Magical, Uplifting, Heartwarming and Funny - Amelie Is French Cinema At Its Finest (Amelie (DVD))

Member Name: wampyrii

Product:	Amelie (DVD)
Date:	24/05/02 (589 review reads)
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Amelie, or to give the film(yes its a film, not a movie for the benefit of David Fincher fans) its correct title "Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain", is a magical piece of French cinema which is so richly deserving of all the accolades thrown at it during last years award ceremonies. "Magical" is usually a word reserved solely for the likes of the next Disney production or megabucks Spielberg special effects extravaganza but Amelie weaves its own magical and uplifting experience through the sheer brilliance(and cuteness) of its central character and beauty of an entirely quirky storyline which is guaranteed to leave you on an emotional high. Its not often you'll find me 'gushing' with enthusiasm about a film(I'm a cynical bugger you see ;o) but this is undoubtedly a wonderful piece of cinema!

Amelie's director Jean-Pierre Jeunet is no stranger to bringing quirky French cinema to the world stage. In 1991 he brought us the odd but highly enjoyable Delicatessen and in 1995 followed up with The City of Lost Children. Both were jointly helmed with Marc Caro, so the quirky style and unmistakably different approach could have been down to either - Amelie proves without a doubt that it was Jeunet who was the driving force behind the stylistics at least. It starts off in an incredibly bold manner, with a voice-over monologue lasting lamost 20 minutes, perhaps more, introducing the main characters one by one without a single word spoken by them. Its a move which could have alienated many viewers but its carried off in such style that I guarantee you'll be glued to it and by the time the film starts properly you'll already be in its clutches, enthralled for its for its entire 2 hour running length.

All of this 'set up' may sound too much but it lays the perfect foundations for what is to come, giving you the very best insight possible into Amelie's little world and explaining exactly who she is
and why by a few words. We are not given detailed descriptions of the characters but a simple "Monsieur Poulain likes..." or "Amelie likes..." and then a quirky list as he/she goes about what he likes doing, which at first glance is just a strange list of little foibles, but on more careful examination tells you quite literally everything about the characters you need to know. Its a wonderful example of how less can be so much more.

We begin the story back when Amelie is a child, being told how she never went to school, or mixed with other children because of a heart defect her father believed her to have. In fact, we are shown how Amelie craved nothing more than to be hugged and loved by her father as a little girl, and the occassions when he examined her with his stethoscope were so close to this that her heart began to race from the physical contact. Consequently Amelie is home-schooled by her mother, becomes introverted and whilst still craving to be loved, lives in a kind of dream world. Years later, Amelie works in a coffee shop alongside a hypochondriac apothecary and a jilted lover who spends all day in the cafe making notes about his ex-lover's activities on a tape recorder. Amelie lives alone and her life is rather lonley and directionless one but something is soon to change all that...

On the day of Princess Diana's death she discovers something hidden behind a tile in her bathroom. Its a little boy's treasure chest, a rusty tin box full of marbles, cigarette cards and other little boy stuff. Realising the owner(now 40 years older) would love to have it returned to him she goes about hunting him down, but being shy she watches his joyous reaction from afar, she can not even take the praise for her good deeds. Not only does this action prompt a rush of childhood memories, but also a reconciliation with his own son - Amelie's simple actions have brought an estranged father and son back together. Suddenl
y her life has meaning, she will do good wherever she goes, making people happy will be her new goal in life! But there is one thing missing - her own happiness. Amelie still craves love and on her quest to make everything right in her own little corner of the world she just may have found her soulmate in Nino Quincampoix(Mathieu Cassovitz) but is too shy to admit her feelings for him.

