Amélie
Place on List:
III. Period: 1960 - 2009
2.
Primary Texts: Film
Jean-Pierre
Jeunet. Amélie.
(2001)
Supporting References:
“French actress Audrey Tautou rose
from being completely unknown to become a film sensation not just in
her native France, but also in the United States and around the
world, as a result of her work in the film Amélie. The film
became the highest–grossing French film ever released in the United
States. For her work in the film, Tautou (pronouced toe–TOO) won a
Cesar Award, the French equivalent of the American Academy Award.
“Born in Beaumont, France, and raised
in rural Montlucon, the young Tautou was very interested in monkeys
and spent her childhood dreaming of becoming a primatologist, but as
she grew older, her mother told Steven Rea in the Courier–Mail,
she was "more interested in being the monkey, rather than taking
care of them." She became interested in theater and performing,
acting out the lives of others.
“When she was 17, Tautou took an
acting course at Cours Florent in Paris. At first, she was
intimidated by the city, and particularly by the huge number of other
aspiring actresses, all of whom seemed to be taller and more
beautiful than she was. However, a friend pointed out that this was
because she was living on the same block as the Elite modeling
agency. In 1998, Tautou won the Best Young Actress award in the ninth
Jeune Comedien de Cinema Festival, held in Bezier, France, for her
work in the film Vieille barrière. Director Tonie Marshall
noted the award and, impressed by the young actress, gave her a role
in her 1999 film Vénus beauté (institut). At first, Tautou
thought the director had dialed the wrong number when Marshall called
the actress to offer her the role. In the film, Tautou played an
impressionable hairstylist who falls in love with a much older man.
She won a Cesar award for Most Promising Actress, the French
equivalent of the American Academy Award, for her work in the film.
“Director Jean–Pierre Jeunet was
impressed by Tautou's performance in Vénus beauté (institut),
as well as by her fairylike appearance. Although Jeunet originally
wanted English actress Emily Watson for his new film Amélie,
Watson refused the role for unspecified reasons. Casting about for
another actresss, Jeunet noticed Tautou's face on a billboard
advertising Vénus beauté (institut), and decided she was
right for the role. He told the Courier–Mail's Rea, "She
was amazing during the [screen] test, exactly like she is in the
film. It wasn't necessary to direct her."
“In Amélie, Tautou played the
title character, a Montmartre waitress who finds an old box of
childhood treasures hidden under the floorboards of her apartment.
She returns the box to its original owner and observes from a
distance as his life is changed by the reunion with his beloved
belongings. Struck by this transformation, Amélie comes up with more
plans to change other people's lives through quirky actions and
gifts, always done anonymously; most of the changes are positive, if
the people deserve it, and a few are negative—also well–deserved.
All is well until she meets a man, Nino, and eventually realizes she
must transform her own life in the same way she has altered those of
other people.
“In Movie City News, a
reporter quoted film critic Roger Ebert, who called the film "a
delicious pastry of a movie, a lighthearted fantasy in which a
winsome heroine overcomes a sad childhood and grows up to bring cheer
to the needful and joy to herself." He described Tautou as "a
fresh–faced waif who looks like she knows a secret and can't keep
it." Tautou had little dialogue in the film, but this did not
prevent her from being deeply expressive in the role. As Paul Fischer
wrote at Dealmemo.com
, "One of the many unique facets of the film is watching
Tautou's visual expressiveness. With relatively minimal dialogue, the
actress speaks with her face. It's an intricate, delicate
performance.…" Tautou explained to Fischer, "When I play
a character, I try to feel the same kinds of feelings as the
character, depending on her different situations. And so, those
feelings come via my face." She credited the director for the
film's artistry; she told Fischer, "To me, Jean–Pierre is a
genius. The only thing I gave for this role was my face and voice,
because his universe is so precise and so extraordinary.…" She
also joked to Fischer that the role was uncomplicated because she did
not have much dialogue: "It was easier because I don't have to
learn as many lines."
“In the film, Jeunet paired Tautou
with Mathieu Kassovitz as Nino. Kassovitz is a French actor who had
also received a Cesar award for Most Promising Actor. Jeunet told the
Courier–Mail's Rea that the two actors had "beautiful
chemistry" and audiences seemed to agree, packing movie houses
and bringing in more than $78 million between April and December of
2001. At the Edinburgh and Toronto Film Festivals, the movie won the
People's Choice Award, and was considered a potential contender for
Best Foreign Film in that year's Academy Awards in the United States,
although ultimately it did not win that honor. Moviegoers, however,
showed their love for the film, as the real–life Montmartre cafe
where Tautou's fictional character supposedly worked was mobbed by
customers; so was a spice shop featured in the film. "People
come into the cafe," Tautou told the Courier–Mail's
Rea. "They take pictures, they take pictures with the owner,
some people even steal menus for souvenirs."
