À la Folie

This movie is split into 2 parts: one showing the viewpoint of Angelique (Audrey Tatou), smitten art student, and the other of Dr. Le Garec (Samuel Le Bihan). Here is analysis of part one.

Opening scene (Just realized to embed I only had to copy the YouTube embed link. Good.)

Sweet right? Tres charmant, if you will. Love, flowers, hearts, red. It's practically le jour de saint valentin. Well you're wrong. Actually, this seemingly-twitterpated girl has erotomania. A psychological condition.

But before sharing this fact, the movie presents her side of the story, which creates some viewer sympathy for her as well as making her seem charmingly quirky. A sort of manic pixie dream girl, if you will http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manic_Pixie_Dream_Girl

Why just look at her, bicycling through the streets in a scarf sling! How interesting!

Throughout the movie, her main expresion is this. Some ridiculous doe-eyes and a goofy smile.

(Spoiler alert: she did not fall).

So she is built up as cutesy if not a little bit too crazy about some guy. She also gets upset about things that a rational person in a real relationship would be upset about: he bails on your trip to Italy, he gets back together with his wife (depends on the relationship, I guess). So, while the movie is providing a sense of contrast, it still makes her sympathetic and dilutes the psychological condition aspect.

Also, she's an artist. A simple tortured soul. A bit off the beaten path. Perhaps why she seems to be wearing this outfit with the floppy pants for about half of the movie. I could write another post about this girl's wardrobe but that would only take up four pictures so....

In Ian McEwan's novel about the same condition, Enduring Love, we are offered the full grasp of this disorder and not that it's just some zany girl's crush, but an actual mental health condition. That book is (good and) sort of terrifying, but this movie, though entertaining, doesn't exactly make me feel the seriousness of the situation.

À la Folie... Pas du Tout

Like many girls who have completed at least two years of French, I like the movie Amélie. Of course, how could I not, because "it's so charming and whimsical" and all the usual reasons. Nothing shocking there. However, I recently saw another film with Audrey Tatou that wasn't as popular in the U.S. (or probably France for that matter):

À la Folie...Pas du Tout (American title: He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not)

Firstly, let's deal with the issue of title translation. This is something I am more aware of having my Facebook settings in French, because some of my favorite films are now listed under their French titles. Some examples:

-Amélie = Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain (The Fabulous/Mythical Fate/Destiny of Amélie. A little more telling than the simple American title, especially if we read it as fabuleux in the context of fable because then the story's truthfulness is brought in to question).
-Atonement = Reviens-Moi (This one really bothers me. This means "come back to me," which indeed is a recurring phrase in the film that Cecelia says to Robbie. However, the book is framed through Briony's experiences and not specifically about their love. A poor translation because it takes out the guilt and you know, atonement, so central to the story).
-Center Stage = Danse ta vie (Dance your life. Good, as appropriately ridiculous as this film can be).
-Cruel Intentions = Sexe Intentions (Yep, pretty accurate).
-Office Space = 35 heures, c'est deja trop (35 hours, it's already too much. Gets more into the film's themes of the quitting fantasy and monotonous office jobs. Also funny because the French work week is shorter).

Here the difference makes the issue seem more frivolous than it should (which I will discuss more later). French title can be translated roughly as "Crazy about you...not at all!" which makes note of the intensity of each side of the feelings (hers of obession, his of who the fuck are you).

The English translation aims to play to the Amélie crowd who loves charming things. He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not brings about memories of school-yard crushes and silly games with daisies. Even the tagline "Is she crazy about him...or just crazy?" seems to bring a light-heartedness to the issue. However, erotomania is a real condition and not just some silly girl's romantic fantasy. The english title/poster, and film itself like I will argue later, sort of glosses over this issue and tries to make this mental illness seem frivolous.

Also look at the posters in general. American? Cute, flowers, romantic. French? She looks like she is behind bars, the doctor is obviously stressed out, and it is described as diabolical thriller. Soo....

More later.