Amélie & The Italian Job

Amélie movie poster
Amélie

We’re in a hotel in West London for the New Year celebrations and we watched two movies before heading down for dinner across midnight.

We started with the original Italian Job which was shown on the television. It’s one of those classic films that you are supposed to have seen but neither of us had and so we watched it. I don’t think it mattered to either of us how much we knew (or didn’t know) about the film (‘you were only supposed to blow the bloody doors off’) as I think we both came away with a disappointed feeling. It’s considered a classic British film but it didn’t come across that way. Michael Caine is excellent, Noel Coward was interesting and I don’t think I’ve seen Benny Hill act away from his TV show before. Don’t get me wrong, it is a good film, and I enjoyed it but this was certainly a case where the preceding reputation heightened expectations too much.

On the other hand, I knew nothing about Amélie except it would be the second subtitled film in as many days and I am not a big fan of them. Yet again, however, I was surprised by the film and the interesting side of Paris you see through Amélie’s eyes. And again, it’s a well shot, colourful and stylised film and I only wish I had been a little more awake to appreciate it fully: it’s full of wonderful moments as Amélie decides to help her friends in her own quiet, special way.

You have to see The Italian Job but you should see Amélie.

On this day…