All posts by kimmy

Outside Story Assignment 2

Article Writing

Focusing on the use of two stereotypical genres in photography, suburbia, and monstrosity New Zealand Art writer, visited Rice University Wednesday night to share his take on a fellow New Zealander’s work and her bizarre perception when behind or in front of a camera.

Anthony Byrt, a leading art writer, well known throughout Europe and the US, shared several photographs from New Zealand photographer, Yvonne Todd. Her mix of traditional horror characters was morphed into businessmen and housewives with a motive to kill. “There’s something, both economically inspirational and distinctly Freudian in Todd,” said Byrt, “the suburban daughter of an accountant.”

The first series Byrt shared was entitled, Wall of Man, taken in 2009. The sequence of photographs played an essential role in Todd’s career. Most of the figures in her photos, Byrt continued, “always look lonely, but connect through awkward smiles.”

These portraits were the kind that might be displayed in corporate offices, but for Todd, they were real people, people who responded to an ad in the paper who wanted to be involved in an art project. Her art project.

“They also signal a sort of radical and disruptive shift within her practice too,” Byrt went on, “most obviously they were, as the title expressed, ALL men, and it’s the first and so far only series that Todd has dedicated to the opposite sex.” Her other photographs contained only women as the subjects, making this series stand out when displayed alongside them in galleries.

The women she usually photographed were usually young, and her fascination with wigs and false teeth transformed them into her versions of Frankenstein. She is giving them more meaning outside of the art. Byrt continued to show slides from Wall of Man and Wall of Seahorsel, which contained her images of women sometimes faceless or standing in contorted poses that gave them a manikin likeness.

“With Wall of Man, she’d gone to the opposite end of the gender and age spectrums, not just guys but old guys. And it was, she told me”, said Byrt, ‘her least successful series, sales-wise.’ So collectors seemed far more comfortable with her creepy adolescent girls on their walls than successful doctors and retired CEOS. But as Todd says, ‘“I was more interested in the fact that corporate photography has to convey a sense of infallibility in paternal love. I wanted to see if I could replicate that using ordinary blocks from North shore.”’

̶  KMV ̶

 FACTS BOX

Lecture MC/Invited by- Rice Professor, John Sparagana

Anthony Byrt- Art Writer- Speaker

Yvonne Todd- www.ervon.com

Outside Story Assignment 1

Article Writing

A place created by a New York couple for small business owners to show off their product of art, vintage items and handmade trinkets. A monthly two day event for vendors and visitors to stroll through the streets of Rice Village and breathe in the excitement of shopping and the environment.

Twenty-four tents and tables lined the usually empty lot on Morningside Drive where couple Emily Yau and Ian Frascati has organized the event that has come to be known as Rice Village Flea, a tribute to the famous Brooklyn Flea in New York.

            “A small, yet very fun event,” said Kelsie Gipson, an attendee of the market, “once I started at the first table I couldn’t leave the market without buying a few things before getting to the last.”

Vendors stand by their booths while visitors and customers weave through and around them and other people to examine the haul each have brought with them. This small jewel in Rice Village, allows customers of the Village visiting the usual boutiques and cafes a fresh outlook of small business owners without a storefront of their own.

            “We discovered the term flea market doesn’t have the same association that it has in Brooklyn,” said Emily Yau, Event Organizer, “we wanted to do something similar to Brooklyn Flea, diverse and something that appeals to everyone.”

 As well as giving small business owners a way to get their business out into the world, Rice Village Flea has also partnered up with the pet adoption agency, The Love Molly Fund.  Being an avid dog lover herself, Yau and the organizer of the adoption agency, Julia Long, allow market attendees the joy of adopting their own dog or even putting microchips in a pet they already own, with a donation of $20.

            “We always feature a dog rescue, just because I like dogs,” Yau said, “and I’m not allowed to get any more dogs, so I get to help and hang out and pet them.”

Another idea of the market is to give its customers one of a kind items and a place that is easy to get to and from. With hopes of expanding, Yau and Frascati have not yet made any concrete plans of moving, the location of the market, but would like to continue growing the market and are keeping their options open.

Yau’s major concern is finding a large enough location that would offer a similar environment that Rice Village does.

            “It’s physically impossible to expand in our current lot,” she said, “we want to keep the name, otherwise we’d have to start over. But I think in the future, as people grow to start to really like these events, I think customers would still come even if we move off site.”