“As a result of the film's success,
Tautou found that she could no longer walk down the street without
being recognized by fans. She jokingly told a People reporter
that she realized she had made it big when she was in line at the
airport: "The hostess was very nasty. When she saw me, she had
this face as if she was watching the Virgin Mary." However, she
told the Courier–Mail's Rea that she understood why the film
had made such an impact on viewers: "It's a film that makes
people happy and we all need happiness in our lives, especially now."
Interestingly, despite her sudden fame, Tautou has not been badgered
by the press as much as she might have been in other countries. This
is because French law requires that before publishing a photograph,
the photographer must have the approval of its subject. Tautou told
Carlo Cavagna of Aboutfilm.com
, "It lets the paparazzi take the picture, but if they publish
this picture, you have the choice to sue the newspaper. So me, I
always sued them."
“Tautou subsequently appeared in
several films, including God is Great, I'm Not, He Loves Me … He
Loves Me Not, and The Spanish Apartment, as well as four
others. In Dirty Pretty Things, directed by Stephen Frears.
Tautou played Senay, a young Turkish woman who is in England
illegally, and who is struggling to make ends meet by working in a
hotel. Actor Chiwetel Ejiofor played Okwe, a Nigerian illegal
immigrant, who drives a cab when he is not working as an overnight
clerk in the hotel. Together, they witness the criminal activity of
their corrupt boss, who rents out empty hotel rooms for illegal
activities; because they fear being deported, they keep quiet about
this until his schemes threaten their lives.
“For the role, Tautou not only had to
learn to speak English, but also had to learn to speak it with a
Turkish accent as well as to hide her French accent. She told the
Movie City News, "It took an enormous amount of work.… As part
of my preparations, I asked to meet some Turkish women, so I could
learn the rhythms of their speech." Her speech coach, Penny
Dyer, taped the conversations with these women and played them over
and over. After this, they went over the entire script, highlighting
every vowel and consonant with different–colored markers, so that
Tautou would know how to pronounce them. She noted, "The most
difficult thing for me was not knowing if I was saying something
right, or not, because I knew so little English to begin with."
Tautou spent only three weeks preparing for the role, rehearsing each
scene shortly before it was filmed. She also commented that because
of her success in the role, as well as her dark hair and eyes, many
observers of her work think she has a non–French ethnic origin,
that she might be part–Turkish, or that she "could be from
North Africa or parts of Asia, or Italy and Spain," she told
Movie City News. "But, as far as I know, I'm 100–percent
French."
“Part of Tautou's success in the role
of Senay may have come from her compassion for people like her
character. She told Aboutfilm.com
's Cavagna, "When you don't have any identity, any money, any
passport, any work, you are nothing. There's many people who sleep on
sidewalks and in their countries they were doctors, lawyers. This is
very common." As an example, she cited the life of one of the
cast members in the film, a woman who had been an actress in her home
country and who came to London 20 years ago. Despite her acting
background, she worked as a cleaning person for two decades until she
got the chance to act again in Dirty Pretty Things.
“Tautou teamed with director Jeunet
again to produce A Very Long Engagement. The film, produced in
France, included a role played by American actress Jodie Foster, who
speaks French in the film. Tautou stars as Mathilde Donnay, a
stubborn young woman who sets out to find out the truth about her
soldier fiance, who disappeared at the end of World War I. A Very
Long Engagement was scheduled for release in 2004.
“Although Tautou did not rule out
working in the United States on American films, she admitted to
having turned down several offers from Hollywood. She told
Aboutfilm.com
's Cavagna, "When you don't speak English, you need to be brave
to do a movie in English, because you think, 'Why I am going to do a
movie in a foreign language? I'm going to [stink]. Where is the
interest?'" In addition, according to a profile at Internet
Movie Database, Tautou noted that she would be choosy about accepting
such roles if she ever did take one, accepting only those that met
her standards: "I certainly don't want to be in Thingy Blah
Blah 3, if you know what I mean." She told Aboutfilm.com
's Cavagna that she wasn't interested in her life as a career in the
material sense, and that the American movie scene tended to
overemphasize money: "You don't need to earn 20 million dollars.
But, I think that if you do an American movie it's important to earn
some money, but in a stupid way, to be respected." For herself,
she said, "I'm interested in this work only because of the
meaning I can make. After each experience, you grow up, you get
enriched and you don't know how you're going to be in six months, you
don't know what you're going to want, what you're going to need."”
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