Loneliness and Connection in Amelie and Let the Right One In - Essay Example

?Identity: Loneliness and Connection in Amelie and Let the Right One In Ostensibly, the settings and language styles of Amelie and Let the Right One In could not be more different. Set in a pulsing world of imagination, Amelie’s Paris is a world bathed in sunshine where characters wear colorful clothing and speak in vibrant French stuffed with gorgeous adjectives. In Let the Right One In, Oskar and Eli’s austere whitewashed school and formulaic apartment community surrounded by snowy forests enhance their minimalist clothing and meditative, yearning Swedish. Yet, as both film protagonists, Amelie and Oskar, navigate their labyrinthine worlds, their character evolutions track similar journeys from lonely, fantasizing introvert to a person who initially connects with another person though riddles and codes later to become deeply connected with the other person. The film Amelie begins with an omniscient narrator detailing the likes and dislikes of Amelie’s parents providing insight into Amelie’s formative childhood that led to her introspective personality. Both parents eschew touching. For example, the father hates his swimming costume sticking to his legs and the mother hates when someone brushes her hand. Although the child-Amelie craves physical affection, her father only touches her once a month with his stethoscope during her check-up. Excited by this contact, Amelie’s heartbeat quickens causing her father to diagnose her with a heart condition that causes her to become home schooled by her neurotic mother. Amelie develops into an extraordinarily imaginative child whose only friend is a suicidal goldfish. Yet, Amelie is not simply a recluse; she shows a spark for something more in her life. She craves tactile pleasure eating raspberries from her fingertips, pulling “glue skin” from her finger, running her finger around a wineglass top, or plunging her hand into a sack of beans. She also demonstrates an ability to feel her interconnectedness with society at large as well as a bit of fire for harmless revenge. When a nasty neighbor tricks Amelie into believing that her taking photographs lead to a car accident and other citywide accidents, she innately believes in her ability to connect with others in this unseen, spiritual way. Yet, once she realizes the neighbor’s trick, the cheeky Amelie revenges the avid football fan by unplugging his TV at pivotal match moments. Quite opposite to Amelie’s solitary upbringing, her future love Nino suffered a fate much like Oskar from Let The Right One In as classmates bully both. Of course, Nino’s bullying is slanted towards humor, yet Oskar’s world of isolation is far more detrimental, sad, and violent. Oskar’s divorced mother and father seem completely disconnected from their son. Oskar retreats into an imaginary world where he is the tough bully threatening and debasing weaker boys. The film opens with the prepubescent Oskar standing shirtless holding a small knife commanding an unseen foe to “Squeal like a pig” (Lindqvist). Oskar is attempting to reverse the power relationship between himself and the bullies by inventing his own bully identity within the mirror image reflected in his apartment window. Of course, neither Oskar nor Amelie’s identities remain unchanged by their films’ conclusions. Within Amelie’s world, hearing the shocking report of Lady Diana’s death causes Amelie to drop a bottle top that nocks loose a tile revealing a long lost box of a child’s treasures. Frances notes “Princess Di, often referred to in the film…represented for the collective, heart values that lie in the shadow of cultures” (2003). Inspired to find the owner and become an agent of kindness, Amelie enters a manic world where characters drives plot and plot drives characters. Riding the maze-like subway, Amelie locates the owner, who is so touched by this anonymous gift that he vows to reconnect with his daughter to meet his grandson. Just as characters incite change within each other in Amelie’s world, Oskar is profoundly impacted by his relationship with the child-woman vampire, Eli. When Oskar and Eli meet, Oskar suffers daily taunts and brutalities. Yet, Eli exists in an equally precarious position. Dependant upon her guardian, Eli rages at the aging Hakan’s feckless attempts to secure her blood supply. Audiences infer Eli has had several such guardians in her vampire life and come to realize that she is slowly absorbing Oskar as her new attendant. In other sexualized vampire tales, this relationship may seem parasitic, however Eli and Oskar come to help each other evolve. When bullies cut Oskar’s check with a switch, he lies to his mother but tells Eli the truth. Eli offers him advice that becomes pivotal in Oskar’s character evolution from bullied boy to protector. Eli advises Oskar to hit back, hard. Although Oskar desires to overpower his bullies, Amelie embarks on a mission to positively influence those around her by pushing them past their safety zones. She vivaciously describes the sidewalk life to a random blind man, she discreetly inspires her