Plot
One woman decides to change the world by changing the lives of the people she knows in this charming and romantic comic fantasy from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Amelie (Audrey Tautou) is a young woman who had a decidedly unusual childhood; misdiagnosed with an unusual heart condition, Amelie didn't attend school with other children, but spent most of her time in her room, where she developed a keen imagination and an active fantasy life. Her mother Amandine (Lorella Cravotta) died in a freak accident when Amelie was eight, and her father Raphael (Rufus) had limited contact with her, since his presence seemed to throw her heart into high gear. Despite all this, Amelie has grown into a healthy and beautiful young woman who works in a cafe and has a whimsical, romantic nature. When Princess Diana dies in a car wreck in the summer of 1997, Amelie is reminded that life can be fleeting and she decides it's time for her to intervene in the lives of those around her, hoping to bring a bit of happiness to her neighbors and the regulars at the cafe. Amelie starts by bringing together two lonely people -- Georgette (Isabelle Nanty), a tobacconist with a severe case of hypochondria, and Joseph (Dominique Pinon), an especially ill-tempered customer. When Amelie finds a box of old toys in her apartment, she returns them to their former owner, Mr. Bretodeau (Maurice Benichou), sending him on a reverie of childhood. Amelie befriends Dufayel (Serge Merlin), an elderly artist living nearby whose bones are so brittle, thanks to a rare disease, that everything in his flat must be padded for his protection. And Amelie decides someone has to step into the life of Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz), a lonely adult video store clerk and part-time carnival spook-show ghost who collects pictures left behind at photo booths around Paris. Le Fabuleux Destin D'Amelie Poulain received unusually enthusiastic advance reviews prior to its French premiere in the spring of 2001, and was well received at a special free screening at that year's Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, RoviReview
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, previously best-known for his collaborations with Marc Caro in Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children, Amélie exhibits the same brand of wicked humor and off-kilter humanism seen in those earlier films. Its plot revolves around its eponymous heroine (played by Audrey Tautou, channeling equal parts Audrey Hepburn and Olive Oyl), a wistful, lonely dreamer driven by her desire to help others. The product of an unhappy childhood -- mom was squashed by the suicide leap of a tourist from Quebec, dad was emotionally distant -- Amélie also craves love. In particular, she craves the love of Nino (director Mathieu Kassovitz), an equally wistful and completely adorable janitor/porn shop cashier she meets at a train station photo booth. Plot, however, tends to take back seat to style, which Jeunet layers on with the subtlety and glee of a drag queen who has just been given lipstick and a mascara wand. Through his eyes, Paris is less a city than an ongoing festival, resplendent with verdant vegetable stands, eccentric old artists, charming cafés, bubbling canals, endless blue skies, and -- as one sequence hilariously illustrates -- numerous couples who have no trouble attaining simultaneous orgasm. This vision raised the ire of a few French critics, who accused Jeunet of portraying Paris as little more than a close cousin to Euro Disney (where is Montmartre's graffiti? Where is its racial diversity?), peopled solely with the kind of cuddly if curmudgeonly characters found more typically in Tin Tin cartoons and Robert Doiseneau photographs. But such criticism misses the point. In Amélie, as in Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children, Jeunet has made a pure fantasy; its reality is that of a parallel universe, where perverse humor co-exists comfortably with genuine, if somewhat manic compassion. Whether he shows Amélie taking innocent pleasure in cracking the surface of a crème brulée or one of her co-workers engaging in a round of (literally) earth-shaking sex in a café bathroom, Jeunet portrays his characters with both loving self-indulgence and a keen appreciation for the absurd; he's aiming for light-hearted comedy, not kitchen sink realism. It is Jeunet's ability to temper his self-indulgence with absurdity that prevents Amélie from drowning in saccharine sentimentality. It is a "feel good" film, no doubt, but not the sort that people offer apologies for liking. Jeunet's energy, wit, and visual ingenuity are infectious. Even if we know that Montmartre is really strewn with trash and that Paris is often rainy and cold, it is hard not to be seduced by both Jeunet's vision of kind hearts, earthy humor, and fortuitous happenstance. Amélie was nothing less than a cinematic phenomenon in France, where it took in 40 million dollars, won an endorsement from President Jacques Chirac, and brought a new wave of tourists to Paris' Montmartre district, where its story is set. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, RoviCast
- Audrey Tautou - Amélie
- Mathieu Kassovitz - Nino Quincampoix
- Rufus - Raphael Poulain (Amélie's father)
- Yolande Moreau - Madeleine Wallace
- Artus de Penguern - Hipolito (the writer)
- Urbain Cancelier - Collignon (the grocer)
- Dominique Pinon - Joseph
Credit
Volker Schaefer - Art Director, Jean-Louis Le Bras - Boom Operator, Valerie Espagne - Casting, Pierre-Jacques Benichou - Casting, Edouard Dubois - Consultant/advisor, Madeline Fontaine - Costume Designer, Emma Lebail - Costume Designer, Véronique Elise - Costume Designer, Sylvie Bello - Costume Designer, Anne Wermelinger - Continuity, Christophe Vassort - First Assistant Director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet - Director, Herve Schneid - Editor, Antoine Simkine - Executive Producer, John Nollet - Hair Styles, Veronique Boitout - Hair Styles, Alain Mougenot - Location Manager, Jean Marc Deschamps - Line Producer, Yann Tiersen - Composer (Music Score), Nathalie Tissier - Makeup, Aline Bonetto - Production Designer, Bruno Delbonnel - Cinematographer, Claudie Ossard - Producer, Arne Meerkamp Van Embden - Producer, Aline Bonetto - Set Designer, Jean-Baptiste Bonetto - Special Effects, Yves Domenjoud - Special Effects, Oliver Gleyze - Special Effects, Les Versaillais - Special Effects, Thierry Reymoneno - Special Effects, Noël Chainbaux - Special Effects, Daniel Lenoir - Special Effects, Vincent Arnardi - Sound Mixer, Vincent Arnardi - Sound/Sound Designer, Sophie Chiabaut - Sound/Sound Designer, Jean Umansky - Sound/Sound Designer, Guillaume Leriche - Sound/Sound Designer, Gerard Hardy - Sound Editor, Patrick Cauderlier - Stunts, Jean-Claude Lagniez - Stunts, Rémi Canaple - Stunts, Pascaline Girardot - Stunts, Sébastien Seveau - Stunts, Christophe Maratier - Technical Advisor, Stéphane Bourdon - Technical Advisor, Guillaume Laurant - Dialogue Writer, Jean-Pierre Jeunet - Screenwriter, Guillaume Laurant - Screenwriter, Françcois Paumard - Additional Cinematography, Svetlana Novak - Production Assistant, Claudia Dummer-Manasse - Production Assistant, Duboi - Visual Effects Supervisor, Alain Carsoux - Visual Effects Supervisor, Isabelle Sauvanon - Publicist, Duboi - Digital Effects, Alain Carsoux - Digital Effects, Cavalier Bleu - Executive Music Producer, Jacques Smerlak - Executive Music Producer, Matthieu Bastid - First Assistant Camera, Robert Dona - Grip, Dominique Lepage - Grip, Laurent Thiery - Grip, Kenneth Cornils - Grip, Tim Liehr - Grip, Bruno Dubet - Key Grip, Jean-Marie Vives - Matte Painting Supervisor, Jean Marc Deschamps - Production Supervisor, Edouard Valton - Production Supervisor, Marc Grewe - Production Supervisor, Pascal Roy - Second Assistant Director, Dinah Rauenbusch - Second Assistant Director, Laurent Kossayan - Sound Effects Director, Patrick De Ranter - Steadicam Operator, Bruno Calvo - Still Photographer, Luc Desportes - Storyboard, Thorston Sabel - Assistant Art Director, Petra Klimek - Assistant Art Director, Daniel Kolarov - Assistant Art Director, Dagmar Wessel - Assistant Art Director, Nicolas Davy - Assistant Location Manager, Eric Duchene - Assistant Location Manager, Kerstin Krotz - Assistant Properties, Marilena Cavola Hardy - Assistant Sound Editor, Alexandre Widmer - Dialogue Editor, Olivier Cazzitti - Electrician, Yves Kohen - Electrician, Yvan Quehec - Electrician, Thomas Brügge - Electrician, Vlasta Kostic - Electrician, Andreas Theiner - Electrician, Timo Von Burgsdorf - Electrician, Marc Von Kuk - Electrician, Alberte Garo - Extra Casting, Jean-Pierre Lelong - Foley Artist, Sophie Vermersch - Post Production Assistant, Céline De Seynes - Post Production Assistant, Christophe Perotin - Second Assistant Camera| Amália (2009 Film), Amy, la Niña de la Mochila Azul: En Concierto (2005 Film) | |
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