Amelie is cute. Amelie is pretty and Amelie will change your life forever!
But who’s Amelie?
Amelie Poulain, the character of the film Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le, is French director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s creation.
Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le aka Amelie (English title), is a refreshing story of a sweet and naïve girl called Amelie Poulain.
Amelie is looking for love, and perhaps for the meaning of life in general.
She grows up in a slightly abnormal family. Her mother and father are two extreme poles. Amelie has no siblings. Her loneliness makes her more imaginative than the other kids of her age. After her mother’s death, Amelie becomes lonelier. She moves to central Paris and takes up a job as a waitress.
What happens with Amelie in Paris?
Once a very interesting event takes place in Amelie’s life - she finds a small box and that changes her entire outlook towards life and gives her a purpose in life. I wouldn’t reveal more about the ‘interesting event’ because it is cute and you must watch it for yourself.
Post the turning point, Amelie is a changed person. She starts interacting curiously with her neighbors and customers at the cafe, as well as a mysterious young man who collects discarded photo booth pictures. Little by little, Amelie realizes that the way to happiness requires her to take her own initiative and reach out to others.
Amelie tries to enrich the lives of those around her by weaving her special brand of mischievous magic. She befriends a neighbor who's a recluse and plays pranks on other neighbors, steals her father’s garden gnome and sets her colleague up with another colleague’s distressed boyfriend!
Who plays Amelie?
Here’s the clue:
Band Brand New has song named after her, titled 'Tautou' featured on their album Deja Entendu.
She ranked No. 29 in Stuff magazine's ''102 Sexiest Women in the World'' in 2002
And… she wasn’t the original choice for the character of the wonderful ''Amelie Poulain''!
No prizes for guessing that French actress Audrey Tautou’s natural acting landed her the the role of Amelie and she fitted the character to ‘T’.
As I told you earlier, Audrey wasn’t the original choice for the role. British actress Emily Watson was the director’s first choice but she dropped out of the project. Interestingly, director, Jean Pierre Jeunet cast Audrey after seeing her on a billboard of her movie Vénus beauté (institut) in Paris near his home in Bastille.
Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le was phenomenally successful worldwide!
Who’s the director?
Jean-Pierre Jeunet began his career by directing TV commercials and video clips.
He has created some amazing short films like Manège, Le, Évasion, L, Bunker de la dernière rafale, Le, Foutaises, etc. All of these films have won accolades not only in France but also overseas.
In 1991, Jeunet, along with partner, Caro took their first steps in a feature movie: Delicatessen. It was such a success that it won 4 Césars including the awards for the best new directors and the best scenario.
After almost 10 years later, he came back with the film - Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Le starring Audrey Tautou and Mathieu Kassovitz. With this movie Jeunet made the biggest worldwide success of French cinema history. A real good cinema, which won innumerable awards in the whole world.
I was so impressed by this director’s work that I did a proper research on him! The first-ever cinema that I saw of this director was Audrey’s second movie with him, i.e., Un long dimanche de fiançailles aka A very long engagement! Trust me, it is beautiful film, beautifully shot, amazing storyline and awesome acting. Each and every single frame of this film is like a gorgeous Spanish painting, waiting to be ogled at. Please watch this film. Please it is a request!
Coming back to Amelie, if you want reasons why you should go and watch it, I can give you at least a hundred of them. Apart from the regular Jeunet’s expertise in great storyline, beautiful picturisation and awesome acting by his actors, what interested me the most was the characterization in this film. Each and every character is so well defined and is so important to the story. You will see Amelie dealing with various characters from a fragile looking recluse painter to her colleague’s usless & over possessive boyfriend to a discarded photo collector to a blabbering neighbour to a self conscious colleague. I really enjoyed the subplots a lot that are told in a subtle way.
There is also a very innovative and interesting thing he is done in the film. Whenever he (director) introduces a new character, a voiceover tells us some unique things about the character. Like when Amelie’s pet fish, Blubber is introduced, the narrator says, ‘Amelie has one friend, Blubber. Alas the home environment has made Blubber suicidal’. And blubber jumps out of the fish bowl in an attempt at suicide!
I also loved the introduction of Amelie where the narrator says, ‘On September 3rd 1973, at 6:28pm and 32 seconds, a bluebottle fly capable of 14,670 wing beats a minute landed on Rue St Vincent, Montmartre. At the same moment, on a restaurant terrace nearby, the wind magically made two glasses dance unseen on a tablecloth. Meanwhile, in a 5th-floor flat, 28 Avenue Trudaine, Paris 9, returning from his best friend's funeral, Eugène Colère erased his name from his address book. At the same moment, a sperm with one X chromosome, belonging to Raphaël Poulain, made a dash for an egg in his wife Amandine. Nine months later, Amélie Poulain was born’!
Another humourous thing about the film is that Amélie Poulain keeps watching the tragedy of her life on TV. At times she sees herself as Mother Teresa, spreading the message of love and helping the downtrodden and at times she imagines herself to be Lady Diana and watches her own funeral on TV and loves the fact that the entire world is mourning her death.
Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain has its own rhythm driving the story forward. The story is told with time and not against time. There is no last minute surprises, character changes or pressures. It just takes its time as life does.
If you are still looking for reasons to watch this film, well, it was nominated for 5 Oscars and has already won over 49 National and International awards.
So, you still need a reason?
