 do you know which song that is baby mm-hmm what which song i want you to guess no you it's the amelie song yeah oh you know are you feeling better welcome back to life lessons in film and today we're gonna be making sense of life through amelie and it follows it follows amelie amelie pullen as she goes through life it starts off showing her well being being born into the pullen family and then when she's a young kid explains kind of for early childhood where she was isolated because what was it they heard her dad who was a doctor believed that so she didn't get much physical uh connection with her dad so when he she the few times she would is when she'd go to the because he was a doctor so he do check-ups on her so she'd get very excited so her heart would race so every time so he thought she had a heart condition yeah but that's only because she would get excited for the one time that her dad held her yeah not even got close to her just like physical contact yeah physical contact which she was longing for right and so because of that they should they think she's sick and so they pull her out of school and she doesn't have ever any friends she doesn't she just grows up very low and also her parents were very secluded people yeah yeah isolated yeah and then she just basically develops a very imaginative um way of living like she lives in her head yeah and she has a very kind of like fantasy type of existence yeah yeah which i think they kind of get through with how they film it it's all very much like uh kind of very fantasy and very like you know there's all there's always like um inanimate objects moving around and talking to her yeah they kind of they kind of try and put you in her mind yeah how it's all one big fantasy yeah her mother dies after a woman jumps off the top of the church and so she's raised by her father who gets more and more isolated but because she is someone that has found a way to always entertain herself um but she's surrounded by a lot of people that uh are very you know very gloomy gloomy lonely jaded beaten down by life but yeah and if it follows her day day all the characters that she interacts with people that live in her apartment people that she gets groceries from people that she works with and the regulars who are also jaded and lonely yeah so it's just a basically a movie of a bunch of lonely people who are brought together by geography really so that's that's basically and then she then there's a there's a romance that brews but it's not even actually necessarily like a main it's kind of more near the end of the movie so the main thing like the movie is really just about um Emily trying to make other people happy yeah she discovers the joys that you can get from turning someone's life around or giving joy to other people yeah so that becomes her motivation in life for purpose yeah so she's watching the news and then they're announcing that lady die Diana has passed away and then she dropped something and it opens this part of her floor that she didn't know existed and then she finds this box with a whole bunch of old trinkets yeah that belong to she discovers that it belonged to a kid who lived there 40 years ago she sets out to find this kid and says if this brings happiness to this person then i'm going to uh do good deeds and it indeed does she witnesses him even though she doesn't give it to the guy himself she is there as this guy is going over finding this thing like she places it in a location i don't remember oh yeah it was a phone booth and then she calls the phone booth or something like that the guy finds it and then goes to the cafe where Emily works right and then he talks it opens it just shares how it changes life and he realizes like he talks about how fast life changes uh passes right one minute you're a kid then you're next minute you're 50 you don't have a relationship with your daughter and you don't know your grandson and so she's and so he's like this box made me feel like i have to get back in touch with my daughter and meet my grandson and in the end he indeed does so this is the thing that rejuvenates um Emily and she makes that decision you know what i'm going to yeah she she basically got uh got a helper's high from from witnessing this man and how the box impacts him and so then he and so she sets out to do the same thing for the people she does things like walking with an old blind guy this is what you're seeing and tells the blind guy this is what's going on yeah there are fruits uh neck on your left and giving a lot of great details to kind of paint a picture for him to give him a sight as it were and to allow him to kind of see some beautiful things around him and so yeah that's about it that's the main thing for me a big one that i think the movie touches on a lot is people's perceptions and a lot of it deals with perceptions so for instance um lee is the one person basically around her who has this childlike imaginative you know very creative and kind of generally positive experience of life because that's just kind of how she perceives things and maybe she's had to do that so that she didn't go crazy because she was so lonely but that's how she sees the world she's generally in a good mood and she's you know always kind of more positive and then everyone else is always you know getting at each other's throats and they're a lot more negative right so it's kind of their perceptions and then their perceptions can easily change when she does something to kind of make them think back to when they were happier in life the concierge of her building she's very low and very negative because she found out that her husband left her for another woman in another continent and at one point Emily then takes these old letters and switches the words around and then prints out so it makes it look like it's an original old letter that never got to the concierge that the husband wrote to her and changed the letters around to say that he was always in love with her so now it's changed the concierge's life and now she's in love again and she's a lot happier so just