a film by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Amélie Poulain is a girl who grows up isolated from other children. Raphaël, her father, a taciturn and anti-social ex-Army doctor, mistakenly believes that she suffers from a heart condition. Her mother Amandine, a neurotic schoolteacher, arranges Amélie's education at home. After her mother's sudden death, Raphaël withdraws even further and devotes his life to building a rather unusual shrine in the garden in Amandine's memory, which houses her ashes and a garden gnome the deceased had previously banished to the shed. Left to amuse herself, Amélie develops an unusually active and eccentric imagination.
As a young woman, she lives in Montmartre, working as a waitress at the Café des deux Moulins on rue Lepic, staffed and frequented by a group of eccentrics. Having spurned all romantic relationships following several failed attempts, at the age of twenty-two Amélie has devoted herself to simple pleasures, such as dipping her hand into sacks of grain, cracking crème brûlée with a teaspoon, skipping stones across a lock on the Canal Saint-Martin, and generally letting her imagination roam free.
On the day that Princess Diana dies, Amélie's life begins to change. While watching the news on television she drops the top of her perfume bottle, knocking loose a bathroom wall tile and revealing an old metal box of childhood memorabilia hidden by a boy who lived in her apartment decades ago. Fascinated by the find, she resolves to track down the now-grown man who put it there and return it to him. She meets her reclusive neighbour, Raymond Dufayel, known as 'The Glass Man' because of his brittle bone condition, who continually repaints Renoir's Le déjeuner des canotiers. With his help, she tracks down the former occupant and anonymously returns the box to him. Upon opening the box, the man is moved to tears as long-forgotten childhood memories come flooding back. On seeing the positive effect she had on him she discovers her true vocation in life, resolving from that moment on to do good in the lives of others.
Amélie becomes a secret matchmaker and guardian angel, executing complex but hidden schemes impacting the lives of those around her with subtle, arm's-length manipulation. She escorts a blind man to the métro station, giving him a rich description of the street scenes he passes. She persuades her father to follow his dream of touring the world by stealing his garden gnome and having an air-hostess friend send pictures of it from all over the world. She matches a colleague with one of the customers at the café. She convinces the unhappy concierge of her building that the husband who abandoned her had in fact sent her a final love letter just before his death. She supports Lucien, the young man who works for Monsieur Collignon, the bullying owner of the neighbourhood épicerie, undermining his confidence by playing practical jokes on him until he questions his own sanity.
But as Amélie devotes her life to others, she is also disregarding her own needs and thus damaging her personal quest for true love. However, Monsieur Dufayel is observing her and begins a conversation with her about his painting of the Renoir scene, which he has repeatedly painted because he cannot quite capture the excluded look of the girl drinking a glass of water. Together they discuss in depth the meaning of this character who comes to represent Amélie and her lonely life. Through their discussions Amélie is forced to examine her own life and her attraction to a stranger, a quirky young man who collects the discarded photographs of others from passport photo booths. She begins to observe Nino from a distance and when he loses his photo album Amélie recovers it, devising a cat and mouse game with him around Montmartre to anonymously return his treasured album. However, she is too shy to actually approach him and almost loses hope when, having finally attempted to orchestrate a proper meeting in the café, she misinterprets events when he enters into a conversation with one of her colleagues. It takes Raymond Dufayel's insightful friendship to give her the courage to overcome her shyness and finally meet with Nino in order to find the love she has always dreamed of.
One of the most successful films of French cinema. A masterpiece of outstanding cinematography and special effects which combines perfect craftsmanship with a wonderful story, humour and emotion, plus a magnificent score by Yann Tiersen.
No comments:
Post a Comment