Amelie - Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain.

--AMELIE--

Amelie or Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain was released in 2001. Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen) and Starring Audrey Tautou (Venus Beauty) Actor and Director, Mathieu Kassovitz, and Dominique Pinon. - French Language Film. - Genre: Drama/Comedy/Romance - BBFC Rating: 15 - Running Time: 122 Minutes.-

Amelie is the story of an introverted and isolated eight year old only child whose father is a Doctor. The beginning of the film is set in Monmartre, Paris in 1973. Whilst doing his monthly health check on Amelie, her father puts the stethoscope to her chest and he hears her heart beating wildly. He quickly surmises that she is suffering from a heart defect. When in fact all that is the matter, is that Amelie gets quite anxious during the examination and this makes her heart beat faster. With the discovery of her 'Heart Problem' her father makes the decision to take her out of school and let her mother, who is a schoolmistress, give their daughter her education at home. This further plunges Amelie into her own little world, full of fantasy and strange imagined scenarios.

She leads a lonely and sheltered existence and is not allowed to play with other children at any time. She withdraws more and more inside herself where she invents in her mind all kinds of strange fantasies. These include ordinary people taking on major importance and strange roles in life. She is highly imaginative, with a fascination of people whom she often studies in great detail. She bides her time skimming pebbles and taking joy from life's small pleasures and cannot wait to grow up and leave her imposed family imprisonment, in exile, in which she has only her suicidal goldfish, Blubber, for company.




When Amelie is grown she sets herself up in a cosy little flat in the centre of town and gets a job as a waitress in the 'Two Windmills Café'. One night, described by Amelie, as that fateful night, it is announced on the television the Princess Diana has died. Amelie is in the bathroom and drops the lid of her toothpaste in shock at the news. As she stoops to pick up the lid she notices a tile that protrudes from the wall further than the others. She pulls it out and reaches into the space behind, where she finds an old rusty tin containing someone's childhood memories which consisted of some old tin cars, cigarette cards and a photo of a young man. There and then Amelie decides to make it her mission in life to find the owner of the tin who lived in her flat 40 years previously. She sees it as a great adventure and also the fact that she would be performing an act of kindness in reconciling the owner, with his beloved tin full of childhood memories. -

Amelie's mother had died when a woman threw herself from a high building and she was completely flattened by the falling tourist; consequently her father now lives alone in the family house. He has become very absorbed with a huge, colourful garden gnome that he was presented with on his retirement from the Spa. He polishes it and admires it constantly; as it had been kept in the garden shed his whole married life as his wife couldn't stand the sight of it. Amelie sees her father's enjoyment of life slipping slowly away, without any real joy or pleasure being gained from it. She tells him he should travel the world. Something he had always wanted to do. But he drags his heels and watches the clock. Amelie, however has great plans for the garden gnome which just might lift her father out of his lethargic rut. -

Amelie is a quaint and charming French film. A modern day fairy tale if you like. A fable; a film with a moral. It is set in the atmospheric quarter of Monmartre and it is full of wonderful studied characters. Amelie cuts an odd figure with her willowy body set off by a stark short haircut to her black hair and huge black clumpy boots upon her feet. Her brown eyes are large, bewildered and doe like as she watches and invents imaginary lives for the ordinary people that she studies. This is a strange little film that improves by the second and fast draws you in to its fantasy environment. This basically is a tale of a cross section of people who Amelie comes into contact with and there is an element of doing 'good unto others' and 'bad unto the bad'. Her life and decisions affects the actions of others, as she plots revenge against the unjust and heals and helps people that she thinks are in need. There is a comedy thread running through the film, gentle comedy which works brilliantly. The thing that really stood out for me, apart from the excellent, original storyline was the character studies which seal the deal with this film. French films always get this right and I find them a joy to watch because of this attention to fine detail within the characters.

Amelie is narrated throughout in the form of a fairy tale with a male voice which is full of enchantment and anticipation as to what the unpredictable Amelie will do next. The moral and message here is time and movement of time. There is much reference visually and spoken about time moving on and lives going quickly. There are huge clocks ticking and small alarm clocks ringing and many images of the clock faces throughout, basically, the film is telling us that life is short and to grab each adventure and every experience without fear or compromise and in Amelie's case, don't let the man that you love never know that fact because you are too shy and scared to tell him. It is definitely a 'Feel good' film and after watching I was left with a warm glow. At first I nearly gave up on it. Don't! Because within minutes it 'will' hold your attention. Obviously the director had to create the atmosphere and set the scene before plunging us into a very unusual film and create it he did, wonderfully. Hugely atmospheric that it took me straight into the very core of the film. There is a lot of attention to the various characters and why they are as they are which brings an all rounded feel and a good basis for understanding what the film is portraying.

Amelie is a nigh on perfect film. Lovingly assembled and a carefully woven tapestry of life, and I found it totally enchanting! The casting was wonderful and the performances were superb. The music and cinematography were excellent. Amelie is a beautifully shot modern day fairytale. A breathtaking voyage into a delightfully French tale of doing good unto others. An uplifting and beautiful film about the people whose lives were saved from despair by a shy and compassionate girl called Amelie.-

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