"Welcome to the quartier of Amélie Poulain" is the sentence that greets tourists in rue Lepic, one of the common Montmartre places in the famous French film Amélie (2001) directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. The film that succeeded to transcend the boundaries of the French cinema market was exported internationally with more than 23 millions entrance tickets sold. Consequently, the Amélie phenomenon has exceeded the status of national success and has become a kind of symbol of French culture and the French film industry in the world. Through the case of Jeunet's film we will explore and question the process of appropriation theorized by Stijn Reijnders in 'Places of the imagination: an ethnography of the TV detective tour' and analyze the city of Paris as a "Global Media Capital" as well as the French cinema industry through the particular policy of cultural exception.
Amélie tells the story of a thirty-year-old woman living in the romantic district of Montmartre in Paris. As a waitress, Amélie spends her time observing people’s lives and lets her imagination create her own world. Joyful and optimistic as she is, she decides to do good around her, by cunning stratagems she spreads love and happiness in the life of the inhabitants of Montmartre. Obviously, in her quest for altruism Amélie finally meets prince charming and finds her own happy ending. The film as a modern fairy tale conveys a fantasist atmosphere and superimposes the real world of Paris and the historical district of Montmartre with the fairytale world of Amélie. Even today, almost fifteen years after the release of Amélie the fascination for the film and its characters is still present. Thus, for many tourists visiting Paris their image of the city is determined by this film. They go to see the city of Amélie. This phenomenon is called media pilgrimage. For this reason the municipality of Paris created a page on its website to explain the route of Amélie in Montmartre: from Rue Lepic to Café des Deux Moulins, including Sacré-Coeur basilica and Saint-Martin canal, so both fans of the film and neophytes can explore the film’s key places in real life.
To better understand this fascination for the Paris of Amélie, let's introduce the concept of Stijn Reijnders elaborating on the theorization of Nora about the need of memorization in our society. According to Pierre Nora, modern society is characterized by its obsession with the past. In this idea he introduces the term of "lieux de mémoire" (places of memory/remembrance) to refer to places that can function as memorials. From this starting point, Reijnders creates the second concept of "lieux d'imagination". What he calls "lieux d'imagination" are references which enable to construct and cross the boundary between an imagined and a real world. Thus, this boundary between what is “inside” and “outside” the media, the unreal and real world created by the media, can be transcended by tourists thanks to the process of media pilgrimage. In Amélie's case, we can see that the locations in the actual Montmartre are used for memorializing and reliving the fictional events of the film. Rue Lepic, the principal street of the movie where Amélie lives or the Café des Deux Moulins where Amélie works consequently become symbolic places.
Even some famous French touristic guides of Paris (Michelin, Le Routard) redraw a kind of Amélie Poulain's tour in Montmartre. Amélie creates a diegetic world in which the fans to go further in the core of the narrative. The appropriation by the municipality and touristic guides with the creation of a media pilgrimage, the Amélie’s Tour, creates a new reading of the city.
The explanation of this unusual success can be found in the particular character of the French film industry and the dynamism of the capital. Indeed, Paris is a cultural and creative centre for the French cultural film production, a favorite place of filming, and it houses more than a hundred theatres which correspond to around three hundred of performances every week. The dynamism of the city, as the core of the French cultural industries, also comes from the proliferation of cultural places: almost two hundred museums, exhibitions and plenty of historical and touristic locations such as the famous district of Montmartre, the backdrop of Amélie. As a creative city, it attracts artists and what Richard Florida calls the "Creative Class":
"People in science and engineering, architecture and design, education, arts, music and entertainment whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology, and new creative content."
