like nothing you've ever seen, will make you laugh, may make you cry
Disadvantages:
don't let the sub - titles put you off
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
Pardon my French, but you see, I’ve fallen for this girl and she’s got me saying and seeing the craziest things. She has the face of an angel and the heart of a saint. If you saw her she’d have you at it as well. Her name is Amelie. Let me tell you about her…
Amelie Poulain had a strange loveless childhood. Looking at her now as she rushes around the cobbled streets of Montmarte (that’s in Paris, don’t ya know) and tends to le patrons at the “Deux Moulins” café it’s hard to believe that as a child she was diagnosed, by her father of all people, a doctor and a cold man, as having a dodgy heart. Clearly a misdiagnosis, for as you will find out, the condition of Amelie’s heart is 24 caret.
However this was enough to have poor Amelie removed from school to be educated at home by her mother, who sadly was not long for this world, as leaving Notre Dame Cathedral one day she was delivered of, not the baby boy she had prayed for, but a free-falling suicidal Canadian tourist. Not a pretty sight.
Left to be brought up by her distant father, Amelie, denied the usual trips and treats of childhood due to her “condition”, finds solace in the world of her imagination. Where others see only clouds, Amelie can see rabbits and teddy bears. Not that she is a soft touch; she isn’t above taking revenge of bullies and those with cruel hearts.
Soon tho Amelie is of an age where she can leave home, and that is when I met her, in her mid-twenties, living and working in Montmarte (which by now you should know is in Paris).
Seemingly unremarkable, Amelie finds joy in the simplest of things, her greatest pleasure being to skim stones across the canal lock.
Her life was to be changed, not by one, but two events. On a tragic day in August 1997, Amelie makes a chance discovery of a young child’s hidden treasure trove, clearly hidden many years ago before. Fate, she reasons has given her a choice, which she chooses to accept. She will attempt to trace the owner and return the toys to him. If she succeeds, then it will be her destiny to help others and to bring happiness to their lives.
Oh yeah, the second event. Lured thru the tunnels of the Metro one day by the sound of music, drawing her like some siren-song she encounters a strange fellow (sadly , not me) scrabbling around under a photo-booth, searching for something. But what? A subsequent encounter answers that question and provides Amelie with a chance to influence her own destiny, if she dares…
The person responsible for introducing me to this fabulous creature is Jean-Pierre Jeunet. You may have heard of him before: his previous movies include “Delicatessen” and “The City of The Lost Children” (co-directed by Marc Caro) and “Alien Resurrection” (all his own work).
The leap from “Alien Resurrection” to “Amelie” would probably test Jonathan Edwards; the former being a violent gore-fest, the latter being a warm, fuzzy blanket of a movie, that’s resonates with the feel of Hollywood’s Golden Age . Just as Amelie the person wants to make everyone happy so “Amelie” the movie attempts the same thing, and boy does it succeed. If you have feel prepare to have it made good, if your heart has cockles prepare to have them warmed. No need to allow reality to encroach, “Amelie” is a simple, perhaps even naïve, fantasy about love and the need to be loved, life and the need to live it.
Jeunet employs his usual visual distinctiveness, producing a movie that is a breathless mirage of scenes over-flowing with more wit, inventiveness, style, detail and beauty than any movie I have ever seen. Each scene, simply executed, finding joy and sharing that joy with us, in the little things in life, letting us in on the moments as Amelie skims stones across the canal lock or eats raspberries from her fingers or comes up with a stinging riposte against the bullying greengrocer, that had me sitting in the cinema grinning like a goon.
As usual for a French movie, the acting is first class, altho all, bar one, of the actors were new to me.
Audrey Tautou, is simply fantastic as Amelie, like an utterly gorgeous cross between Audrey Hepburn and a little pixie. She has a smile that can melt the ice caps and a mouth to launch yourself into those dark eyes from. She brilliantly conveys Amelie’s crusade to bring happiness to others whilst fearing to commit to her own. She knows what she wants, and she wants it oh so much but fears that if she grasps it it will disappear, like the poppy that once plucked sheds its petals and loses its beauty.
Matthieu Kassovitz plays Nino Quicampoix, the object of Amelia’s plucking. Nino is a rather quirky fellow (won’t tell you his quirk) who works in a porn emporium. Apparently Kassovitz is a bit of an acclaimed director in France. Me, I’ve never heard of him but he does a good job of playing the rather baffled Nino. And at least one of my female friends found him rather yummy.
Dominique Pinon plays one of the café patrons, Joseph, whose happiness is part of Amelie’s crusade. Now Pinon I do recognise from “Delicatessen” and “Alien Resurrection”. He has one of those fabulously battered faces that makes him look like one of the Notre Dame gargoyles made flesh..
The rest of the cast all turn in excellent performances.
The music, composed by Yann Tiersen, is also fantastic. Like Michael Nyman does french cafe accordion, it is very evocative of Paris, but the Paris of yesterday
The movie, with its message to stop being a spectator in life and to become a participant, is wonderfully uplifting. I laughed, I grinned like a Cheshire cat, and I almost cried. I came away with a pleasant lingering after-taste that is still with me 24 hours later.
The movie is in French with English subtitles, but please don’t let that put you off. Do yourself a favour and go and see this movie.
The movie has a “15” certificate. No language (except French), a mildly explicit sex montage, the scenes in the sex shop feature “toys” which sadly makes it unsuitable for younger kids whichis a pity as I’m sure they’d love it as well. No violence.
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Soundtrack
Outstanding
How does it compare to others by the same director?
Outstanding
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