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jpapadopoulos
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Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)
one extremely sweet story of love!
Amelie.
Amelie is a film that describes in its most sweet way the importance of love in terms of the purpose of life.
Amelie, the main character in the film, is a girl that was brought up so as to care tremendously about all the little things in life and all the tedious details that usually would be of no importance to regular people. This as said implies that she is not a regular / normal girl. But then again, what is normal? This is a question posed somewhere along the lines in Amelie's life. In the beginning she would think that she is the rather unusual as she has properties that can suggest that she stands out. However soon she realizes that these aren't properties that make her odd but merely what makes her different.
Then all of a sudden she finds herself in a quest for purpose. So, as she could never ever dare to imagine this could be to look for someone that could lead her to love (which all things being equal is the most obvious and immediate purpose for life to all people) she discovers the warmth of the ultimate emotion by riding the arrow towards the exact opposite direction. The oxymoron here is (and not only does it apply to her but to us all) that it so happens that so very often someone that cannot trust love in itself, not for a second (the reason does not matter - here is because she is just so innocent and scared), can give and feel and produce oh so very infinite amounts of it! So she does that and sees clearly that helping people makes happy and can be an adventure. It also gives her the opportunity to apply her unique perspective of social intelligence and her own sense of justice.
However, the miracle happens and I think it comes down to simply the fact that to the pure in heart love is inevitable. Hence soon she realizes that she wants to live and experience love herself too. She experiments, of course, tries out her power of being spontaneous so as to unleash it / provoke it in her near environment and then enjoys the effects.
Then she meets someone (again rather odd) and sees that there can exist other people with similar care for little things and this of course triggers her emotions at first to a small extent but later to the maximum. She falls completely for this stranger and decides to try and attract him. She is quite successful but it's more due to the innocent and true nature of her emotions rather than it being due to a sense of habit or addiction.
All this though is merely the story of what happens and cannot tell you of the unbelievable - in my opinion - way in which all this is put to description. This film has a great value because it shows in an innocent (but not naive) way the 'reach out to love' that all of us are capable of living in our lives. I think of this film as a lesson that teaches that true happiness lies in love and all I have to do to have love in my life is permit it to enter my life; all that love is, is infinite and can expand from nowhere, can be produced from nothingness and at the same time can be as filling so as to compose the whole of my life's meaning. And there, at that moment I'd be happy; totally, with no fear, no regrets, no uncertainties, no complications, just a clear perception of happiness as if it could be something tangent and I could wrap it around my self like a blanket.
I can only hope it tells you the same thing.
Rue des plaisirs (2002)
The nature of true love !
Au contraire to popular (printed or otherwise expressed) beliefs regarding this great movie, I am forced to express that this story is one of the best if it is not completely safe to say 'the best' and most touching love story ever!
It is my belief that there are certain people that have a certain sweetness/innocence to their figure so that when/if set to the task of stating/showing the true nature of pure love they can do it in the most powerful way. This is exactly what happens in this film in my opinion.
A simple man, petit Luis while surrounded by women all this childhood - meaning that the opportunity to watch the properties / associations of pretty girls was so abundant so as to get used to them - meats the figure of his dreams on one very simple day just like that. Now this could happen to anyone of us. What makes the huge difference and makes this be extraordinary is that he had the purity in heart so as to admit it to himself or else believe in it straight away. He knew of this. And he knew straight away. This is the first point that I agree to completely. When telling a tale of true love it should start like this, yes.
Point number two is that he wants his love to be happy and in this film there is a unique way of showing this property of love. Anyone truly in love want their loved one to be happy but very very rarely they find the power to submit their selves in a state at which all that matters is their loved one and they therefore would stop at nothing to ensure their happiness even if they would have to endure infinite amount of pain! Most people would think of their lives after a point / would seek happiness through a different route / or simply would stop believing in it. This is not the case when the nature of their love is most true though. This is exactly the reason why this film is one of true love. Because the subject of love never loses faith, never subdues to society; his feelings are beyond reason, beyond the point of any return and there is not one condition, one set of circumstances in this world that can intervene/change/manipulate that.
And number three point is a small artistic detail. There is this awesome, cute little song that Marion sings while waiting, it is like: "si tu veux faire mon bonheure, margueritte, margueritte ..". It shows (at least to me) the pure nature of hope. I admit there are plenty of ways to describe what hope is but this one is the most sweet that I have even seen.
Overall this film is a must! You do need to take the time to see it no matter who you are or where you come from...