I must thank Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Audrey Tautou for gifting all dreamers the ultimate comfort movie. This movie defines dreamers and how hard sometimes it can be to actually be present in the real world but to take that one step into risky territory, can be so rewarding.
Amelie is the story of Amélie Poulain, a young woman working at a cafe in France. She lives a simple life but yearns to pleasure every moment of her life. But when she discovers a secret box hidden in her apartment, her life changes. She tries to do good until she discovers the ultimate chance to do good. With the added chance of falling in love.
Amelie is every person who’s afraid of going outside their comfort zone. So often they try but get reminded why a comfort zone exsist. Which is why they stay in them. I mean I can speak from experience and I think many can. We try and be ourselves in front of people but we’re reminded every so often that the world can be scary. I mean this is sort of personified in a scene where we have a young Amelie and her father.
Her father is giving her a monthly check up and he’s holding a stethoscope towards young Amelie’s heart. Like every young person, and to be quite frank every person whatever the age, cherish the hug of their parents but Amelie’s father is quite stoic and hardly gives her any hugs. So any moment her father touches her for the check up, it sets of her heart to beat like a drum. Her father then deduces that she has a heart problem.
Okay, I’ll admit maybe that part of my analysis is me looking into it a bit more than I should. Or I’m projecting a bit of myself a bit too much into the Amelie’s character. I’ll say though, one of the reasons why films are so great is that we’re given the chance to see ourselves in multiple differnt charcters. In fact I’ll make that a question at the end of the post.
But back to the analysis, hehe.
The film’s whimsical nature is another great structure. The film’s main theme is to live life to the fullest. So much of the film do we see Amelie try and break out of her shell to enjoy life but she doesn’t get too due to getting cold feet. A bit of spoilery talk (i’ll watch my tounge) but towards the end of the film, there’s a moment where Amelie is quite close to the moment of falling in love but she gets shy and then rejects it. Why do we shy people reject potential joy?
But another thing the film does is that it takes some of the darkest subjects of life and tells it in the most hilarious and whimsial way. The musical score does benefit this and the screenplay. Guillaume Laurant did an amazing job writing such amazing jokes whilst teaching great life lessons.
One of the films greatest moments is when Amelie notices a fruit and vegtable vendor being rude to his assistant. The vendor notices his assistant marveling at the structures of differnt vegtables and the vendor rebukes him for being a useless assistant. Amelie is angered by this but then she turns around and notices a man behind a window coming up with a brilliant burn for the vendor owner “At least you’ll never be a vegetable. Even artichokes have hearts”. That taught Collingnon a lesson.
Another strong point of the film is the lead. Audrey Tautou.
A brilliant piece of casting, despite not knowing anything of her work (this is the only film I’ve seen of hers). She brings chidlike senisbilites that were meant for the character. She kickstarts the whimsical energy the film has and makes the film well work. The mannerisms and the way she speaks as Amelie is beautiful. She managed to make everyone feel comfortable with being introverted (at least I did, thanks Audery). She was the perfect person to play the role.
The film also has an amazing supporting cast. Mathieu Kassovitz gives us the charming Nino who may or may not be Amelie’s match. The misfits that are the regulars in the cafe and the cafe staff. Jamel Debbouze who’s Lucien and also happens to be the perfect friend for Amelie. Plus, there’s Serge Merlin as the strange and eccentric Raymond Dufayel who lives in the same appartment as Amelie (also kind of reminds me of Amitabh Bachchan). They all make their characters memorable.
The greatest thing about this film though, is the films direction. It’s an incredible achievment. Jean-Pierre Jeunet takes the challange of making introverted characters the most enetertaining and delightful thing for audiences to watch. You would think a film about two shy people falling in love an interesting thing but in fact its the most metaphorical warmest hug you could receive from a film.
So to summarise, the film delves into the whimsical/delightful nature of two ecentric character. It talks about stepping out of your comfort zone and giving something a chance. It has a wonderful lead performance and great direction.
The film is perfect for dreamers, you’ll love it.
Amazing movie review as always Adil!! Love how immersive you get into the film and in turn make me add to my (very, very long) watchlist hehe 😭