Its difficult to describe the plot of Amelie, because there is simply so much going on all at the same time. Amelie wants to help those around her find happiness but is afraid of being seen to do so because she is so horribly shy, so instead devises a whole series of elaborate plans to pull people together or to nudge them in the kind of direction they need to go in to find that happiness. All these separate stories are interweaved seamlessly into the plot and around Amelie's elaborate attempts to attract Nino's attention whilst not having the strength to get over her own shyness to make the final meeting. Meantime, her neighbour "the glassman", plays mentor to her, trying to coax her out of herself with metaphors weaved around his paintings. Watching these plans come to fruition and the elaborate ways in which Amelie will acheive this is a part of the charm of the movie. Her father always used to dream of travelling the world with her mother, but since her untimely death, never did so, instead remains encamped in his garden and tools. Amelie takes one of his gnomes and fakes its journey around the world to coax him into following suit. A neighbour pines for her husband who ran about with his secretary so she fakes a letter explaining how he really did love her...and so on. Watching and seeing what elaborate schemes Jeunet will cook up next for Amelie is enormously fascinating and the 2 hours will fly by.

In fact 'watching' is a major theme of the Jeunet's Amelie in general. Amelie watches all her plans come together from afar, her "
;glassman" neighbour hasn't left his house for 20 years because of a brittle bone disease(hence his nickname) and watches everything from his window whilst copying Renoir paintings(Renoir was also termed a "professional voyuer" of course), a jilted lover spies on his ex-lover daily in the coffee shop and Nino collects a scrapbook of discarded photobooth pictures...and we sit watching them all watching - its the ultimate voyeur flick! But of course its also much more than that. ;o)

Undoubtedly, much of the success of Amelie is down to a sparkling performance from lead character Audrey Tautou who brings to the character of Amelie a wonderful mix of shyness, energy and pure mischeviousness which is impossible to not find both at one adorable and amusing. Tautou wins our sympathy immediately and we remain firmly on her side throughout the rest of the film, willing her to success even when she does some rather cruel things to the obnoxious greengrocer - who very much deserves everything he gets I might add. Tautou is simply brilliant here, with the ability to light up the screen with a single smile and I'm looking forward to seeing her in more roles in the future.

Of course, one actor/actress doesn't make a film all by themselves(rarely anyway) and fortunately Jeunet has assembled a superb cast of supporting actors as well. As much as Amelie is used to living life in the background, so too is Nino and Mathieu Kassovitz brings to his role an wonderful level of understatement to highlight this. As Amelie is shy about their meeting so too is he, but he is determined to find out who keeps leaving him anonymous notes and clues without ever showing themselves. Kassovitz portrays perfectly the strengthening of his character and resolves as he is forced to play detective and becomes emboldened by this as time goes on. Also along for the ride is Dominique Pinon as a jilted lover who is about as sour and pathetic as you could want, Serg
e Merlin as "the glassman" who just oozes wisdom and 'wordliness' despite being cooped up away from it for years and many others who are all superb. All these weird and wonderful characters and the superb performances by all make Amelie so watchable.

Jeunet realises how a film driven solely by its characters and storyline can lag in parts if allowed to do so, therefore he fills his film with some wonderfully quirky camerawork to kep the audience from losing focus. Quick edits, odd camera angles and other little tricks of the trade are employed here, but not so much as it becomes the focus of the film or headache inducing. Amelie doesn't need to rely upon fancy camerawork to sell itself to us, but Jeunet keeps the whole thing 'live' and dynamic by through this lively, quirky style. Likewise, special effects are kept to a minimum, but when used are weaved in perfectly to the general storyline - watch for the moment Amelie 'melts' after her first real contact with Nino because its just great.

I could go on singing the praises of Amelie all day, seriously I can find no fault with it at all. If I were to be enormously picky, I would have to point out that it is subtitled and sometimes those subtitles are a little difficult to read because there are occassions when you sit looking at white text on a bright background. For those who are also a little on the prudish side, then there is some brief nudity too and a little sexual content(although very humorously handled) as well. As you can see, I'm scraping the barrel looking for bad points. Amelie is, in my opinion, a truly wonderful film. Its simultaneously funny, heartwarming and uplifting and guaranteed to leave you with a silly smile on your face. If you don't trust my word then know too that this marks the 17th review on Dooyoo of Amelie and it has a 100% recommendation.

Enough said I believe. Go rent it! :o)

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