Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Jeunet: To love or to hate?





I guess it's not over until the paper is finally on the teacher's desk.

A couple of hours before class, I decided to read my essay a few more times at the library and ended up writing the following:

Despite its appeals, the film is not devoid of critics. ‘[One critic] left the film enraged, declaring his disgust with this … retro postcard version of France, undeniably cleansed of all cultural diversity’(Bonnaud). At the train station, we see Amelie walking away hurriedly from three inner-city youths. At first sight, we might associate them with criminal intent but when we see them walking away moments later in a different direction, we realize that we are wrong. I believe Jeunet deliberately wants to evoke our stereotypical mindsets and subsequently makes us reflect upon ourselves the reason for thinking such a negative thought. Perhaps then, he hopes that such a reflection will eventually lead to the eradication of such stereotypical mindsets.

Paper's submitted. It's finally over. Thank god.

I've been thinking about one of the things that I wrote:

Perhaps Jeunet hopes for the introvert among us to realize the need to ‘go and get him, for Pete’s sake’ and not wait for things to happen. Through Dufayel, Jeunet screams to the cowards among us: ‘You can take life’s knock. If you let this chance go by, eventually your heart will become …dry and brittle’.

Will the introvert among us ever make things happen? Or will they let chances after chances go by? I ask myself this questions because despite having written and read what I wrote countless times, I let yet another chance go by a couple of hours before class. I saw her as I walked down the stairs toward the computer terminals.

I pictured myself walking towards where she was and if we made eye contact, I'd smile and if she smiled back, I'd ask if she's the girl that's taking the same elective as me. The one whose path Ive been crossing time and time again. The one whom Ive been meaning to talk to but never could find the strength to. Ok, maybe just the first one will do - even though I know it's her. And if she's friendly, I'd use the computer beside her and we'd talk about the essay and stuffs. But if she's not, then I think I'd kill myself for smiling at her in the first place.

As I neared her, I realized that I'm not willing to risk "losing" her and kill myself for it. I sat a row of computers before her. She was so close yet so far. As I placed my bag on the chair beside me, I realize I'll never change. I was resigned to the fact that she'll just be a sweet impression that I'll write about under the label "sweet distractions"...

Jeunet's an idiot for challenging us introverts and making us feel like idiots.

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