What is it?
The 1997 comedy horror film An American Werewolf In Paris.
What is it about?
This is how Metacritic describes this movie:
On the loose in Europe, three wild college grads from America bring their “Daredevil Tour” to Paris in search of some serious fun.
There, Andy (Scott) falls for the beautiful and mysterious woman of his dreams (Delpy).
The only problem is … when the moon is full, Andy’s dream girl turns into a total nightmare!
(Buena Vista)
The 2001 French romantic comedy film Le Fabuleux Destin D’Amélie Poulain (Amélie) which was directed by the director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and stars the actress Audrey Tautou (Audrey Justine Tautou) as the main character Amélie Poulain:
One day a shy, introverted, kind, and imaginative woman living in Paris, France, finds some old items from many years hidden in her apartment that belonged to someone who used to live in her apartment.
She decides to track down the owner of the items and return them to this person.
This inspires her to go around helping people in unique ways, and along the way she finds a man who(m) she falls in love with.
This is how Rotten Tomatoes describes this movie:
One woman decides to change the world by changing the lives of the people she knows in this charming and romantic comic fantasy from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
Amelie (Audrey Tautou) is a young woman who had a decidedly unusual childhood; misdiagnosed with an unusual heart condition, Amelie didn’t attend school with other children, but spent most of her time in her room, where she developed a keen imagination and an active fantasy life.
Her mother Amandine (Lorella Cravotta) died in a freak accident when Amelie was eight, and her father Raphael (Rufus) had limited contact with her, since his presence seemed to throw her heart into high gear.
Despite all this, Amelie has grown into a healthy and beautiful young woman who works in a café and has a whimsical, romantic nature.
When Princess Diana dies in a car wreck in the summer of 1997, Amelie is reminded that life can be fleeting, and she decides it’s time for her to intervene in the lives of those around her, hoping to bring a bit of happiness to her neighbors and the regulars at the café.
Amelie starts by bringing together two lonely people – Georgette (Isabelle Nanty), a tobacconist with a severe case of hypochondria, and Joseph (Dominique Pinon), an especially ill-tempered customer.
When Amelie finds a box of old toys in her apartment, she returns them to their former owner, Mr. Bretodeau (Maurice Benichou), sending him on a reverie of childhood.
Amelie befriends Dufayel (Serge Merlin), an elderly artist living nearby whose bones are so brittle, thanks to a rare disease, that everything in his flat must be padded for his protection.
And Amelie decides someone has to step into the life of Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz), a lonely adult video store clerk and part-time carnival spook-show ghost who collects pictures left behind at photo booths around Paris.
Le Fabuleux Destin D’Amelie Poulain received unusually enthusiastic advance reviews prior to its French premiere in the spring of 2001, and was well received at a special free screening at that year’s Cannes Film Festival.
~ Mark Deming, Rovi
I do not remember my first dreams or my last dream but I do remember part of maybe three dream fragments, two of which had a bit of the French language in them & I got to use a bit of French, but I can not spell well in French yet so there will probably be errors when I type some of the French that I remember from the dreams. 😉
I think that the first dream fragment that I can somewhat remember took place at a fictional building during the day, I had a job at this building, and I remember working on the first floor in a room with other workers; but I can not remember what our jobs were.
One of the managers or someone like that was talking on a telephone with someone in French, as he walked around our work area, and I tried to listen to see if I could understand anything to practice my French language skills; and I was able to understand a few words here and there.
After the manager finished talking on the telephone I greeted him to practice my French:
Me: Bonjour Monsieur.
Manager: Bonjour.
Me: Comment allez-vous?
Manager: Bien, merci, et vous?
Me: Très bien, merci.
Manager: *Phone rings* Pardon *Answers Phone, And Walks Off*
I continued working and then I saw the manager walking back into the work area with a slightly obese man with whitish colored skin with dark-colored hair with a bald spot wearing a suit who looked & sounded a bit mean, and the manager was trying to talk to him in English & talk with someone on the telephone in French.
It seemed that the man might have been one of the owners or someone higher up in the company or a customer, and the manager was trying to translate from French to English & English to French between the person on the telephone & the man.
At some point I saw an opening for me to try to talk with the manager again to practice my French:
Me: Pardon Monsieur.
Me: Vous comprenez très bien le Français.
Manager: Oui, merci.
Me: Je comprends un peu le Français.
I then started to explain in English that I am not even at the basic level in French, but I have attempted to study French a few times alone briefly without much success in the past; but I do hope to get formal training/tutoring and/or real world learning of French and/or another language one day, so that I can finally improve & one day be able to study French and/or another language independently if necessary.
We said a few more things in English, and at some point:
Me: Au revoir Monsieur.
Manager: Au revoir.
I learn better with direct help from another person/hands-on, so trying to learn French alone with no one to teach me & show me the basics, and with no one to practice with is almost impossible for me; anyway I can not remember the rest of the dream.
