):
Like at one point he's like,enough already, you know?
And Julian gets upset andleaves.
So, but the it's funny, but alsolike kind of cruel the way that
she like gets back at him.
And is it really gonna changehis behavior?
You know, like is it reallygonna make Julian's life any
(22:27):
better?
SPEAKER_00 (22:28):
Yeah.
Shit runs downhill.
SPEAKER_01 (22:30):
So yeah.
Yeah.
So like on Rewatch, I was like,yeah, this is still really
funny, but also like maybe nothelping.
SPEAKER_00 (22:38):
Maybe she could have helped Julian get a different
job.
SPEAKER_01 (22:40):
A different job.
Yeah.
And the scene with the blindman, actually on Rewatch, really
bothered me because she does notask him where he's going.
She assumes where he's going andthen she just kind of bulldozes
in there and she's entertaininghim along the way.
But like there was no consent,and there was no, it was like it
(23:03):
was, it felt saviorist.
SPEAKER_00 (23:05):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (23:06):
Yeah, saviorist and ableist in that.
And it's very quick, you know,it's just one scene that's maybe
a minute and a half, twominutes.
But on rewatch, I was like,that's meddling, friend.
Like, like you did not talk tothe man about what he needed.
Like maybe he was standing therelistening and like happy to be
(23:26):
like maybe he was where hewanted to be.
Yeah.
And you just, without asking,took him someplace else.
And that on rewatch, I was like,I feel like we need to talk
about consent here.
SPEAKER_00 (23:38):
Yeah.
When I was in in Paris, there'ssomething it's still it sticks
in my head.
There's a wheelchair user.
We were crossing the street.
And just like any major city,there's there's the cutouts for
wheelchair users, but there'salso a lip.
And this man, he tumbled out ofhis chair.
(24:00):
Oh no.
And he was embarrassed.
And like he was assuring, like,like the entire crowd was like
there trying to help him up.
And it stuck in my head, likeexactly what he said, Ah, ça
arrive de temps en temps, whichit happened sometimes.
And like, I don't know if I knewthat phrase before he said it,
but I knew exactly like thatphrase is now in my head.
(24:21):
And I just remember like wantingto give him that his dignity,
and like, and it felt like allthe commuters that morning, all
of us were just like, yes, ithappens sometimes, and we're
here to, and it happenssometimes that's that we all
need a moment of help becauselike city planners don't realize
(24:42):
that lip is treacherous or theythey don't maintain it or
whatever.
And I don't know, it just it wasa like this very human moment.
That moment in Amelie, likeshe's trying to help, but she's
not giving him the human moment.
(25:03):
Right.
SPEAKER_01 (25:04):
She's helping based on what she thinks he wants and
needs rather than what he hasexpressed he wants and needs.
SPEAKER_00 (25:09):
Yeah.
So like we didn't rush to helpuntil the man had fallen out of
his chair.
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01 (25:16):
Yeah.
I think that's sort of what shethinks they want and need.
That's also true of Joseph andGina, who she does get together.
Like her meddling gets You meanGeorgette.
You're right, Georgette.
Thank you, Joseph and Georgette.
She does get them together.
And like they're happy, both ofthem, for a moment.
But then it turns into somethingreally ugly because he's not
(25:39):
healthy.
Yeah.
And so again, she meddled andgave each of them what she
thought they wanted and needed,but not what they expressed that
they wanted and needed.
So each of her meddling, each ofher interventions actually work,
right?
Like with Joseph and andGeorgette, with the glass man,
(26:00):
like all with her dad to get himto travel.
But like, is it for the better?
Like, I'm not sure for each ofthem it is.
Some of them it is.
So I think that was a reallyinteresting, like, nuance that I
did not see when I was watchingit in the early 2000s that I
think is worth sort of namingabout this.
Like it's sort of an immature,which is appropriate for Amelie.
(26:23):
She's very young and was verysheltered.
Early 20s, yeah.
And had a very sheltered life asa young person.
So it makes sense and also itgoes without comment.
So that was something that Ijust wanted to kind of name
about this movie.
Okay.
So let's talk about thepossibility of Amelie being on
(26:43):
the spectrum.
