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Amélie (original title: Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, "The fabulous destiny of Amélie Poulain") is a French romantic comedy released in 2001. In English, it was officially released as Amélie from Montmartre. The tagline was "She'll change your life..." (French: "Elle va te changer la vie...").
Co-written with Guillaume Laurant by its director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the film stars:
The film was distributed in the United States by Miramax and released in November 2001. It features found art.
The movie largely draws on the attraction of the touristic parts of Paris (Montmartre) in which most of it takes place, in a somewhat unrealistic depiction of contemporary Parisian life.
Synopsis
Amélie is the story about a girl who grows up isolated from other children. Her mother dies when she is young. Her father, a doctor, never hugs her. He only touches her to check on her heart, and this rare thrill causes her heart to race. As a result, her father believes she has a heart condition and keeps her away from other children while she grows up. Left to amuse herself, she develops an unusually active imagination.
Amélie grows up and becomes a waitress in a small Montmartre café run by a former circus performer. By age 22, life for Amélie is simple. She enjoys small pleasures like cracking crème brûlées with a teaspoon, going for walks in the Paris sunshine observing people, skipping stones across St. Martin's Canal, and letting her imagination roam free. One day, behind a loose bathroom tile she finds an old metal box of childhood memorabilia hidden by a boy who lived in her apartment decades past. She resolves to track down the now-grownup man who put it there and return it to him. If she finds him and it makes him glad, she will devote her life to goodness; if not, too bad.
After a bit of detective work she tracks him down—Bretodeau (not Bredoteau)—and places the box in a phone booth. When he passes by, she rings the number to get him into the booth. He opens the box and has an epiphany as long-forgotten childhood memories come flooding back. She trails him to a nearby bar and observes him but does not reveal herself. When she sees the positive effect she had on him, she resolves from that moment on to do good in the life of other people, including her father, her co-workers, the concierge of her building, and Lucien, the boy who works at the neighborhood vegetable stand.
But while she's looking after others, who's looking after Amélie?
Criticism
While a large critical and commercial success, the movie was attacked by critics such as Serge Kaganski of les Inrockuptibles for its depiction of a largely unrealistic and picturesque vision of contemporary French society, a postcard universe of a bygone France with few people from ethnic minorities — some kind of latent lepénisme. [1] (http://www.chez.com/dubreucq/amelie/presse/presse.html#Lib%E93)
Others, like David Martin-Castelnau and Guillaume Bigot, contended that such criticism was unwarranted and was rather the sign of a sick contempt of some of the "elite" for the common people represented in the movie. [2] (http://www.chez.com/dubreucq/amelie/presse/presse.html#Lib%E92)
Awards
The film was a critical and box office success, gaining wide play internationally as well. It was nominated for five Academy Awards:
In 2002, in France, it won the César Award for:
Related topics
External links
ast:Amélie
de:Die fabelhafte Welt der Amelie
es:Amélie
fr:Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain
ja:アメリ
pl:Amelia (film)
sv:Amelie från Montmartre
zh:天使愛美麗
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