that perception that switch can change things around right and then you've got Joseph the guy who goes in every day to the cafe and just records his ex mingling with other customers and he's in this mindset that he's got this bias where everything that his ex does is to get back at him despite him to flirt with other men that's his mindset and no matter what happens that will just feed his confirmation bias and then at one point when Emily tries to kind of through you know some kind of mental tactics manipulation get the other woman who's works there as well who's very lonely and gets hurt to hook up with Joseph which works for a little bit and they both kind of you know are generally in a better mood but then that falls apart again because I think they both haven't worked through their stuff so then Joseph is now you know thinking that they're conspiring with each other and and now it's the same kind of bias that everyone's out to get him and to piss him off right which they're not yeah but that's he's that's where he's at yeah that's where he's at and he's determined to see everything like that yeah sometimes as a person as an individual if you make a resolution about something no matter how untrue it is you won't and and how much evidence of the invalidity of your resolution you get you're not going to see that you will you will choose to be blind to it because you prefer to kind of settle into your own convictions no matter how wrong they may be and you don't want anybody to prove them wrong when you're when you're in an uncertain emotional state you want to find certainty in a belief in something or you know a reality to to ground yourself right so he has to have this complete certainty that these people are all together all women are out to make his life a living hell yeah one of the customers in the the regulars there in the cafe he's this writer who he calls himself a failed writer right because he keeps getting rejected his writing keeps getting rejected and so he kind of eventually gets irritated with Joseph I mean he's always been but then he this is the first time he actually expresses his frustration and then Joseph talks about oh well you're a failure so I don't know who you are to say anything right but then he's like well that's life you know life is full of failures and I'm okay with that if the question you need to start getting used to it right and and I think that's that's the thing sometimes Joseph doesn't want to embrace the hardships and challenges of life number one but then also doesn't want to embrace the things that he may not like about himself or failures that he may have experienced so instead of accepting the good along with the bad of who is and of his experiences he chooses to live cynically he chooses to basically pin the challenges that he experiences on other people so maybe the fact that he's lonely right it's because of these women you see they are asking all they they're asking they're throwing themselves at other men they are not virtuous and that's why they left me not because of me they didn't leave me because of me they left me because they are just they're women who who are you know instead of him changing himself because you know like I like to he's such a like it's still in the suspicious paranoid state instead of getting out of that maybe looking at life more supportively and positively and more accepting which would probably attract more people to him he instead stays in that state not realizing that's a repulsive state of mind it's gonna keep people from you you know exactly I feel like the movie itself the idea of it is to show that how how good kindness being kind to others can be right Emily is doing all of these good deeds for the people and bringing a lot of joy into their lives right yeah the movie definitely tries to drive that theme I like that you know I do like the fact of how much they highlight being good to other people however you treat other people it has a domino effect that can kind of like that extends beyond you and that person and so when you're doing good or bad you know that's how much of an impact you can have and so that's something that I think is always important to reflect on when you are interacting with people so for that I really enjoyed the movie I did feel however I have concerns first of all it's not yeah there's there's a difference between being kind and I think how do I explain this I mean I think the one thing is it is kind of like a fantasy thing and that it's a little unrealistic for her to be doing all this for everyone um and that it always does actually end up working out really well I think it's it's kind of like maybe not so much a realistic thing but showing that you know kindness begets more kindness and then positive ripple effects and then you know negativity begets more negativity that's why they get in the fight at the cafe at one point because they're both kind of giving in to trying to piss each other off I think firstly right yeah kindness does not always get positivity true that is a fact you can be good to someone yeah and you can give to someone you you're doing this won't have any in this movie all the all the positive things apart from trying to set up georgia and jocef that's the only one that doesn't work out all the other ones changes everyone's life immensely which isn't really yeah like for exactly whatever goodness you're trying to impart onto the world isn't necessarily going to bear any fruit positive fruit anyway and especially when you do it the way that I think Emily was doing it if you do something for someone by individually determining what it is that would be good for this person um I think that becomes a problem and I believe that that's where I have an issue with the movie a lot of these good deeds are based on Emily's own determinations that if I do this this would be good for this person right I still I agree with your argument in terms of like say the concierge where she's basically allowing her the concierge to live in this fantasy that her husband still loves her when he doesn't so now