So the person that I saw, andthis I didn't spend a lot of
time reading this.
I just saw like kind of theheadlines was like her sensory
things, like the hand in therice, and the fact that she
actually sort of avoids humaninteraction and is
(27:04):
uncomfortable.
Like she has to work up to itwith Nino and with the others as
well.
That this person sort of thoughtmaybe she was on the spectrum.
I think it's an interestingquestion and one that, like, in
some ways, I don't know if it isthis accurate.
I was gonna say I don't know ifit matters.
I don't know if that's accurate,though.
(27:25):
To have a character who is sodelightful and beloved on the
spectrum is in some ways greatfor sort of acceptance and
representation, etc.
But the fact that she's notnamed that way, is it actually
doing that?
So I think it's like a both andlike she's not named as being on
(27:47):
the spectrum.
Like there, this is like afterthe fact commentary, wondering,
speculating.
So on the one hand, the sort ofquirks are seen as delightful
and a good thing, which I thinkhelps for folks who are not
literary characters who may beon the spectrum and have what
(28:08):
neurotypical folks think of asquirks, that we can think of
them as delightful and not assomething to be fixed or
changed.
But that she's not named thatway, is it actually
representation?
I don't know.
This is like an open questionfor me.
SPEAKER_00 (28:23):
It's also they're delightful and quirks, and she's
played by the absolutelyadorable Audrey Tattoo.
Would they be delightful andquirks if she were played by
someone who wasn't asphotogenic?
SPEAKER_01 (28:38):
Yeah.
Yeah, that's an interestingquestion.
Yeah.
So I don't I don't have ananswer to that, but I thought it
was an interesting sort ofthought exercise.
Like, is this characterpotentially on the spectrum?
And if so, what then are theimplications for its influence?
So that was just like a I don'thave anywhere else to go with
(28:59):
that, but like kind of grapplingwith those questions as I've
been thinking about the moviesince after rewatch is just
something sort of interesting.
I mean, the movie like cat ittackles ableism in some ways
because Julian is has only onearm, and we are meant to know
that he is developmentallydelayed or has intellectual
(29:19):
disabilities.
And we're meant to really likecare about Julian and think
badly of those who abuse himbecause of his disabilities.
So in that way, it's like sortof tackling ableism.
But then we also have thatsaviorist ableist moment of the
walking the blind man to themetro, which who knows if he
even wanted to go to the metro.
So anyway, you were gonna saysomething.
SPEAKER_00 (29:41):
Well, and that's you were maybe gonna talk about
French versus Americanperception.
The other aspect of this is likethe kind of quirkiness is also I
see as kind of French.
Like, because Nino's quirkiness,like I think if you plopped them
in New York, they would be a lotodder interesting than they are
(30:07):
in France, because I think thereis a level of expected
quirkiness, like or embrace ofquirkiness.
And so, like, the culturerewards lack of conformity.
Yes.
I think the culture is charmedby being unexpected like
unexpected in a quirky kind ofkind of way.
(30:30):
So, and I it's hard for me toarticulate it because it's not
something I can quite put myfinger on.
It's a slippery thing.
It's a slippery cultural thing.
SPEAKER_01 (30:39):
I hear you though.
And thinking about this movie, Ithink that jibes because each of
the characters we meet has somesort of like unexpectedness,
right?
Like the glass man, he'spainting this renoir painting,
and we learn that he has paintedit every year for 20 years.
So he has this copy of thisrenoir over and over and over
again because he's trying to getit right.
(31:00):
So he's an artist, but likethat's quirky.
And like the woman whose husbandis dead after he left her for
his secretary, like herobsession with him, like feels
kind of quirky.
I mean, it's it's a magicalrealism movie.
And some of the these charactersfeel that way because they have
sort of a singular definingcharacteristic.
(31:20):
I mean, Georgette, who thetobacconist, yeah.
Tobacconist, thank you, who andher hypochondria, like that also
feels quirky.
Like she even at one point,Joseph says, You're gorgeous
when you blush.
And he she says, It's mydyspepsia.
Except they say it in French.
SPEAKER_00 (31:42):
Yeah, yeah.
Um so and that's I'm justthinking of French actors who
have gotten have become Americanactors or have gotten into
American movies.