The next dream fragment took place in a building that might have been the same work building but there were people there that appeared to be from an older time period or time periods, like the 1920s, and a group of men seemed to be watching a woman who looked a bit like Marilyn Monroe but with brownish or darkish colored hair; and there was a formal social gathering going on in the building, so everyone was dressed up.
There was music, food, drink, dancing, and people talking; and the woman who looked a bit like Mrs. Monroe seemed to be an experiment, but she did not know it, and my guess was that she was an android or something had been done to her by some scientists/doctors or something who work for an intelligence agency or the military or some secret government facility.
The group of men watching her seemed to be some higher level men in the military, government, intelligence, the private sector, and a few scientists/doctors; and this seemed to be a test to see how the woman acts in public, which was dangerous, but they did not seem to care.
The woman was going around having a good time and various men approached her during the dream, she even had to fight off one man who went a bit too far, and she easily defeated him without even causing the social gathering to stop and the man did not die & he was not seriously injured.
At the social gathering were some women working as prostitutes who were dressed like they were from maybe the 1920s mixed with the 1890s with jeweled caps/skull cap-like hats/& bigger 1890s style hats, a lot of necklaces/jewelry, and revealing 1920s style dresses with some bigger 1890s clothing pieces/part of their dresses
; and they were not happy that the woman was getting so much attention from the men at the social gathering, and they were losing clients.
I can not remember what happened exactly but at some point the woman started working as a prostitute at the social gathering, and the head prostitute was jealous and angry that the woman was doing so well; and so she went to face the woman.
The head prostitute had an accent, maybe a French style English accent, but I can not remember what happened when she faced the woman; I just remember a man approaching the woman and the head prostitute, and the head prostitute had an old single shot handgun pointed at the man (maybe she was pointing the handgun at the woman at first) & she asked the man in her probably French style English accent: “Are you friend or foe? (or something like that).
The situation was tense and close to getting out of control with the head prostitute threatening the woman and the man with a gun, and the woman was close to defending herself; but the group of men watching did not try to stop it, but I can not remember the rest.
The last dream fragment that I remember part of, took place during a bright day outside in a fictional area that reminded me of an area near MB, and my mom and I were traveling by foot on a journey.
We crossed forests, trails, and we reached a shallow river that we had to cross that had a few grass spots with land and some rock areas; and so we tried to cross the river by jumping on the grass spots with land and the rock areas, but I noticed a few thin long blue & black colored snakes in the water & some on land, so I told my mom to wait for them to move before we crossed.
We had to step in some of the shallow water once or twice to avoid the snakes, there were about four snakes maybe, but we managed to cross the river without bothering the snakes; and after crossing the river, there was a dirt & rock wall that we had to climb to reach the top.
That was a challenge but we managed to climb it, and then my mom and I continued our journey; but I woke up.
The end,
-John Jr 🙂
Last night I remember my last dream, it took place in a kingdom/country where a group of princes from different kingdoms/countries were fighting each other, to be king of a kingdom/country.
For some reason, some of the princes were actors like Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and maybe a few others.
They each had their own private armies and/or followers, and they would fight, argue, and they would try to do contests to prove who should lead/rule.
One day I think a small army invaded the kingdom, and some unknown man lead the people in defense of their kingdom from the invading army; because the princes were too busy fighting each other somewhere else at the time.
The princes got to be battle late, and they helped the people finish defeating the invading small army.
After the battle, the people made the unknown man who lead them in defense of the kingdom, the new king; and the princes decided to join him, instead of arguing about the people’s decision/choice.
The princes then became generals under the new king, and they decided to join all of their armies into one; but first they all had a celebration.
The whole kingdom celebrated the new king and the new unification of the princes & their armies; and I forgot to mention that this kingdom seemed to be from the early middle ages or something, because they all had old metal armor, old style mêlée weapons, horses, and the kingdom had an appearance from about that era.
The princes were actually happy, and they became friends during the celebrations.
One day a group of soldiers came to the outside of the kingdom, they said that they had an important message for the king, and so the guards told the princes/generals; and so the princes/generals came riding on horses to greet the messengers.
The messengers thought that one of the princes was the king, and so they began to attack the princes and their guards; and so I guess the messengers were really there to kill the king.
The princes and the guards managed to kill the attackers, and then the real king came with some guards.
The princes told him what had happened, and the king decided to take his army to the closet kingdom nearby, to find out who had sent the attackers/assassins.
They got the army ready and they left that day, and on the way to the nearest kingdom, one of the guards of one of the princes was afraid/concerned/suspicious that the attackers/assassins were sent by one of the princes; and so he asked the prince that he was guarding, what would he do if it was him that sent the attackers?
The prince told him that he was now completely loyal to the king, and that he would help the king no matter what.