 

                                                                                              ̶  KMV ̶

Mind-Speaks: PopShop

Events

Pop Shop America is an organization that specializes in the DIY community. They bring like minded crafty people for a bi annual event and the creative minds at Mind-Speaks had the opportunity to host a free DIY cork keychain booth.

To our surprise the stamped corks were a huge hit and pop visitors were great for word of mouth advertising during this event. Pretty soon, a line started forming.

This was one of Mind-Speaks first live events and it was a great success, we hope to continue being a part of future DIY events.

ENGL 3322-Final

Essays

Tantalia: Two Stories

           Alejandro Zambra’s novel, Bonsai, although short, was written in a format different from other stories that use both the past and present as a way to convey its story. The future is always apparent for the reader is told the ending at the beginning of the story. It also focuses heavily on language, and Zambra also uses the format of writing a story within another story giving this very personal feeling between both the story and writer but also with the reader. Comparing both the film and novel, it is apparent that they are similar. However, there seem to be more differences. In this essay, I plan on graphing out their differences in scene, character, and creativity and discovering whether or not anything is lost in the retelling of Bonsai.

 

           Language in this novel is essential. It was written in Spanish, and because it has been translated, certain meanings get lost in translation. On the first page, the introduction ends with, “The rest is literature.” In the film, it is translated as, “The rest is fiction.” While reading this, it makes much more sense as the rest is history; it is also a sort of cliché line. It’s only natural for a reader to assume the words that follow ‘the rest’…with history. The rest is fiction has this way of setting up the story. Using the word literature has this sort of meaning that implies the book itself. ‘The rest is literature’ has this way of not only forming an interesting way of looking at the novel, but I feel as though Zambra had meant it to be translated in that way, as the writer. Literature can be many types of writing; although both can be creative fiction can only be fiction. In an interview, Zambra mentioned how, when writing he envisions book rather than a novel. The difference between the book and a novel is that a book can be anything. And Zambra wanted Bonsai, in this case, to be able to fill any list versus being confined to a novel’s requirements. Others often say how Zambra’s writing is like poetry, after reading Bonsai; one can see how that might be true.

The characters are important, like in any story. They are what the plot moves around, and they help the reader to relate or take an interest in the story. In the book, it balances between its characters. Primarily focusing on either Emilia or Julio, however in the film version some minor characters have had their names change, and the film focuses more on Julio and his point of view whereas, in the book, his is just one side of the story. The book allows you to see the parts they do not allow you to see in the film. As if it was cut out or placed behind a curtain and you’ve only paid to see Julio’s side of things and the way he sees them. In films, there always has to be the main protagonist. It revolves around him and his life, and therefore, the viewer must see it happening from his side. The book allows its readers to discover something unknown about the story and see it from multiple sides. I also found that the relationship between the characters was different in the film than in the book. In an interview with the director of the film, Cristián Jiménez, he mentions:

At first, I didn’t really see a film in the book. It doesn’t have much in the way of visual material; it’s a very literal book in a way. It’s about literature and about language, but I thought there was something in the book which I knew well, and I also wanted to be a writer when I was twenty. We were pretty much the first generation of Chileans who became adults after the dictatorship, and I think that feeling is captured in a really subtle way (Nikolaidis).

The fact that he says, he didn’t see a film in the book strikes me as interesting. Films that portray books are usually another person’s interpretation of a book. That interpretation becomes a different story in itself. Characters had to be changed, but the primary story is somewhat still intact. Both Anita and Maria were characters that appeared close to Emilia and Julio. In the film, they were changed to Barbara and Blanca. Their roles were still the same; however, there are several differences. Maria is portrayed as this woman with white hair, who may or may not be a lesbian. She is his neighbor same in the film; she does appear to be older than him; however, not old enough to have white hair. In the book, Julio seems to be writing his version of Bonsai for her. He intends to give it to her before she leaves. It is the same in the film; however it seemed as though he began writing his version as an excuse to write. He was transcribing it for Gazmuri, and it was a job. He might have also been embarrassed to tell Maria that Gazmuri had found someone else to work for him.