father to travel, and she secretly brings closure to a woman still pining for her long-dead husband. The trickster Amelie exacts delightful revenge on the cruel market owner Collingon who has long verbally abused his clerk. However, Amelie ultimately becomes trapped in her own goose chase. As she opens herself from her own tin box life, Amelie meets Nino, a quirky man who records strange laughs and collects passport photos. Of course, Amelie is deeply interested in Nino as a man and a companion, yet she now identifies herself as the “Zorro” of her world and is not prepared to abandon her imaginary identity. Instead, her mind focuses on the mystery she discovers within Nino’s photo album—the strange man who repeatedly takes photos of himself devoid of emotion then jettisons them. As Oskar’s identity transition begins he starts to communicate with Eli through the Rubik’s cube and Morse code as he tries to understand her. Eli demonstrates her vulnerability by eating the candy knowing it will make her vomit and crossing the threshold of Oskar’s home knowing it will make her bleed uncontrollably. As Eli’s advice and evidence of her love embolden Oskar, he attacks his main bully with a large stick, splitting his ear. Tightening their relationship, Eli communicates to Eli through Shakespeare’s famed lines from Romeo to Juliet, “I must be gone and live or stay and die.” This deadly-love relationship is further echoed when the two stand palm to palm as Oskar’s confirms Eli’s vampire nature. Oskar ultimately proves himself to Eli when he protects her from the prying neighbor and helps her kill and feed off him. Eli ultimately proves herself to Oskar by protecting him from the possible drowning when she viciously murders the gang of bullies at the swimming pool. In the final scene, Oskar sits like a young man in full control of himself as he rides the sunny train with his large trunk. As he taps messages to the protected Eli in her dark box, audiences realize that Oskar has fully transitioned from identifying himself as a bullied boy to become Eli’s partner and guardian. Amelie, tricked into coming out into the open by her own interaction with others, maintains her distance from Nino by playing a game of chase with him. She lures him to the carousel, yet provides herself ample opportunity to flee. She tries to make contact with him at her cafe, but loses her nerve. Yet, Amelie gives Nino a gift—the revelation that the mysterious passport-ghost is merely a maintenance man. Frances comments that “such a plain fact is like a divine revelation” that helps liberate Amelie from her world of fantasy that stifles her ability to connect with another human being. However, as Amelie still struggles to fully come out from behind her mask, her painter neighbor, Dufayet, repays Amelie’s kindness by helping Nino to physically connect with Amelie. Amelie begins as an isolated, dreamy child who becomes engaged with the human community at large to finally become connected with another individual human partner. She is no longer the silent girl with bright eyes in the center of Dufayet’s painting thinking about someone else. She is out of her imaginary world, out of the painting, out from behind her mask, and is fully a part of life now. In the past, most people believed fairy tales like Amelie and Let The Right One In ended with the union of the main characters and did not analyze what happens after the blissful meeting. Nowadays, we wonder if Amelie and Nino will live out their lives as true soul mates and bring equally quirky children into their unique life perspective. Yet, if they were to part, would Amelie’s evolution from introverted be strong enough to buoy her to find a new partner? And, what is the inevitable evolution of Oskar and Eli’s relationship? Despite the blood and the murder, Eli and Oskar’s relationship remains within the gentle, enchantment prior to puberty. Yet, as Oskar fully becomes a man, how will this alter his desires towards Eli? Although Oskar has made profound identity and behavioral changes in the space of this film, will he remain Eli’s guardian until he, like Hakan, is no longer strong enough to secure her food source? And, although it is commendable that Eli has helped Oskar overcome his bullies, will he come to live a life alienated from all other humans at the expense of his relationship with Eli? Will Oskar suffer Hakan’s fate of eventually being physically and emotionally absorbed by the enchanting Eli? Ah, fairy tales… (WC: 1573 ) Bibliography: Frances, Helen. (2003) “Le Fableux Destin D’amelie Poulain, [Online, Available: http://www.cgjungpage.org/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=41 [10 Nov 2003]. Jeunet, Jean-Pierre. [2001] Amelie. [Film]. France: Claudie Ossard Productions. McKee, Robert. (1997) Story, New York: Harper Entertainment. Alfredson, Tomas. [2008]. Let The Right One In. [Film]. Sweden: EFTI. Seville, April. (2010) Vampire Identity Beyond Freud in the Film Let The Right One In, [Online], Available” http://www.suite101.com/content/vampire-identity-beyond-freud-in-the-film-let-the-right-one-in-a289091 [23 Sept 2010]. Read More