she's sure she's happier but she's living an illusion and is that something you should have the power to give to someone and put someone in yeah and so that's the thing for me like I think Emily is um a very sweet person truly and I don't I'm not like chastising her for trying to be good to people but I'm just kind of unpacking the reality of kindness right as people we sometimes believe we know what's what's better for other people because that's really what it is here you know you have this idea that this would be better for them like if they got together both of them are lonely Georgia and and Joseph and so if they got together Joseph would stop obsessing over the other lady in the cafe and Georgia you know with her kind of like seeming mental issues around her real physical illnesses and how it's affecting her maybe that's going to end but it doesn't really end at all and it's basically back to square one because that wasn't the problem and so you're not really you're trying to be kind but you're not actually targeting the thing where your kindness would actually you know garner the kind of results that you're hoping for and that's because again you afforded these people support independently of their own needs you didn't understand you didn't ask for what the issues are you don't even know these people really because all these people are here but no one actually discusses their feelings or they're not really friends they're not they don't meet outside of the cafe at the end of the day this kind of support that she extends extending independent of actually knowing these people that she's trying to support and independent of knowing what their actual needs are and even the ones that are positive you know that seem to actually be a triumph for her kindness for example Lucian right she's helping this guy he works what selling the boss is abusive and rude and insulting to the employee yeah and so then what she does is she starts basically she gets revenge on the boss things like making going into breaking into his home and you know just doing a whole lot of stuff in his house and then he can't sleep he's freaked out the first time he then the first time she does this he then is too tired to work which means Lucian is working on alone because the boss is in the back sleeping so he gets relief from the boss that one day but the boss is still there you know next time still continues to do the same thing yeah and so there's never really any no systemic change yeah there's no systemic change at all just just the day or two that makes her feel good and maybe makes them feel good temporarily but it doesn't it's not permanent fix it's not a permanent fix and secondly whose issue is this is it Emily's issue or is it Emily's issues or is it Lucian's issue right it's it's it's his issue because you know think about it if someone is getting bullied all the time right and maybe you stand up to the bully today but are you gonna show up every single day to stand up to the belief for this person and shouldn't the person who's being bullied actually find a way to stand up for themselves and if you stand up for them all the time aren't you taking away their agency aren't you taking away their chance to grow and become stronger within themselves if you keep coming souping in as you know their hero it's really very infantilizing when you think about it because you are making that decision that this person doesn't have the capacity to do what you are doing right which is fighting back I think at the end of the day there are some people who are at a certain point in their lives who can stand up for themselves maybe because they've they were just born like that or maybe because they had a lot of years of experiences that finally led them to a point where okay this is this is how I need to navigate the situation but if you're continuously giving that kind of support that Emily is giving then you're never really Emily's even baby if you're giving like extending the kind of support that Emily is is is to Lucian it's when you think about it long term it's not really going to be beneficial to Lucian you know because he never you're never giving him the opportunity to to learn how to stand up for himself you do you know what I mean yeah and so those are little things that I was just kind of like okay you're right it's got that kind of fantasy element that like wouldn't it be nice if you just you could just fix everyone around you who's so sad and glum all the time and you could actually really make like turn their life around now again in reality like you said maybe that's not really up to you and how do you know what's best for these people but it is just kind of that it's it's like a kid's it's almost like a like a like a cartoon in that way where it's just like it's not really realistic but it's kind of a nice fantasy to imagine you know yeah it definitely is a kind of a nice fantasy to imagine and here's the thing right if you are out there in the big bad world thinking that I'm a cynic I am Emily I have been burned dot com I have had friends in the past I remember my friend saying to me you are never happy unless people are living according to your own value system you have this idea of morality that you judge everybody your friends according to and I was like no it's not true I don't do that you know I absolutely don't I don't believe you know I you can do whatever you want to do and to a large degree I think I definitely am the kind of person who believes that people in general should be allowed to leave to lead lives according to their own moral yardstick or ideological yardstick whatever right but I only I truly generally believe I'm at this point now only but before I was like Emily thinking that this ABC is good I thought this is good and yeah I want my friends to not do bad and I'm going to try as much as possible to steer them you know towards my you know like my thinking to to to living the way that I think would be better for them I literally would do that as philanthropic as my motives were as much as out of love they stem from I