Both the book and film consist of chapters, but each has its own. The book consists of five chapters entitled. I. Mass. II.Tantalia. III. Loans. IV. Spares. V. Two drawings. The film has six and goes by: 1. Proust. 2. Sangre (blood). 3. Bulto (Bulk). 4. Sobras (Leftovers). 5. Tantalia. 6. Maceta (pot). Each of the titles named in the novel represented something in that chapter, and this was a really creative way to tie those things in with the story. Chapter one, Mass, was used to describe our protagonists. “At least during that time, Julio and Emilia managed to merge into a single kind of mass” (Zambra). Both versions share the title Tantalia, a story about lovers who buy a plant, “and keep it as a symbol of the love that unites them. They realize too late that if the plant dies, the love that unites them will die with it” (Zambra). In the film version, Julio and Emilia become obsessed with this story after Julio gives Emilia a plant for her birthday. They become so obsessed with it that they end up ignoring the plant. Chapter 3, Loans, was represented as an action. It was used to explain how close the characters Anita and Emilia were. In the novel, they would loan each other clothes, music, toys and eventually husband. Chapter four, Spares, mentioned several times in different instances. It becomes the actual title of Gazmuri’s novel, but he also says the line, “Perhaps the only thing you’ve got to spare, now that I’m getting a good look at you, is blood” (Zambra). The fact that the word spares becomes the title of not only the chapter but of Gazmuri’s novel sort of encompasses this superior attitude Gazmuri had for Julio. That might have been another reason Julio decided to continue writing his own version of Gazmuri’s novel. Chapter five, Two Drawings, this had Julio comparing both Emilia and Maria and could have been translated to two women:

On a certain particularly long afternoon, Julio decides to start two drawings. In the first one a woman appears who is Maria but who is Emilia: the dark, almost black eyes of Emilia and Marias white hair; Maria’s ass, Emilia’s thighs, Maria’s feet; the back of a daughter of a right-wing intellectual; Emilia’s torso and diminutive breasts; the pubis of Emilia (Zambra).

He combined them both, even though it was primarily Emilia’s features. This one of the biggest creative features in the novel, it presented the title of the book aside from the actual tree and even brought the drawing element into the book’s pages and didn’t just rely on the text to describe it. In the film version, Julio draws one, and like the book, he uses the drawing as a model for how he hopes his bonsai turns out, but the bonsai is Zambra using bonsai to symbolize women in general. But it might also be a symbol for Julio as well. Also mentioned in chapter five is how the living tree and the container, “must be in harmony and the selection of the appropriate pot for a tree is almost an art form in itself” (Zambra). Even though he thought of the women while drawing it, it could represent himself and his own novel that the character wrote within the novel. Among all the relationships mentioned in the story, the one he has with himself lacks the most synchrony.

The relationship between Anita and Emilia is lessened in the novel. Emilia sort of ignores Barbara (Anita) throughout the film; their relationship does not have the same connection the one Zambra created in his novel. However, the scene where Anita questions Julio about changing Emilia is somewhat the same, but the novel version offers the line, “What’s the purpose of being with someone if they don’t change your life?” (Zambra) In the novel, Emilia stands up for Julio, in the film, Emilia did not even seem part of that scene even though she sat in the middle. Anita’s character in the film, Barbara, had more of a relationship with Julio than with Emilia. There is a scene that is not included in the book where the two of them going jogging. They discuss the plant and his concerns, as though it is apparent their relationship is doomed to die like the plant is. He searches for another perspective and turns to her for guidance. Another scene involving them that differs is how they run into each other 8 years later. In the book, they do see each other until the end; in the novel, he sees her with her family and asks about Emilia. She then gives him Emilia’s number and tells him he should give her a call. The film allows present Emilia and present Julio a moment in which they could interact with each other. He calls her and hears her voice, but something tells him to hang up without saying anything. The book does not allow that. Emilia is dead before Julio and Anita are reunited. In the book, his thoughts are obviously about Emilia, which is what his book is about, his relationship with her. That is what the film makes apparent.

           Both of the stories begin and end with death. But another huge difference between these two scenes in both versions is how Emilia’s death is announced and by whom. In the book, Anita is not able to tell Julio of Emilia’s demise. Her husband is the one who tells him. In the book, Barbara (Anita) meets up with him towards the end of the film and tells him. The news of Emilia’s death and how it was delivered was not the only difference made to this scene. Throughout the film, you are aware of the time. You were either eight years earlier or 8 years later, but in the book, time was not as obvious. Julio often referred to time as when he was either in the beginning or end of his relationship with Emilia. Also concerning time, the beginning of the novel focused more on Emilia’s side; they mentioned her childhood, which was completely omitted, aside from her hate for her mother, from the film. Both mention suicide yet in the book, Anita’s husband said that she had jumped in front of a metro. This also had more of a connection between Maria and Emilia:

It’s a woman, a young woman. That’s all Maria manages to know about Emilia. The dead person is a dead woman, a young woman, someone says at her back. A young woman has thrown herself in front of the metro at Anton Martin. For a moment Maria thinks of approaching the place where it occurred, but she immediately represses the impulse. She exits the metro thinking about the alleged face of that young woman who just committed suicide (Zambra).

