Shock Rating

Shock Rating

R

Due to American sensibilities, films like Fight Club and Amélie are both rated R. Fight Club features multiple people getting beaten, shot, and almost getting certain private parts cut off, while Amélie features similar graphic scenes, like when she cracks open… a crème brûlée, or when she stabs… her meal with a fork during an afternoon lunch with dad.

The reason Amélie gets an R rating in the U.S.—while being certified U in France (meaning it is unrestricted from admitting anyone of any age)—is "sexual content." For example, Amélie imagines how many people are having an orgasm at any given moment, which is followed by a montage—done for comedy—of people having orgasms. There is also a brief birth scene, and there's Nino, who works in a sex shop which has a peep show booth and some very large plastic toys… and we don't mean the kind you use for floatation in a pool.

Anyway, Amélie is a charming, vibrant, mostly innocent film about love, romance, and occasionally sex, things that most people experience in their lives, unlike underground fight clubs… unless people are just not talking about it.