Love it (Amelie (DVD))

Member Name: Jess-L

Product:	Amelie (DVD)
Date:	11/07/04 (116 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Amusing, Witty, Makes a change from your usual films!

Disadvantages: None

As you have probably worked out, the film Amelie, or rather, Le Fabuleux destin d' Amélie Poulain, is a French film, but don't let that put you off - you'll never see anything else like it in your life! It's a truly unique film that you experience rather than just watch!


THE STORYLINE

Within the first five minutes of the film, we are introduced to the young Amelie Poulain (Audrey Tautou) and her parents. Although not by any means dislike, they don't seem to particularly love their daughter. In fact, physical contact is so rare that when Amelie's father gives her a health check up, her heart begins to race, and he diagnoses a heart defect. Because of this, she is educated at home.

She compensates for her solitary life with an over-active imagination. Her strange home life doesn't help - she has a goldfish with a death wish and her neurotic mother dies in frankly bizarre circumstances when she gets in the way of a botched suicide plan. Amelie lives at home with her quiet and introverted father until she is old enough to leave home.

She finds a flat and a job as a waitress in a small cafe, but she keeps a distance from the delightfully odd characters she comes into daily contact with. She leads a very lonely life, with no particular direction or meaning. However, her quirkiness remains, and silly questions often pop into her head, such as 'How many people are having orgasms right now?' When one night, she comes across a rusty old box hidden behind loose tiles in her bathroom, filled with childhood memories, such as marbles and photographs, she decides to track down the owner.

Being so shy, she devises a plan for the owner to seemingly accidently come across the box, rather than handing it over herself. When the owner, now a lonely
middle-aged man who has no contact with his only daughter, finds it, the sense of achievement seems to fill the void in her life. She resolves to bring happiness to other people's lives, albeit secretly.

From giving blind men a guided tour of the neighbourhood, using an air hostess, a garden gnome and a camera to persuade her father to pursue his dreams and travel the world and faking love letters to her heart-broken landlady, she anonymously fixes the problems of those around her, but she is too busy to make time for herself.

She has fallen in love with Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz), a sex-shop worker who collects discarded photo-booth photographs, but is frightened to help herself achieve happiness. He has fallen for her too, but they are both painfully shy, despite living similarly quirky and reclusive lives. Will they overcome their shyness to get together? What do you think - it's a romantic comedy...


WHAT I THOUGHT

Watching Amelie is like being transported to a different world. It's warm, magical, funny, quirky and beautiful, and you will never see another film like it. The director Jean-Pierre Jeunet has crafted a modern fairytale that will warm your heart long after the ending credits have closed!

Some may argue that it's unrealistic and doesn't portray Paris correctly, but come on - it's a fantasy film, it's not meant to be true to life! It's charming and whimisical, and puts a different slant on the daily grind of life. The film is colourful and beautiful; shot in warm colours with painstaking attention paid to detail. The traditional accordion music just adds to the beautiful, 'antique' view of Paris that sets the scene for Amelie.

The humour is very subtle and it was the little things that made my sides ache with laught
er! One of my favourite parts is from a scene from Amelie's childhood, where a neighbour somewhat cruelly told her that her beloved camera caused accidents. Having taken pictures all day, she stares, horror-struck at the TV, where the news of plane crashes, train derailments and fires are being told.

We see some incidents through the eyes of Amelie and her imagination, meaning that special effects come into play! If you watch Ally McBeal, you'll know what I mean - physically melting in front of an attractive man, for instance! They weren't necessary but just added to the surreal quirkiness of the film, which can't be a bad thing!

It is slightly confusing towards the end, but all the knots of confusion are quickly sorted out by themselves as you continue to watch the film. Don't let the subtitles put you off though. After half an hour, I suddenly thought, 'This isn't in English is it??' You quickly become used to the subtitles and it's as though you are watching an English-language film. That said, I was thrilled when I could understand snippets of the French!

The quaint backdrop of Paris, combined with Amelie's charming innocence and the many cynical and unfulfilled yet watchable people in her life, creates a delightful, charming and simple tale of a young girl and her search for happiness, both for herself and others. I defy anyone not to like it!


THE ACTING

Audrey Tautou was perfectly cast as the wide-eyed, innocent Amelie. The role was apparently written for another actress, who pulled out at the last minute, but Audrey really does the role justice and I can't imagine anyone doing better. When Amelie smiles, you smile with her. You genuinely feel for the character - she is genuinely ve
ry likeable and everyone has some part of Amelie in them!

The supporting cast are brilliant, and really round off the film. Without the subplots, the film might have dragged on, but they really add sparkle and interest to the film. From Collignon, the bullying grocer who gets his comeuppance thanks to Amelie, Georgette the hypocondriac who works at the cigarette stand and Joseph, the bitter ex-boyfriend who sits in the cafe all day, watching his ex-girlfriend (Amelie's fellow waitress), making notes about her on a tape recorder, they are a joy to watch and all seem very 3-D and believable.

Most of the actors and actresses involved are unknown to me, so I can't really comment on them. Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the director, also directed Delicatessen and Alien: Resurrection. Other than that, all his other films have been in French and seem to be generally comedies.


VERDICT

Go watch it! You definitely won't regret it. It does seem a bit long at more than two hours, but the time flies by and far better than the romantic comedy rubbish that Jennifer Lopez seems to specialise in! You'll love it.

It is rated 15, which I think is appropiate. There is no swearing but there are a few scenes involving sex or nudity, although they are not taken seriously and are quite amusing, depending on how you look at it!

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