Amelie (2001)
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Amelie Poulain has led a sheltered life - educated at home by over-protective parents, she retreats into a fantasy world of her own. When she finally leaves home and finds work as a waitress in a Parisian café, life is pretty uneventful until a chain of extraordinary events leads her to the discovery of a tin box containing a schoolboys long forgotten mementos. It is then that Amelie discovers her true vocation in life helping others find love and happiness which she sets about in her own unique and magical way. When Amelie falls in love herself, she realizes that making neat solutions in not as easy as it seems...More product details about Amelie (2001)
The success of Jean-Pierre Junnet’s self-consciously adorable comedy Amelie led to a curious controversy when it was first released in France. Namely that it was simply too “nice” for its own good, and “cleaned up” Paris in the same way that Notting Hill romanticised its own postcode. However such complaints are a little unfair. Amelie is a fairy tale and its version of Montmartre is a place existing solely in Jean-Pierre Junnet’s imagination and none the poorer for it.
Besides, the film itself is – to all but the most cynical – an absolute joy. Amelie (Audrey Tautou) is a splendidly dimpled presence, going about Paris doing good for those she meets, but neglecting herself, not to mention her faltering romance with a similarly eccentric Mathieu Kassovitz (the director of La Haine, a somewhat less clean cut portrait of Paris). Actually, for all its trademark cuteness, Jennet’s script doesn’t shy away from darker moments, indeed loneliness is a major concern here.
As with his previous collaborations with Marc Caro (Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children) and his ill-fated (although admirably perverse) Hollywood debut, Alien Resurrection, Jennet exhibits an impressive visual flair - here tempered with a dash of magic realism, mercifully staying just the right side of Ally McBeal style visual gags. Best of all though, the film is exceptionally funny, in script and story, with Tautou in particular making an indelible impression. It certainly may not be to everybody’s taste, but you’ll kick yourself if you don’t give it a try. (VH)
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Technical Details
Region 2
Production Year: 2001
Main Language: French
Subtitles: English