The guard then asked the prince if he thought that the closest kingdom, which was France, was responsible for sending the attackers/assassins, and he asked if France would attack them if the king’s army got too close to France?
The prince said that he did not think that France had sent the attackers/assassins, and that he felt that France would not attack them; and that France would probably stay neutral or make an alliance with them.
The king and his army made it to the outside of Paris, France, which looked a lot better, bigger, and more advanced than his kingdom.
The king’s kingdom did not even have a wall, paved streets, and other modern things.
Paris looked nice, and there was a big main road with a special monument building to the sides of the main road and over the main road; and the sides of it seemed to be made of rock & some orange/gold metal, and the top of it was metal that was in a green color like the Statue Of Liberty.
The main road was wide and the roof over it was high, so a whole army could march through the city, and there were lights around the city that made the city look even better.
The king decided to have his whole army march through Paris, and they would stay in the city for the night, and they would meet the king and/or queen the next day.
I guess the people of Paris knew that the army was coming, because no one was outside as the army marched through the city; most of the buildings in the city were made of rock, and I think that there were automobiles parked in some areas.
Some of the princes younger brothers & sisters came along with the army, and they were amazed by the look of Paris & they could not wait to explore it.
They felt angry that they had grew up in such a primitive kingdom, and they were already wishing they would have grown up in France.
During the march through Paris, I was in the dream near the princes and the king, and we decided to stop at a small restaurant; and so we told the army to stop and find places for everyone to sleep for the night, and that they were free to explore the city.
But we told them that we did not want them to cause any problems, and we told them to be on alert if the French army came.
For some reason my friends DH, JC, and my family were now in the dream too; and they joined the princes, the king, and I for dinner.
The restaurant was small & modern, and we all ate dinner & we had a good time.
I also enjoyed the dinner and the march through Paris, and I wanted to explore the city more; but I was wondering where most of the people in the city were, and where was the French king and/or queen & their army.
My family, the prince’s family, and some of the soldiers left to explore the city; while the princes, the king, and I went outside of the restaurant to talk.
Outside in the city, people seemed to be starting to come outside again, and automobiles & some people were now going around the city.
As we were talking about our plans, an unknown man walked up to us, with a message from the king of France.
He said that no harm would come to our army, that the king of France would meet our king tomorrow, that France did not send the attackers/assassins, that France would help our country, and then the messenger said that the king of France had sent him to teach the princes some new skills.
The messenger looked pretty rough, like he was tough, dangerous, and like he had been through a lot of combat in his life.
He then started to train the princes and I, in what ever skills the king of France had sent him to teach.
Our first goal/training was to work on controlling our fear or something, and so he told us to climb a building and jump from it.
We were shocked and thought that was dangerous, but we started to climb a building, even though we afraid.
As we climbed the building, the messenger gave us tips in the form of mantras, I guess that is what you call them; that we could constantly repeat to ourselves, to help give us courage, by either distracting us and/or reminding us of our training.
We made it to the top of the building and there were smaller buildings below us, and so he told us to jump on them from the tall building, until we made it back to/reached the ground.
We were all afraid and we were worried that we would get hurt, but after constantly trying to use some of the mantras, they gave us enough courage; and so one of the princes finally jumped.
He landed on another building that was made of aluminum, but he fell on his back instead of his feet, which hurt him a bit; but he was okay.
The next prince jumped and landed on his feet, but the impact was so hard that he fell on his face.
After they both jumped, we all started to jump, and as we did that, the first two princes then jumped to the next building.
We continued this until we made it to the ground, this exercise really did help improve our courage, and so the messenger sent us on our next goal/training.
Our next goal/training was to jump from building to building quietly, sneak through yards, and jump fences without anyone seeing or hearing us.
So we ran around the city doing this, it was like being a ninja or something, and it was fun.
It was not easy at first, but we kept using the tips and mantras the messenger gave us, and we started to act like professionals/experts or something; as we began to improve in our abilities/skills.
I remember at first we were moving slow and carefully, but after practicing for a while, we began running around with focused, while whispering some of the mantras to ourselves as we jumped from buildings, and over fences quietly without being seen.
The next goal/training was for leadership, and after that would be a goal/training for combat; but the messenger said that he would teach us that tomorrow, and so he left.
The princes and I went to tell the king about our experiences, and we were amazed by how fast that training worked and we could not wait to get the rest of the training; and we felt that once we finished the training, that we would be pretty skilled, and that we could train/create a very good army/police force.
The king was pleased/happy that France was helping us and he hoped that the French king had more information on who sent the attackers/assassins; so that we could train our army and join with the French army, and go face the kingdom that sent the attackers/assassins.
The next day we went to eat breakfast at an Asian style restaurant, but I woke up before we left the building.
The end,
-John Jr 🙂
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