Cinema Paradiso seemed like it had already been sufficiently analyzed through the lens of Bordwell, and Sleepless in Seattle seemed too cut and dry, so I thought instead I would take a look at Amelie's status as a possible example of classical Hollywood narrative. Amelie is a much more interesting case for a number of reasons. For one, Amelie is a French film, not a Hollywood film. My initial instinct was that Amelie did not fit the qualifications for a classical Hollywood narrative. After all, this was the film that we as a class tried to determine whether it needed a narrative at all. However, under closer consideration, I believe that it does in fact meet all of Bordwell's criteria for a classical Hollywood narrative, if not perfectly. I'm not sure if I would necessarily classify it as classical Hollywood, but Amelie's narrative is clearly influenced by it.
The most obvious relation between Amelie and Bordwell's classical Hollywood narratives is Amelie's treatment of character. Bordwell sees characters in classical narratives as “psychologically defined individuals who struggle to solve a clear-cut problem or to attain specific goals” (18). The first aspect of that statement is more than abundant in Amelie. I cannot off the top of my head think of a movie that devoted more time to develop the psychology of a character than the treatment with Amelie. Amelie had a unique way of looking at the world, which involved taking great meaning from very small occurrences, and the film took us through her psychology at great length, including utilizing the events that took place in her childhood and affected her psychologically. The second aspect of the statement is a little less clear, but still easily found in Amelie. While at the beginning of the film, it didn't seem like Amelie had any major problem she needed to solve, by the end, it was clear that she did in fact have a problem, even if she wasn't aware of it initially. She was looking for her soul mate, someone who understood the world the way she did. On her way there, though, she have specific goals she tried to attain, namely to correct little wrongs that she saw in the world, such as the grocer's cruelty, two cafe regulars' loneliness, and the boredom of her father's life.
The ending of Amelie also correlates nicely with Bordwell's outline. Bordwell believed the common threads in classical Hollywood narratives were a readjustment back to the status quo after the “world knocked awry in the previous eighty minutes” (21), and the cliché happy ending, complete with the embrace. Again, the only real deviation from Bordwell's words that can be found in Amelie is that the romantic plot line didn't really exist for much of the movie. The world of Amelie was only really knocked awry when she saw the ads searching for the lost photo album. It was clearly resolved in the end though, as Amelie finally got together with her soul mate. And although they didn't do it in the classic Hollywood dramatic embrace, there was a very unique kissing introduction, followed by a shot of them in an embrace. Also, the final shot of the movie was of the two of them riding on a moped, clearly embracing.
What initially seemed most at odds with Bordwell's archetype in Amelie was the dual plot structure. Bordwell defined the dual plot structure as having two plot lines, a quest of some sort, and a romantic plot line. Although it took some time before it popped up, there was clearly a romantic plot line in Amelie. What I didn't initially see was her quest. Sure, she took great pains to accomplish small good acts, but those were just that, small good acts. None of them could be considered her quest. But as a whole, they did have an overarching theme that could. In fact the narrator even said (completely paraphrased because imdb didn't have the quote I was looking for) that if the man who's childhood box she found appreciated it, she would devote her life to helping out mankind. To Amelie, helping out mankind wouldn't mean trying to solve large issues such hunger or homelessness. Instead, she would focus on the little things that she derived so much meaning from, and use those to better their lives. This was her quest, the second part of the dual plot line.
And so, although Amelie doesn't perfectly correlate with Bordwell's image of a classical Hollywood narrative, there is definitely enough similarities there to say that it, at the very least, draws strongly from classical Hollywood films for its narrative.
makes me wonder if the American reception of Amelie (extremely positive) had something to do with this ability to cater to our Hollywood expectations... on the other hand, the film was so not-American there must have been something about its foreign-ness that appealed... as for the dual plot-line -- I do think that her desire to straighten out others' lives would qualify. So, on the one hand her personal quest of self-fulfillment in heterosexual love and on the other, her altruistic commitment to others' pursuit of happiness.
ReplyDeleteInteresting take on Amelie. I never thought to use Bordwell's guidelines on that film since it is not American, but it defintely does seem to follow the description of classical Hollywood cinema. Perhaps the reason that the narrative is not as evident to us is that in foreign films it seems the narrative is not as important whereas that is often overemphasized in American films. Look at all of our blockbusters, they all have definitive classical narratives.
ReplyDeleteI think that, with concern to the plot itself, your assessment is spot-on. The narrative would be light fare even for Hollywood, taken as a plot unto itself. However, its cinematography seems to subvert this. The very jumpy montage at the end, the initial childhood cutscenes, the numerous and deliberate winks at the audience all seem to go against Bordwell's idea of narrative space. It's odd how it manages to produce nearly-identical effects as a Hollywood love story while using totally different filming techniques (in my opinion).
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