Stupeur et tremblements (2003)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Alain Corneau

Writers:

Amélie Nothomb (novel)
Alain Corneau (scenario)

Release Date:

12 March 2003 (France)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

A Belgian woman looks back on her year at a Japanese corporation in Tokyo in 1990. She is Amélie, born in Japan...

Plot Keywords:

Toilet Paper | Multinational | Japanese | Window | Toilet

Awards:

5 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Sylvie Testud	...	Amélie
Kaori Tsuji	...	Fubuki
Tarô Suwa	...	Monsieur Saito
Bison Katayama	...	Monsieur Omochi
Yasunari Kondo	...	Monsieur Tenshi
Sokyu Fujita	...	Monsieur Haneda
Gen Shimaoka	...	Monsieur Unaji
Heileigh Gomes	...	Amélie enfant
Eri Sakai	...	Fubuki enfant

Also Known As:

Fear and Trembling (International: English title)

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

France | Japan

Language:

French | Japanese

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:10 | Finland:K-11 | Hong Kong:IIA | Netherlands:AL | Norway:11 | Sweden:7 | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | UK:12A | USA:Unrated

Filming Locations:

Kyoto, Japan

Company:

Canal+

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Amélie sorts all GmbH clients in the same folder, her superior explains her that "GmbH is like Ltd in English or SA in French". GmbH is not SA in French, but SARL (Société anonyme à responsabilité limitée).

Movie Connections:

Features Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983)

Soundtrack:

Goldberg Variations

Imagination is highly required!!!

Fear and Trembling seldom changed scenes; everything happened in the office building, but it will be a big mistake to describe this film as dull, unimaginative, boring, monotonous or a dry one. On the contrary, it is quite an imaginative and interesting movie. Amelie, a Belgian girl who is obsessed with her Japanese childhood memories, decided to go back to work at the place where she's born. And here began with her miserable office work life. The only way out is her wild imagination!!!

This is quite a universal issue, absurd, preposterous, ridiculous, strange, unfair, unreasonable things do happen in offices whether it's in Asia, Europe or in America. Your supervisor gives you stupid work just to prove that you are inferior to her/him, never ever giving thought to the benefits of the whole company. Try to find a decent job to demonstrate your skills or to make people you work with recognize your abilities are just some silly and naive notions for newcomers. You can hardly achieve any self-achievements, self-fulfillments or whatsoever while you have supervisors and colleagues. The only survival kit is taking the whole thing as a joke and using wild imagination to play along with other coworkers, just like what Amelie did!!!

Fear and Trembling gives you a glimpse of what happen in the offices, how foolish obsession will lead you, how culture differences play a big role in a foreign environment, and of course how and what you can do to face them bravely.

This film is highly recommended to those who were, are and will work with others in the office!! You will see that imagination is highly required for those who want to survive in an office work life!!!