Monday 10 May 2010

(500) Films of Empire - Day 236

196 - Amelie - 5 stars
Wow, maybe I do have a heart after all. You can screw your Slumdog Millionaire's and your Mamma Mia's, this is what I call a feel good film. I found it impossible not to feel just a little more positive about life at the end of the movie.
Audrey Tautou is simply adorable as the cafe waitress who spends her days doing little things to improve other people's lives... even at the expense of her own love life.
Whilst I am a huge fan of Jeunet's narrative and visual flair, I know a few people who found it too sacchrine and quirky.
Still popular enough to be mentioned in Up In The Air and still the highest grossing foreign language film in the UK, which is actually kind of depressing since it was released in 2001. What is it that the majority of the cinema-going public have against films with subtitles?!

388 - Hidden - 4 stars
Case in point. One of the most critically acclaimed films of the last decade, yet hardly anyone saw it!
Daniel Auteil and Juliette Binoche are excellent as the couple who become unnerved when they receive videos of their house. Just hours of footage of someone watching them.
Auteil is then forced to revisit a face from his past and a dark secret when clues in the videos lead him to suspect the person behind them.
Beautifully left open with a clue at the end that may allow the audience to decide who is behind the videos... but it does bring into question everything that we are seeing. What is a video and what is real life?
Opinions please. The scene where Juliette Binoche is being comforted by her male friend. Is it a video that is being made or not? It always stood out for me as being an odd scene, yet the son seemed to think there was something going on between them. Had he seen it? Theories welcome.
Oh, and I love the anecdote about the dog. I've actually used that in real life and it works a treat!

Days remaining - 129 Films remaining - 153

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