Film Studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Film Studies - Essay Example The film Amelie begins with an omniscient narrator detailing the likes and dislikes of Amelie’s parents providing insight into Amelie’s formative childhood that led to her introspective personality. Both parents eschew touching. For example, the father hates his swimming costume sticking to his legs and the mother hates when someone brushes her hand. Although the child-Amelie craves physical affection, her father only touches her once a month with his stethoscope during her check-up. Excited by this contact, Amelie’s heartbeat quickens causing her father to diagnose her with a heart condition that causes her to become home schooled by her neurotic mother. Amelie develops into an extraordinarily imaginative child whose only friend is a suicidal goldfish. Yet, Amelie is not simply a recluse; she shows a spark for something more in her life. She craves tactile pleasure eating raspberries from her fingertips, pulling â€Å"glue skin† from her finger, running h er finger around a wineglass top, or plunging her hand into a sack of beans. She also demonstrates an ability to feel her interconnectedness with society at large as well as a bit of fire for harmless revenge. When a nasty neighbor tricks Amelie into believing that her taking photographs lead to a car accident and other citywide accidents, she innately believes in her ability to connect with others in this unseen, spiritual way. Yet, once she realizes the neighbor’s trick, the cheeky Amelie revenges the avid football fan by unplugging his TV at pivotal match moments. Quite opposite to Amelie’s solitary upbringing, her future love Nino suffered a fate much like Oskar from Let The Right One In as classmates bully both. Of course, Nino’s bullying is slanted towards humor, yet Oskar’s world of isolation is far more detrimental, sad, and violent. Oskar’s divorced mother and father seem completely disconnected from their son. Oskar retreats into an imagi nary world where he is the tough bully threatening and debasing weaker boys. The film opens with the prepubescent Oskar standing shirtless holding a small knife commanding an unseen foe to â€Å"Squeal like a pig† (Lindqvist). Oskar is attempting to reverse the power relationship between himself and the bullies by inventing his own bully identity within the mirror image reflected in his apartment window. Of course, neither Oskar nor Amelie’s identities remain unchanged by their films’ conclusions. Within Amelie’s world, hearing the shocking report of Lady Diana’s death causes Amelie to drop a bottle top that nocks loose a tile revealing a long lost box of a child’s treasures. Frances notes â€Å"Princess Di, often referred to in the film†¦represented for the collective, heart values that lie in the shadow of cultures† (2003). Inspired to find the owner and become an agent of kindness, Amelie enters a manic world where characters drives plot and plot drives characters. Riding the maze-like subway, Amelie locates the owner, who is so touched by this anonymous gift that he vows to reconnect with his daughter to meet his grandson. Just as characters incite change within each other in Amelie’