Stupeur et tremblements

''As a child, I wanted to be God, then Jesus, then, conscious of my excessive ambition, I agreed to become a martyr... As an adult I resolved to be less of a megalomaniac and to work as a translator in a Japanese company. Sadly, I became an accountant... now there was no stopping the lightning speed of my downfall...'' A blackly humorous adaptation of Amélie Nothomb's best-selling novel, and featuring extraordinary performances from Sylvie Testud and Kaori Tsuji, Alain Corneau's sophisticated comedy tells the story of Amélie, a dreamy and romantic young French woman who returns to Japan - country of her birth - only to find herself overwhelmed by the mysterious and absurd machinations of the Japanese business world. Confounded by layer upon impenetrable layer of protocol, bewildered and frustrated by a closed and contemptuous system which ensures her steady and humiliating decline from translator to toilet attendant, caught up in a dangerous, seemingly unwinnable battle of wills with her beautiful and inscrutable superior Miss Mori, Amélie is tested to the limits of sanity before stumbling upon her own extraordinary means of liberation. (Wild Bunch Distribution)