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Amelie

Amelie

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As mentioned above I think "A very long engagement" is better than "Amelie" but both are great movies.

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Originally posted by mtthw
???

Haven't heard of the makeover, but the film was very successful when it first came out.

I can also recommend the soundtrack album.
No, what I mean is it looks very slickly produced with a neat little story, love interest, happy ending, decent budget, etc.

Most french films are slightly more off-beat and low budget.

As a result, Amelie appealled to a wider audience but probably appealled to fans of French cinema slightly less.

EDIT: To add to what Bosse says below, the humour seems to have been written with translation to English in mind i.e. for a foreign (US) audience.

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Originally posted by Varg
Amelie is pretty good.
I guess it's so popular because it got the Hollywood makeover.
French films are often boring to foreign audiences. A lot is lost in translation. Amelie managed to get around that problem through clever visuals complementing the dialogue. It raised the bar for French comedy. That and Man Bites Dog.

Hard to factor Les Triplettes de Bellville in there, but it's a great film and you don't have to speak French to enjoy it...

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The post that was quoted here has been removed
Not nearly as good as Amelie.

D

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Etre Et Avoir is an absolutely superb French production as well.

D

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From the same director check out Delicatessen and La Cité des Enfants Perdus.

You can't go wrong with cannibalistic comedy.

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Originally posted by Nordlys
Trois couleurs: Bleu / Blanc / Rouge are also brilliant French (or in the case of "Blanc" French-Polish) films, although the director isn't French.
Kiezlowski is a master. That trilogy is excellent, although I usually catalog it as Polish, as to me the director is who defines a movie. Anyway, it's just a label.

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That's because you only get cult films over there. They also produce a lot of commercial crap that you never hear about (unsurprisingly).

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I really enjoyed Leolo, a French Canadian film about a comically dysfunctional poor family. They sneaked Tom Waits into the soundtrack...

I still don't know if I like Jesus of Montreal.

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I've seen quite a few french-canadian films, and some of them were pretty good.

One that sticks in my mind is Le Marais which is a kind of eatern european fantasy film - quite imaginative.

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Originally posted by Palynka
From the same director check out Delicatessen and La Cité des Enfants Perdus.

You can't go wrong with cannibalistic comedy.
I was going to mention those. I love those, especially Delicatessen.

If you're not looking for something too serious, I'd also recommend Brotherhood of the Wolf. A period drama/horror/martial-arts flick with added Monica Bellucci. Something for everyone.

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Originally posted by Palynka
From the same director check out Delicatessen and La Cité des Enfants Perdus.

You can't go wrong with cannibalistic comedy.
I'll second that, Delicatessen is fantastic.

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The post that was quoted here has been removed
I seen it.
You know the piece with the gnome sending post cards?
I saw that on Esther Ranson's show in the early 80's. Somebody in England really done it.