She May Just Change Your Life (Amelie (DVD))

Member Name: JayHall1991

Product:	Amelie (DVD)
Date:	21/03/06 (241 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Amusing, Well Acted, Wonderfully Produced, Thought Provoking, Delightful Modern Charecter

Disadvantages: Subtitles?

Amelie Pouline did not have a normal childhood, she grew up with her ultra strict mother, who was a head mistress and a bag of nerves most of the time and her father who has a serious case of obsessive compulsive disorder. As a young girl, Amelie always longed for her fathers attention, but often never got it, so when it came for her father to do his monthly health check on her, her little heart beat twice as fast as normal. This convinced Amelie’s parents that she has a strange heart defect and should not ever go to school. So Amelie is forced to grow up without any friends, which allows her imagination to run wild, se starts to talk to moving pictures and imaginary pals. Amelie’s only real friend is a goldfish, who sick and tired of boredom becomes suicidal and often tries to kill itself! Her mother always nervous what the fish will do next, decides to from him in the sea, thus cutting of any link between Amelie and a real friend. One day when visiting her mothers school, Amelie convinces her to come out to the playground, but sadly a suicidal student leaps off the top of the roof, just that minute and kills her headmistress. Amelie is shattered.

Now an adult, Amelie still has a vivid and wonderful imagination, but she has to waste it on a waitresses job in a local café, where all the staff are almost as wacky and strange as she is! One day through a series of almost serendipitous events, Amelie discovers a small box hidden in the bathroom wall, which contains all the hopes and dreams of a young boy, who lived in her flat over fifty years ago. Our little heroine decides that she will find the owner of this treasure and give it him back. She does and lets him see, hoe much time he has wasted, trying to chase, things that are not really important. Amelie has a splendid feeling of good, so she starts her new crusade, she will try and help as many people as she can possibly can.

But in her pursuit to right other people’s wrongs, is Amelie missing something in her life that she has conveniently glossed, over, is the pleasure she gets from helping people, only masking the pain, she feels from having a disruptive childhood?

First off, lets just say that Amelie is probably the single most beautiful movie have ever seen, it is so good because it uses it’s own innocence to make it a little bit deeper and darker than it could have been, but still manages to make it about a dreamer who strives, to makes things right in a world, where it seems we are all drowning in wrongs. It is about someone with their own strong sense of justice and stern morals, I think it is a brave move to make a feature film, with such an amazing, inspirational and sweet lead character.

Audrey Tautou shows, beautiful talent and a real love for acting in her role as Amelie. At the moment Audrey is having a upraise in Fame. It has been announced that she will star in The Da Vinci Code and has been in A Very Long Engagement which managed to become a number one hit in several countries. I loved the way that she played Amelie, as it was both layered, and beautiful, she expertly played each side of her character with gusto. I particularly liked the way she showed of the innocent aspects of her role and was very beautiful all through the film. I think that she contributed greatly to the whole magic and sparkle of the film.

Mathieu Kassovitz plays the other lead in this film. He plays Nino another dreamer, who was home schooled and is looking to mask his own personal pain, Amelie meets him, whilst catching a train to go and meet her dad. He is looking for a old photo album, which Amelie later finds. Mathieu spends most of the movie mute, but he still his a good chemistry with Audrey and injects a suitable amount of energy into his character.

Currently at number 27 on imdb.com’s Top 100 films list Amelie really should be seen by everyone, it has such a sweet nature and inspiration central idea that it manages to do what we want all films to. it makes a mark, it changes the audience in some way and it gives some real idea’s to think about, without being too cryptic or high brow. Like I said before the core scenario is a fascinating and sweet one. What if a girl, went out to right all the wrongs in the world, but I have a sneaking suspicion that, the idea isn’t that. I think it is about actions, consequences and lost youth. We hear about these heroes, who overcome horrific, personal problems, to help other humans with awful problems and Amelie is one of these people. I think that we all change people’s lives, but do we all struggle to change them for the better?

The script by Guillaume Laurent is slightly flawed, but only towards the end. At the very beginning we are treated to a wonderful opening sequence in which we meet all the key characters in Amelie’s childhood. What I loved about it, was the fact that it was so different, when we meet her parents, we first find out their name, and then it says She Likes: He Likes: Which I thought was a clever way of introducing the characters morals and personalities through one sentence. The script has great use of symbolism, using different weathers, items and personalities as emotional triggers, but I think it tries to add sexual scenarios, when they really don’t need to be there, they kind of ruin the pace and sweet nature of the whole thing. Also the script kind of loses it’s way towards the end, because it doesn’t have anywhere else to go, but apart from that it really, is a cracking script.

Visually Amelie is very stunning, some how, they managed to use colours as characters, it is often very bright and the film makers use a lot of greens and red’s to make the images, that are supposed to last with you stunning and startling. The camera work is really good, using long, swooping shots and interesting camera angles to keep the audience interested.

Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who came up with the scenario for Amelie also directs, and does so with masterful technique, drawing amazing performances from most of the cast and keeping the pace more or less right throughout the movie, it is a testament to him that a French movie, like this has such wide acclaim and appeal throughout all the different countries.

I am now going to compare Amelie to Ally McBeal of the hit show. They both use animation to convey their main characters deepest insights and they both have this faith in humanity that normal people don’t, but the difference lies in the fact that Ally strives to find a man and Amelie doesn’t, she finds relationships silly and laughs at them, which is quiet a nice change, as I like to see someone who is happy in their own skin without anyone.

Some people may be put off by the subtitles of this film, but please don’t be! I think it really should be watched in it’s native language as it offers an almost poetic beauty to the whole thing. Half the time I didn’t even need to look at the subtitles, because the film is such that all the emotions are conveyed not through words, but through powerful emotion trips and brilliant acting. This is one of the foreign movies that I can actually watch over and over again without getting thoroughly bored.

The soundtrack to Amelie isn’t particularly memorable, but it is quintessential French with harps and violins. We are also treated to some nifty animation as Amelie’s imagination runs wild through many scene’s.

Overall I thought that Amelie was beautiful, inspirational and stunning. It has a main character that is both a dreamer and a warrior, who much like Ally McBeal has an ingrown faith in humanity that too little role models now have . It is wonderfully acted and visually stunning, a must buy!!

You Can Buy Amelie 2 Disk Special Edition From:

Amazon 6.99 ASIN: B000069JDB

Play.com 7.99

CDWOW 6.49

You can buy the original one disk from

Amazon 8.97 ASIN B00005RH3V ( It seems ridiculous that the single disk version is more expensive than the double disk one doesn’t it?)

And The Video
Amazon 15.99

Thankes Everyone for reading! Best Wishes : ) Jay

Summary: A Well Acted, Beautiful French Fantasy