"At least you'll never be a vegetable. Even artichokes have hearts!”
The Spoiler team are dusting off their best GCSE French as this week we take a look at Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s quirky romantic comedy ‘Amelie’ starring Audrey Tautou and Mathieu Kassovitz. While this is one of Rachael’s favourite films of all time, the rest of the team might take a little more convincing. With Paul on the fence once more, whose side will he ultimately come down upon? Will it be Rachael’s side, where the allure of Parisian apartments and café culture looms large and there is ample room to project our fantasies and desires onto the lead characters? Or will Andy’s talk of non-entity romantic leads, kitten photographs and too many subplots coax Paul into his slightly more withered garden of doubt? Would Audrey Tautou have been better suited to silent cinema than the talkies? Is talking about Princess Diana as controversial as upsetting cat owners? Did art take over to stop this film from becoming a masterpiece (whatever the hell that means!)? We tackle all these burning issues as well as answering the ultimate question: kissing on the eyes… romantic or ooky?
Elsewhere, inspired by ‘Amelie’s enrapturing effect on her, Rachael counts down her top 5 feelgood French films to lift your spirits on those rainy days of the soul.
This week’s scale: Tres bien or Tres mal
SPOILER Animation Specials: Sheldon Cohen (The Sweater, My Heart Attack)
SPOILER Animation Specials: John Weldon (Special Delivery, Real Inside)
SPOILER Animation Specials: Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis (When The Day Breaks, Wild Life)
SPOILER Animation Specials: Joanna Quinn (Girls' Night Out, Famous Fred)
SPOILER Animation Specials: Jerry Rees (The Brave Little Toaster, Tron)
Birdman (2014, Michael Keaton, Emma Stone, Edward Norton): SPOILER Episode 31
Romeo & Juliet (1996, Baz Luhrmann, Leonardo DiCaprio, Claire Danes): SPOILER Episode 30
Children of Men (2006, Clive Owen, Julianne Moore, Michael Caine): SPOILER Episode 29
Fleabag (2016, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Sian Clifford, Olivia Colman): SPOILER Episode 28
The Truman Show (1998, Jim Carrey, Laura Linney, Ed Harris): SPOILER Episode 27
Die Hard (1988, Bruce Willis, Bonnie Bedelia, Alan Rickman): SPOILER Episode 26
Composer Special featuring Stephen Rennicks (Room), Debbie Wiseman (Wolf Hall) and Deborah Lurie (An Unfinished Life): SPOILER Episode 25
When Harry Met Sally (1989, Rob Reiner, Meg Ryan, Billy Crystal): SPOILER Episode 24
High-Rise (2015, Ben Wheatley, Tom Hiddleston, Sienna Miller): SPOILER Episode 23
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams: SPOILER Episode 22
Mulholland Drive (2001, David Lynch, Naomi Watts, Laura Harring): SPOILER Episode 21
Humans Season 1 (Gemma Chan, Katherine Parkinson, John Hurt, 2015): SPOILER Episode 20
Withnail & I (Richard E Grant, Paul McGann, 1987): SPOILER Episode 19
The Breakfast Club (Molly Ringwald, Ally Sheedy, Judd Nelson, 1985): SPOILER Episode 18
Room by Emma Donoghue (2010 book) and Room (2015 film): SPOILER Episode 17
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