So I'm thinking, I cannot thinkof his name, but the guy who's
in the professional.
Yeah.
And Depardu.
Yeah, Girard Depardu and MarionCotillard, like they do bring
(32:04):
like a kind of slant-wisequirkiness to their work.
Yeah, so that's interesting.
SPEAKER_01 (32:11):
So so the question of like in America, we would be
like, well, that person's weird,but in France they're like,
yeah, quirk, cool.
SPEAKER_00 (32:19):
Yeah.
It's more like instead of what'syour astrological sign, it's
like, what's your quirk, baby?
So and family tends to be justmore qu quirkier than usual.
SPEAKER_01 (32:30):
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And we are meant to believe it'ssort of because her imagination
is so vivid, powerful, and vividin part because of her
childhood.
Yes.
Like we are meant to see thatit's because of her childhood.
She was forced to like playalone.
And so she created theseplaymates in her mind.
Mm-hmm.
So, well, let's stay with theFrench versus American and talk
(32:50):
about that a little bit.
I read I skimmed.
I'm gonna be honest.
I skimmed this article by aFrench person.
They were writing in English,and they had a bone to pick with
this movie.
They said that like they I don'tsee it, I don't understand, but
they were talking about how itsort of felt almost like
nationalistic in the ways thatit portrayed France.
(33:12):
Like it had all thesestereotypical points of like
Montmartre and Notre-Dame andlike some of the things that
like are quintessentially Frenchthat this movie just sort of
celebrated and leaned into in away that felt kind of
nationalistic and xenophobic tothis writer, which I didn't get.
(33:37):
But I'm not French.
And so I think there'ssomething, some interesting
thought experiments and likethreads to pull in the abstract
about this question of likesomething that is made by French
people for French people, or bya culture for that people of
(33:58):
that culture when anotherculture consumes it in the
different context.
Like there's something reallyinteresting to me about what
gets lost in translation and butwhat is also found in
translation.
Right.
Like there's something really,really interesting to me.
And I don't, I'm speaking indraft.
(34:18):
I don't have like a finalinsight to share here.
But reading that let me justfinish this thought.
Reading that essay and beinglike, oh wow, I didn't see that
at all, like created thisquestion for me.
SPEAKER_00 (34:32):
So I have that experience in reverse from when
I was a I was studying abroad inFrance.
I was there from January to June2000.
And the movie Three Kings cameout then.
Do you I don't know if you eversaw it?
It was George Clooney.
I remember that when it cameout, but I have not seen it.
So it is a like comedy actionfilm that was very critical of
(34:57):
our war in Iraq.
So I went to see it, and thenthe host mother I was living
with, who was was French, shespoke, she was trilingual,
English, French, and Russian,which is a very impressive
woman.
And she went to see itseparately, and then we were
talking about it later.
And I loved the film.
I thought it was just very, verywell done.
(35:19):
And she came home and she said,That is the silliest thing I've
ever seen.
I realized what was lost intranslation.
Now, one of the scenes that wasso important to me, there's a
point where the Americansoldiers are captured and
they're being tortured by anIraqi who has a CD, a CD in a
jewel case, and he like forcesit in the soldier's mouth and is
(35:42):
pouring oil down his throat.
It was like great visualmetaphor.
And part of the reason why Iliked the movie is because it
felt like it wasquintessentially American,
because the Americans, theybreak off from what their
mission is and to do somethingbased on greed.
Like they are going to, theythink there's this cache of
(36:03):
gold, they're gonna go steal itbecause they're greedy
Americans, because that's whatwe are.
But in the midst of this, theydiscover something horrible that
is happening that is targetingwomen and children.
And so they abandon the gold torescue these women and children
because there's no one else whocan do that for them.
And so they end up likesacrificing this greedy dream to
(36:24):
help people.
And the moral of the story wasbasically like Americans are
venal and greedy, but when thechips fall down, we do what's
right.
And I want to believe that aboutus.
And did not connect with my hostmother at all because she didn't
grow up in America.
Very long story to say.
