The Eyes Have It.

A few years ago, television ads for the film Amelie frequently caught my attention. There was of course the seemingly magical elements of the film, such as a scene of a pig-shaped lamp coming to life and turning itself out. But what really caught MY eye were the eyes of the lead actress, Audrey Tautou. They were large and full of life and mischief, and every time she turned and looked out of the television with that coy smile, I wondered what was going on behind those eyes.

I did not see the movie in the theater. Time passed, and eventually it came to DVD. Several times in Blockbuster I'd pick up the box, with those same eyes drawing me in, but ultimately put it back in favor of other movies. Once I joined Netflix, nearly a year ago now, it was among the first movies added to my queue. When it comes to movies, I have a LOT of catching up to do, and so it is that today was the day I finally saw Amelie.

The close-up of her in the trailer is not the only scene like that in the film, and there are many such scenes throughout. Her eyes are important, because her character is someone who has a unique way of looking at the world. An only child, protected by her parents, she had no friends and instead developed a powerful imagination. In one of the many magical scenes in the movie, the little girl is given a camera to play with, and the clouds she is shooting clearly are shaped like a bunny and a teddy bear. As an adult, she retains her imagination as well as an appreciation for the little things in life, the small details we overlook. She enjoys running her fingers through a bag of grain, and skipping stones across a dam. When she accidentally finds a tiny metal box in her apartment containing the toys of a child who'd lived there several decades prior, she sets out to return them to their grown-up owner. The film goes on to explore how good deeds, especially anonymous ones, prove fulfilling. Yet for all her humanitarianism, she herself cannot truly be close with anyone, and her deeds are done from behind the walls she's built around herself. Even when fate brings her into contact with her perfect match, a man with an equally troubled childhood and equally quirky hobby, she cannot bring herself to deal with him directly. Her stratagems bring her both closer to and further away from him, even as she continues to change the lives of others who are depressed or lovelorn. It's been said that no good deed goes unpunished, but some good deeds are not without rewards.

What did you cherish as a child? Was it a car, or a doll, or some other toy? Perhaps it was a place, beach or a trail or a treehouse. If it was an object, do you still have it or know where it is? If it was a place, when was the last time you went back to visit? I went to yet another beach today, the smallest one in my town at the end of a long street, and one I hadn't been to in years. It was raining on and off, but I made my way down the steps through the wall at the end of that street, and across the sand to watch the raindrops hitting the waves. There was no one else at that beach, and there was a certain magic to the photos I took. When I got home, some of the close-up shots of the stone wall and steps could easily have been somewhere in Europe, had I not known better. In the commentary for Amelie, the director points out that Paris is not as magical as it's usually portrayed, possibly missing the beauty of his own film. Any city has its downside, and I've seen New York City portrayed as both heaven and hell. I may never see Paris in my lifetime, but I've lived close enough to New York to have visited countless times. Heaven or hell; which portrayal is correct? The answer is of course both, depending on where you look, but more importantly HOW. The movie focuses a lot on a particular Renoir painting, and how artists capture the world. The world can be heavy and depressing or magical and if you're looking for magic, the eyes have it.