Aside from being involved sexually with Julio, these women had no other connection. By adding this scene, Zambra has connected the women even though they never actually met. In the film, when Julio runs into Barbara (Anita) he asks about Emilia and Blanca (Maria) is present to hear her name. She later asks who Emilia is, and he just brushes her off as someone he went to school with. That scene, in both versions, is the only time past and present collide. The rest of the story is told in either the past or present.

Moving on to the death scene in the film, Emilia had apparently jumped off a building from the 7th floor. After Julio’s failed attempt at contacting her he tried again towards the end of the film, only he was too late. In this version, Barbara tells him herself instead of her husband. In the movie they had established these two characters being able to sit and have a conversation. But again in the novel, the two of them do not have that relationship. Returning to the subject of time, in Zambra’s version he did not have Julio discover her death until a year had already passed. In the film version, only four months have passed since Emilia’s death. Each version had the same outcome, Julio ended up spending money on a cab ride with no destination. It was a great way to end the story and said a lot without having the narrator actually saying anything at all. Yet, the film was not exactly the story Zambra had originally wrote. It was more like Jiménez embodied is inner Julio and took an idea and wrote his own version. Like Julio did with the Gazmuri’s, only there were more apparent similarities. Although both the film and novel were interesting stories, and I found the film to be an interesting and enjoyable interpretation, I viewed it as a separate story overall.

-KMV-

Bonsai. Dir. Cristián Jimenez. By Alejandro Zambra. N.P., n.d. Web. 01 May 2013.

“No Longer Secondary Characters: CP Heiser in Conversation with Alejandro Zambra.” Molossus. N.P., Mar.-Apr. 2013. Web. 09 May 2013.

Nikolaidis, Leo. “Interview with Cristián Jimenez.” Sounds and Colours. N.P., n.d. Web. 09 May 2013.

Zambra, Alejandro, and Robertis Carolina. De. Bonsai. Brooklyn, NY: Melville House, 2008.

Gulf Coast-Interview

Interviews

Geetha Iyer, winner of the 2012 Gulf Coast Prize in Fiction, talks with Gulf Coast Senior Editorial Assistant Kim Vera about her writing process and her story “The Glass World-Builder”

Kim Vera: How do you usually start writing a story? Do you follow some sort of outline?

Geetha Iyer: I don’t usually think in terms of plot. It’s much more sensory—a haunting sound or an image. I write pages, sometimes of the same paragraph, until I find a voice that carries the sensory detail I want the story to explore. I’ve learned not to make outlines after that. Once the voice emerges, it tells its own story, and I can’t really control it anymore.

KV: When writing The Glass-World Builder, did you always intend to have the story told through the eyes of an outside character?

GI: Yes, for somewhat unconnected reasons. I had been reading Roberto Bolaño’s Nazi Literature in the Americas. I loved the concept of the book—a collection of fictional biographies of contemptible literary figures—and was particularly fascinated by the voice of irony coasting under the surface, that of an omniscient outside-the-story/in-on-the-joke narrator. I wanted the challenge of writing something in that vein, an obituary or retrospective or museum pamphlet for a performance artist who “performed” acts of terror, something deadpan, entirely committed to its own reality while being completely absurd.

Of course, Sarla’s story became its own thing as it was being written, and a much more personal voice emerged. And for me, personal voices are problematic. Most of the literature I read growing up, and a fair deal of what I’ve studied at university is by white male British or American authors. I didn’t really understand the psychological impact of this until I started writing myself—I’d become so habituated to assuming that, unless otherwise specified, people in stories were straight white males of British or American extraction that my own characters always sounded more Sam than Sarla, unless I stated otherwise. It makes me feel self-conscious to have to label my characters as other-than-assumed—it leads to those awkward moments where the narrator staggers to the story-telling equivalent of a mirror and describes her skin color, body shape, and sexual preference to herself—and thus the reader. Writing through the eyes of an outside character allows me to displace the need to describe the obvious—that individuals self-define as normative even if the dominant culture sees otherwise. It moves my writing away from stories of character origins and identities to refocus on their doings instead.

KV: Was Sarla based on someone you know/knew in life, or a combination of different people?