Yeah, I can imagine, like, ifyou're watching Amelie and you
(36:47):
have like consistently gottenlike French flag, nationalism,
xenophobia that is like clear toyou, like that dog whistles are
so loud you can't possibly hearanything else.
Someone from another countrycomes and is just like, what are
you talking about?
SPEAKER_01 (37:06):
Yeah, that's and that's basically what this
commentator was saying.
In fact, referred, they saidthere were so many cliches,
which they must be Frenchcliches because I didn't see
them.
So that was really interestingfor me.
And just thinking about the waythat that happens is an
interesting, I think, thoughtexercise.
Yeah.
So let's talk about the romance.
(37:27):
It's delightful.
And also, I have some questions.
SPEAKER_00 (37:32):
They don't actually like meet or spend any time
together, right?
SPEAKER_01 (37:36):
Right.
Like in the fine when theyfinally do meet face to face, he
starts to talk.
She puts her finger on his lipsto like stop him.
She gives him three kisses, onekind of on the side of his
mouth, one on the other side ofon his neck, and then one like
kind of on his eyelid.
And then she points to her ownmouth and he does the same three
(37:57):
kisses.
And then from outside, we seelike the glass man and Julian
are in his apartment across thecourtyard and they're watching,
and we see in silhouette thatthey're kissing.
And then later we see they'reboth naked in bed, and he's
resting his head on her chest,and she's kind of rubbing his
hair.
And then the final minutes, as Isaid, they're on the motorbike
(38:20):
and clearly having a good time.
She's behind, and like there aremoments where she rests her head
on his shoulder and she kisseshis shoulder, and she's smiling,
and they're like pointing atthings, and they're just they're
just having a great time.
And it was delightful.
I loved it.
And when I step back from sortof the delightful of like Audra
Tattoo, who is, as you say, justlike she's like a cartoon
(38:43):
princess come to life with thosehuge eyes.
She's just so gorgeous anddelightful, like gorgeous, but
not in a almost not in a malegay, sexy way, just in a like
this delightful energy.
And the man who plays Nino, too,is like his look is quirky and I
(39:06):
don't like comforting somehow.
Like he does not, like, Iimplicitly trust that he's not
gonna hurt her on purpose.
I mean, nobody, you know, he buthe's just I just trust that he's
like gonna follow her lead andall those things.
So, and like the way they gettogether with the sort of quirky
(39:28):
back and forth that they likeeach other's weirdness feels
like it's pointing to anunderlying assumption that every
pot has a lid and like he's likethe one, and that's how we know
because they have these likeechoing weirdnesses.
Complimentary quirks, yeah.
Yeah, that I don't know, I don'ttake issue with complimentary
(39:51):
quirks finding one another andenjoying one another.
That I don't take issue withthat.
That's great.
But sort of the implicationbecause of the magical realism
that there's like a one, I dotake issue with.
And I feel like the film subtlyreifies that idea that these two
(40:12):
people have to find each other.
They were made to be together,that they're, you know, that
this is inevitable.
And that feels icky.
Well, it feels like a dangerousidea that like younger Tracy had
in her head and like hasrejected, but it's still like
(40:33):
like one of those things that,like, yeah, I've rejected that,
but where's my one?
Like so that piece, like, I justwanted to name that as something
that I definitely did not see orbe able to name in 2001.
And it was getting like it wasreifying the programming.
(40:55):
It was like ex like underliningthe programming.
SPEAKER_00 (40:59):
Yeah, yeah.
Well, and the fact that theydon't actually have a
conversation with each other,really.
SPEAKER_01 (41:07):
I mean, they have an extended conversation through
their actions.
Yeah.
But yeah, there's no actual likeverbal communication that we see
on screen ever, actually.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (41:20):
Yeah.
Which I mean, I guess the Idon't know.
I like I'm just thinking thisisn't what I would this isn't
what I would want for my kids.
SPEAKER_01 (41:30):
Right.
SPEAKER_00 (41:31):
Yeah.
And it's not what I would wantfor me.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (41:35):
It's an interesting, it's a little bit troubling, but
also like it is so ingrained insort of Western culture, because
this isn't American even, like,this is European, but Western
culture and also like theromance genre.
It's like so ingrained in thatthat like I'm not mad at these
(41:56):
movie makers.