Consequently, according to Michael Curtin, we can consider Paris a "Global Media Capital" because of its logic of accumulation: merging media and culture. But also as a real reservoir of creativity, creating creative migrations towards the idea of Creative Class who are appealed by the cultural dynamism. However, if Paris is a real cultural capital for the rest of France we can observe that at an international level, the influence of French cultural products is to a lesser extent. Indeed, through globalization, American goods also take a huge place within the French market. American films are more numerous than French ones in corresponding to a half of the distribution. In consequence, the French government tries to play a significant role in protecting French culture and securing the pivotal role of the cultural industries in the market. Financial support is provided thanks to a national institution devoted to the cinema since the end of the Second World War: the CNC (National Center of Cinematography). Moreover, a cultural policy was introduced to preserve French culture including the French cinema industry, this is the principle of "cultural exception". The cultural exception concept was principally launched in order to preserve the cultural goods from the hollywoodian wave and establishes a quota of French films broadcasted on television.
Returning to the dream like setting of Amélie, this film conveys a stereotypical, nostalgic and idealized view of Paris. It is a dream-like and imaginary Paris, colorful and proper where neighbours know each other. There is no conflict in the world of Amélie apart from personal problems that are happily solved by the protagonist. Consequently, the international success of Amélie can also come from its content and the idealized and stereotypical view of France. This particular view puts it in the general perspective of the manipulation of the masses by the media which can have harmful effects. In this way, tourists who have unrealistic expectations of Paris suffer from a psychological syndrome associated to the cultural shock they experience: the "Paris syndrome". Mostly Japanese, these tourists suffer of a psychiatric breakdown when confronted with the reality of the Western megalopolis.
The world of Amélie has spread its boundaries over the existence of a simple film. Through a Montmartre tour, fans can confront real and imagined world in the key locations of the film in the actual city of Paris. This media pilgrimage is due to the film’s international success. This success can be ascribed to different aspects. Firstly it succeeded because of the dynamism of the capital as a creative and cultural city as well as the important support provided by the French government and secondly, by contributing to the idealization and disneyfication of Paris. Nevertheless, the gap between the real and imagined world can be too huge and the confrontation does not always proceed as smoothly as desired.
B.L., E.K., L.C., N.R., R.H.
Thesis proposal: The media love fairy tales
Literature
Curtin, Michael. "Global Media Capital and Local Media Policy" In The Handbook of Political Economy of Communications by Janet Wasko, Gragham Murdock, and Helena Sousa. Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2011.
Rejinders, Stijn. "Places of the imagination: an ethnography of the TV detective tour" In Cultural Geographies, 2010.
Websites
I think it's true that without imposed screen quotas, there would be few movies like Amélie. I enjoyed the movie, but I think it is also a prime example of how quotas can lead to (or are a product of) a kind of banal nationalism. Amélie is FRENCH in every. possible. way.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenThis question also kind of ties in with what Marc says above. As you have noted in your blogpost, France has imposed strong policies to protect the French culture, and has attempted to limit the US influence. This has enabled France to maintain a very 'French' film industry, but do you think that these policies ensuring "Frenchness" have actually made it possible for Amelie to be so successful in foreign cinemas, simply because it is so different and so French?
BeantwoordenVerwijderenThe Frenchness that you are talking about is obvious in Amélie's film thanks to the fairy tale atmosphere. It is the particular feature of the film but you're wrong the whole French industry doesn't convey that. Actually the French policies protect the French industry in a cultural AND financial way and the success of the film as explained in the post can come from these financial supports and the idealized view of Paris and the French culture. The film recreates the traditional hollywoodian and disneylandian happy ending, consequently it was also successful because it fitted the mould of blockbuster films and was corresponding to global audience expectations. (not because it was "so different")
VerwijderenDeze reactie is verwijderd door de auteur.
BeantwoordenVerwijderenAlright I can understand, but what do you exactly want to say with "banal nationalism"? The fact that it can be compared to protectionism? Because the idea of cultural exception was quite controversial and compared to protectionism and, linked to that, nationalism. Thereby, nowadays in order to avoid that comparison to nationalism we can talk more about cultural diversity, which is more a defence of the different cultures than a promotion of a single one.
VerwijderenDo you think that 'cultural exception' is a good idea, and that more countries such as France should introduce a policy like that to protect their national film industry against the Hollywood hegemony? I would say that Amélie is a perfect example of how not every film has to be a Hollywood film, and can still be succesful in foreign countries.
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