GI: I have a picture of Sarla in my head that comes from photographs of a person I’ve never met, a friend of a friend. But she’s otherwise an invention. With that said, I write fiction because it lets me live vicariously. Sarla’s obsessions are my obsessions on overload. I am not a molecular biologist, nor a visual artist, but I once wanted to be both. I’m also not a practicing misanthrope, but I think Sarla’s feelings of disgust toward people is a mirrored reversal of my reverence for biota that are not human. Most of the organisms Sarla works with, in her stories I’ve studied at some point myself. There really are fungi that squirt fruiting bodies out of wood like gel toothpaste. And nematodes are incredible—people talk about humans like they’re some evolutionary paragon but nematodes are so finely adapted to their surroundings that they literally suffuse the planet—you could take away everything else on earth but the nematodes and still be able to tell what the planet looked like—their bodies will mark out everything from the contours of the ocean floor to each knotted tree root in the soil.

KV: Discuss the title: throughout the story, Sarla works with glass in different ways. Did that contribute to your title choice or were there earlier titles you were thinking of using?

GI: I think the title was an afterthought. Most of what Sarla sees is contained in a glass or glass-like framework. Petri dishes, microscope, camera lenses, and airplane windows. The title was just a literalization of the story. I suppose if I hadn’t felt that glass also worked as a symbol, I might have changed the title.

KV: What drew you to start writing, and would you say that science helps fuel your ideas?

GI: When I was eighteen, I decided to be a biologist instead of an artist because I thought it was a less self-serving career choice. I wrote as a way to keep in touch with an otherwise neglected need to be creative. I’ve since recognized that it was a mistake to abandon art-making for science. I write now because I accept that what I do best is make things—world-build, I suppose—from raw materials. And words are the best raw materials, so abstract that their transformative potential is infinite.

I still love biology, though. I’m not mathematically inclined, but I find the natural world endlessly awe-inspiring and learn from it continually. I think of myself as a non-practicing biologist—I still have knowledge of fieldwork and lab work, but I draw different insights from these experiences than I would as a scientist. I use the same data to craft metaphoric truths instead of concrete ones. It’s the best kind of inspiration.

KMV

*More of my work with Gulf Coast can be found here.

Profile Assignment

Creative Writing, Non-Fiction

The Man on the Bus

           Hand sanitizer and or some bacteria force field is recommended before boarding the beast known as a metro bus. Public transportation is both convenient and inconvenient at the same time. You either arrive just in time to catch it or late and watch it drive off, leaving you bitter and above all else late for work/class/life. It is a box where cold, and flu germs hide and wait until you, the unsuspecting victim, board the cesspool.

           Once in this box, you come into contact with a variety of individuals. On bus 68 there is a man I often refer to as, Musical Candy Man. He is an older gentleman, with unruly hair usually covered by an ivy cap made of tweed. His jacket, also made of tweed, has darker brown patches on the elbows. He often sits upfront, and if you sit near him, your nose will be greeted with the scent of cigars. He will offer you a piece of candy as you walk by. When I do, I politely decline. I know he might mean well, but if you were offered a questionable piece of candy, wouldn’t you reject it? One of the first things a child is taught is, what is their phone number and address and, oh, never take candy from a stranger, even if they appear to be nice.

           When he isn’t offering candy to strangers, he is singing. And not a low hum that only he can hear either, but a full belt out of some classic Motown, usually verses from My Girl and Build me up Buttercup. It is an enjoyable performance, all things considered. His voice is hoarse, probably from smoking, but it’s almost as if you are listening to a vinyl record. If you listen carefully, you might be able to ignore the scratchiness and hear the Gaye he probably was in his youth. He is aware that he is aboard a bus; I assume he has doctor appointments to keep. Seeing as he boards the bus at a stop located in the Med Center. I’ve only ever seen him get off the bus when it stops near Luby’s. I never see anyone accompany him on the bus. However, several nurses or other elderly passengers recognize and converse with him until they arrive at their stops. He is a strange character but one of the more comforting passengers. Sadly, I don’t see him on my route anymore. I hope it’s because he takes a different bus and is still singing on offering his fellow bus passengers a piece of candy and a bit of traveling music to entertain them.

-KMV-

Travel Piece Assignment

Creative Writing, Non-Fiction

I’ve had four addresses in my life, and each of them has molded me in some way. Home is usually described as a place where you feel safe, a place where family gathers. It doesn’t necessarily have to be an actual house. Home could also be referred to as the town or city you grew up in. For me, growing up in a small town, I was sheltered from all the horrible things that happen in the world. I felt safe, “bad” things never happened, or they were just well hidden.  So now I’m living at my fourth address, and it’s located in the 4th largest city in America. Transitioning from small town to big city took some time to get used to.