Like they're tapping into athing that is independent of
this film.
Yeah.
Well, and it resonates.
I mean, every like I loved it in2001.
SPEAKER_00 (42:09):
I loved that every pot has a lid in 2001.
It's even, well, I'm alsothinking like there are so many
assumptions baked in.
Even the like when she's like,she's imagining how many couples
are having orgasms right now,they're all straight, aren't
they?
Yes.
Not in Paris.
(42:31):
At no point in Paris' historyever has that been true.
Also, not in Paris, has it everbeen true that at any one time
has it just been couples?
Yeah, that's funny.
(42:52):
I mean, and like we can say thatthat because it's her
imagination, that's and she wassheltered.
Sure.
That's a good point.
I I did not think of that.
SPEAKER_01 (43:00):
That's a very good point.
SPEAKER_03 (43:02):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (43:10):
All right.
But that's also part of what'slike built into this story.
And I guess part of like it'snot what the not the criticism
that that author was was talkingabout that you you mentioned,
where it's like verynationalistic, but it's part of
it, is like it is a verysanitized version of what Paris
(43:33):
is.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (43:34):
Yeah.
All right.
The last thing that was on mylist, and then we need to wrap
up, is actually Bechtel, whichusually is a quick thing for us,
but I want to spend a little bitmore time on it.
You would think that this filmwould pass Bechtel with flying
colors, because there are somany named female characters.
But pretty much they're alltalking about men.
(43:55):
So, like even she goes to a um,there's a newspaper stand.
And she speaks to the womanthere.
And they do talk briefly aboutlike a news item, but mostly
they're talking about Joseph andGina.
I'm sorry, Joseph, Gina, andJoseph and Georgette.
(44:15):
She talks to the neighbor withthe dead husband about the dead
husband.
She talks to, I suppose she doestalk to the stewardess who has a
name about the gnome.
Does the gnome count as a man?
I guess not.
So I suppose it does passBechtel.
But then there are all theseother, there's a lot of
(44:37):
conversations that happenbetween Amelie and another named
female character that are abouta man.
Yeah.
Which is without Alice andBechtel's test, like I I never
would have noticed that.
So once again, I have to thankher for naming this.
But it's it's a reallyinteresting sort of when you're
talking about what's baked in tothis movie that we kind of don't
(45:00):
see because of the way that it'sbaked in, that kind of centering
of men, even though it's a filmabout a woman, it still in many
ways centers men, which is aninteresting thing to note.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (45:15):
Does in the childhood sequence, when does
she talk to her mother?
SPEAKER_01 (45:20):
No, they that it's all narration.
It's a lot of narration.
So there's very little actuallyin like talking dialogue in that
section.
Yeah.
The mom we see like freaks outbecause the fish, blubber, her
only friend, it's a goldfish, issuicidal and keeps jumping out
of the fishbowl.
And Amelie screams when the fishis, and then mom gets very like
(45:44):
she's neurotic and she gets veryupset about the screaming.
And so eventually she saysenough and they return Blubber
to the wild.
So they dump him into like thenearby stream, including the
fishbowl, but they don'tactually talk.
We just hear narration from amale narrator, and then we see
that happen.
So yeah, no.
(46:04):
Okay.
So we are running short on time.
So I'm gonna see if I canreflect back some of the things
that we talked about, Amelie.
So I mean, this film isdelightful and it's gorgeous.
Like, not just Audrey Tattoo,gorgeous.
Like it's just a gorgeouscinematography is amazing.
It really is.
And the magical realism momentsare so well done that it you
(46:28):
just accept it that thisphotograph is moving or that the
paintings are talking orwhatever.
It's really still a delightfulwatch.
We talked a bit about helpingversus meddling.
And of all the people thatAmelie helps, some of them she
genuinely helps.
(46:50):
Like the very first man, Bretot,Julian Bretodot, she does help
him by returning this box tohim.
She does help her dad kind ofget over his fear and travel,
which is what he wants to do.
But some of the other peoplethat she helps, like, I don't
know if she actually helped theblind man that she walked from
(47:10):
one spot to another.
I don't know if that's what hewanted.
I don't know that her meddlingwith Georgette and Joseph was a
help.