do believe that we shouldn't as people metal into people's lives even if they're going through hardships those are their hardships to go through and when you take away a person's experience you take away their capacity to grow from it their capacity to learn from it and to become better from it because you're the one who's basically doing all the hard work when you as a person are doing good deeds like Emily is are you doing it for those people or are you doing it for yourself because it feels good to help other people and if you're lonely like Emily is are you doing that because it gives you that fulfillment that you don't get because you're lonely in general well maybe she won't do that anymore now that she met you know which was the the other thing I was going to talk about is that you know she had a couple of relationships but they show that it was not working out for her and same thing with you know he goes from relationship to relationship because they're both very unique people he was bullied at school she was homeschooled so they just withdrew and got very comfortable just being on their own which does make you a more unique person because you're just you get into your own things independent of what the fashion or the trends are so you yeah you just and then it makes it harder and harder to get along with people that are a lot more tapped into what's going on in the world but then they they finally meet and she says as she uses the the painting that her neighbor is working on like I think it's a red war painting and she they basically are talking about Emily's situation through the girl in the painting and she's talking about how she's you know maybe she's looks kind of alone in that painting because maybe she's thinking about someone who's not there someone that she has a natural affinity for who is this guy that he finds that she finds out has a lot of similar or just his own kind of quirks that she finds this similar connection to because she has those things and then she hadn't met anyone that was like that before and then so you know she finds herself in her heart starts yeah enamored by this guy yeah for the first time ever she feels that because before it kind of felt like oh maybe she just isn't someone that needs to be a relationship she needs that but then once you meet that person that does give you that that feeling of wholeness or understanding or that kindred spirit then the the feelings come back the the the need to want to be with that person or the you know that's kind of the thing is that I feel with with people that are looking for relationships it's like you know try and figure out it's hard obviously find some time set some time aside to really do some deep dive and I think into who you are and I think it's important then to find someone like that and there always is some going to be someone that's like you you know no matter how different or weird or unique you think you are there's someone else like you you're not special in that case in that there are millions of billions of people other people have had similar lives lives so but it's important I think to have that similarity that understanding will really help with that natural affinity and being drawn to that other person so that felt very realistic to me so that's like the more realistic part of the movie is that she needed to find someone that was like her yeah I want to add you are gonna be so it's fine I'll be late I'm already late that relationship with her and the old man as well who keeps painting this one Renoir painting that was really great because they never really he's he's very gentle with her I like that because she's very scared of her own feelings and she doesn't really know how to face them and so he uses this painting to actually have them talk about her issues yeah without actually talking about her issues and so there's a girl in the painting right and she and he's looking at this girl and you know and she's and he's like this girl is surrounded by all of these people but she's always seen she always seems so incredibly lonely you know and then Emily's like well you know maybe she's kind of she's lonely because she's basically pining for someone who isn't there and then he's kind of like well I mean if he if she's interested in that someone then he she should probably you know pursue him or something like that you know and that's basically something that she kind of I don't think helps her think about this because it's not targeted directly at her it's a little easier for her to digest which is kind of a kind of doing like therapy in a way I definitely felt very endeared to Emily with her reality of being this really sweet kind person who doesn't really have the kind of affection I think she longed for and then in the end when she gets together with Nina or or finds Nina I felt that was such a beautiful moment for me because of course then she then realizes herself she starts seeing herself and starts servicing her own needs and then them coming together was just kind of the cherry on top for me and I really would hope that you know it's just one of those things that you hope for for people in life of course at the end of the day it's a movie so it doesn't really show you the extent to which as a person you have to work your butt off to actually get to the point of finding the fulfilling relationships that are really truly hard to find but I think it was just one of those things for me one of those movies for me that reminded me of the fact that just because things are certainly right now doesn't mean that they won't be in in future and there will always be that one person or those people that find that you find that give you what you need to get to that point of happiness that you are looking for or didn't even know that you want it you know overall that's what that movie gave me and and it was really sweet yeah what would you guys think about what we had to say about Emily what we took from that yeah please yeah please comment down below and share your thoughts on our thoughts yeah but uh yeah until next time