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Descriptive Piece

Creative Writing, Non-Fiction

Parking in Houston is a hassle. On nights like these you wish teleporting was possible to avoid the disappointment a full parking lot shoves on you. The crooked path is always littered with chewed gum that hardened and is now permanently part of the concrete. You trip over the same broken side walk while making your way to its guarded archway.  Doors open and inviting, it wouldn’t turn you away. The magenta paint that coated the outside is chipped and the remains of flyers that were plastered on the sides still leave their mark, like a stubborn barcode sticker you can’t seem to remove from the side of your favorite cup.

Greeted by red walls, mounted paintings, neon signs flashing, cocktails, and your choice of poison, you’re still able to notice that the concrete floor was stripped of tiles. I imagined it once as a checkerboard. But these individual squares of adhesive prance around the floor and only adds to the scheme of things. It resembles an old hopscotch court that is hugged by a wall of pinball machines you can’t avoid. The lights blare and the sound the ball makes as you send the numbers spinning keeps you in place quarters in hand. You eventually give up and grow tired of standing. Chairs and tables are always taken, once you vacate it, it is lost. The narrowness makes you a tad dizzy and when it’s packed you have to crawl your way through the crowds, almost sitting on a couple of laps just to get to the end.  Smoke cheats its way in through the back door. And you escape, only to walk into clouds of it upon stepping on to the patio.  A few chairs are scattered, spread around the small yard but they add more when the time calls for it. Still, that doesn’t guarantee you a spot. Nothing is a guarantee except for a night of intrigue and good company.

-KMV-

Memoir Assignment

Creative Writing, Non-Fiction

I’ve fought many battles in my life. The one that remains fresh in my memory is the last fight where my sister and I used more than words to hurt one another.

We both stand there in the hallway yelling at the top of our lungs. I was victorious the last time so I refuse to stand down this time and I’m betting she won’t admit defeat so easily either. But what do you expect. We are sisters. We continue yelling insult after insult, our voices overlap and I no longer realize what I’m shouting.  I just hear white noise yet I can’t seem to stop. I noticed her eyes fill with tears and it is too late to take back what has been said. There has always been an invisible line that we as sisters dare not cross. But I manage to cross that line within minutes. Once I glimpse the first tear slide down her cheek, I know she has won. Her brown round eyes look at me with such hurt and betrayal. Her tears are merely a distraction; the crossed line was just ammo to make her tears that much stronger. She is a worthy adversary, tears are my weakness. She may have already won the battle, but there is no sense in letting her claim victory before I’ve had a chance to change it. She is done with yelling and lunges for me. My eyes begin to tear up as well, mostly because of the pain I feel as I hit the ground but partly because I’m afraid my words have actually wounded her. She is older and stronger than I am and succeeds in pinning me to the ground.

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Movie Review #1 Assignment

Reviews

3370 COM HISTORY OF CINEMA

Kim Vera

TITLE:  Amélie

RELEASING COMPANY & DATE: UGC (France) Miramax (USA) 2001

PRODUCER: Jean-Marc Deschamps, Claudie Ossard DIRECTOR: Jean-Pierre Jeunet

WRITER: Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Guillaume Laurant

CAST: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Andre Dussollier

PRINCIPAL ARTISTS/CRAFTSMEN: Yann Tiersen, Bruno Delbonnel

THEME OF FILM: Voyeurism

PLOT: The story of a quiet girl who worries about fixing the lives of others. She pays no attention to her own life and does not attempt to change her quiet life for the better. It takes just one interesting person to catch her attention, a boy who collects torn photographs. She almost lets her shyness prevent her from meeting the photo boy. But she finally breaks free from her normal quiet life of watching others and focuses on her own life.
REVIEWER’S COMMENTS:
This has to be one of my favorite movies. I love how the colors play throughout this film. Lots of greens and yellows, make this film to me artistic. I also enjoyed how the narrator would narrate, and then the character Amelie (Tautou) would then repeat the same words. Every time I watch this film, it makes me want to do something creative. It has a story of fantasy quality that encourages me to write a story of my own. One of my favorite scenes would have to include the part where she is this close to talking to her unusual love interest when he leaves. After he goes, she melts, a relatable feeling, most people experience when dealing with a potential significant other.
PLACE IN HISTORY:
This film won several awards such as best original screenplay along with Best Film and Best Director.