Sample Solution

Often classified as a film in the genre of the Cinema du Look, Amélie’s carefully constructed cinematic aesthetic is reflective of the voyeuristic values of the contemporary capitalist society, or to use Debord’s term: the society of the spectacle. With a background in advertising, Jeunet’s aesthetic vision in Amélie is extremely attractive, as attractive as an ad. In understanding the value of aesthetics in the contemporary era, Jeunet’s modus operani resides within the visuals of Amélie; he embeds his message within the surface of his film.

Film, defined as movable images marking the recording of history in space-and-time and sight-and-sound, is an extension of the human consciousness, occupying our imaginative capabilities. In the words of Marx and Engels, “the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force…For each new class which puts itself in the place of one ruling before it, is compelled…to represent its interest as the common interest of all the members of society… it has to give its ideas the form of universality”. Film, as a medium, enhances and exacerbates this framing of universality, as the medium also functions to-in the case of American media imperialism-hypnotise global audiences into mass cultural homogenisation. “The spectacle is not a collection of images, but a social relation among people, mediated by images.”

As Hollywood movies dominated the European market, the audience would increasingly become conditioned to the indulgence of the submissive experience of Hollywood cinema as Hollywood aims to represent the audience as if they are the characters in the movies. This approach causes the failure of audiences to recognise the film as a medium while also eliciting an unconscious identification between the spectators and the characters. As Canadian ‘media-guru’ Marshall McLuhan proclaims: American media imperialism hypnotises global audiences into homogenisation through the use of advanced technologies to conceal the technological medium, resulting in popular and entertaining films that promote the capitalist ideology. Congruent with the value of entertainment, cinema supports the ideological motives of Hollywood and Hollywood’s homogenisation of culture, as the visual attractions and creative narr