Like, I think Georgette's worseoff now that she has this
ex-boyfriend.
Yeah.
She certainly didn't helpMonsieur Colignon.
She wasn't trying to, but I'mnot even sure she helped Julian
by kind of torturing Colignon.
(47:31):
So that's an interestingquestion that I did not see on
first watch at all.
Like it was not, I just wasenjoying the machinations and
the skin in the schemas.
We talked about whether or notAmelie might be on the spectrum
and whether or not, like whatdiff what implications that
would have if in fact thischaracter is for kind of
(47:53):
representation and for folks inthe world who are on the
spectrum and their greateracceptance or not.
And that actually led to ourtalk about cultural differences,
about the way that sort ofoutside the norm, outside the
expected path is received inFrance versus received here in
the US, where it seems thatperhaps like quirkiness or not
(48:20):
like weirdness or being like notexpected, not normal, is
accepted and celebrated inFrance more so than it is here.
Even if you don't look like AjuTattoo.
Or Nina.
That or Nino K I can't remember,except for the Q.
And then that led to additionalconversations about sort of the
(48:45):
cultural differences and takinga piece of media that was
created by people of a culturefor people of that culture and
watching it in a differentculture, and sort of the
experience of me watching Amelieand not seeing French
nationalism at all, and theexperience of your host mother
watching Three Kings and likenot getting why this is a
(49:07):
feel-good movie because shedoesn't have those fears and
hopes about who Americans reallyare.
We talked about the romance andhow it like pushes all the right
buttons, but are those buttonsactually healthy for us?
And lastly, I brought theBechtel test in and noted that
(49:31):
though it does pass Bechtel, alot of the conversations don't.
And that just sort of issymptomatic of some of the
patriarchal, heteronormativeassumptions that are baked into
this film that you don't seeuntil you start really examining
it, in part because, well, wedon't see them because of our
(49:52):
own privileges in many ways,that we don't have to see it.
It's not a threat or it's not adanger to us that the
heteronormativity and the andthe patriarchy, well, the
patriarchy actually is a threatto us, but we're so accustomed
to it that that's why we don'tsee it.
I think that's everything thatwe talked about.
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00 (50:08):
Yeah.
The only thing is just the wemight be able to assume that
some of this comes from howsheltered Amelie is.
SPEAKER_01 (50:16):
The film definitely suggests that.
SPEAKER_00 (50:19):
Yeah, but the film doesn't give us any indication
that like this isn't what Parisis like.
Right.
Or that like her helping ismaybe not helping.
SPEAKER_01 (50:28):
It doesn't there's no critique at all of her in
some ways immature.
I mean, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So it's still well worthwatching.
I have to tell you, like, I hadforgotten that it's in French
with subtitles because the storyis just so I know it's
ridiculous, but like the storyis so powerful in my mind that
like I just forgot that it's inFrench with subtitles because I
(50:51):
I just love it so much.
So that was really interesting,also for me at on Rio Ash.
I was like, all right, allright, it's in French, which is
sort of silly.
SPEAKER_00 (50:59):
So, anyway, what are you bringing me next week?
Next week, I am going to bringyou my deep thoughts on uh
Madonna's material girl musicvideo.
SPEAKER_01 (51:08):
Of course, which we are gonna do in front of a live
virtual studio audience.
Listeners, if you would beinterested in that, it is a
benefit of patronage over on ourPatreon at our two highest
tiers.
So check out our Patreon if thatsounds like a thing you would
like to do and be a member ofour live virtual studio
audience.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
(51:28):
All right.
Well, I will look forward tothat, Em.
Yeah, I'll see you then.
This show is a labor of love,but that doesn't make it free to
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If you enjoy it even half asmuch as we do, please consider
helping to keep us overthinking.
You can support us at ourPatreon.
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(51:49):
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And of course, share the showwith your people.
Thanks for listening.
Our theme music is ProfessorUmlaut by Kevin McLeod from
Incompotech.com.
Find full music credits in theshow notes.
Thank you to Resonate Recordingsfor editing today's episode.
(52:10):
Until next time, remember, popculture is still culture.
And shouldn't you know what's inyour head?
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