However she does not carry "Amelie" solely by herself. I am a bit embarrassed admitting it but I was almost falling in love with Amelie myself, forgetting she was only fiction on the screen. Audrey Tautou could not be overemphasized for her importance in portraying Amelie. For you who think you never heard of him before he is actually the same man who brought us "Alien 4" back in 1997, (I still refuse to believe he was involved in that horrible film.), and the wonderful "Delicatessen" in 1991.
CAFE AMELIE MOVIE
It is exactly this kind of movie that could easily be overdone and lose all of its magic in the hands of the wrong person, but Jean-Pierre Jeunet never slips a single time. Jean-Pierre Jeunet manages to bring us along without losing control of the set or the plot. She just happens to fall in love one day when she decides to embark on a quest. Some people I spoke to before seeing "Amelie" criticized it for being too childish and unrealistic, but I believe it is an essential part of the movie since Amelie herself is a very childish and imaginative young girl. Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet brings to life the world of Amelie with colors, masterful camerawork and a few special effects (Well, I have certainly felt like melting a couple of times too in my life!). We get to see and experience the world and especially Paris through the filtering eyes and fantasy of Amelie, A Paris that might feel small and limited on the screen but in fact is just as big as it is in the eyes of Amelie. I do not know any French at all, but I sure wish I was fluent watching this movie! Compared to most other films "Amelie" (and I will stick to "Amelie" since "Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain" is a bit long to write) is based on a rather ordinary and plain story everyone can relate to, but it is given to us in a very special kind of way, mixed with wonderful little subplots and an almost chaotic amount of details. Sad to say so, but I believe it is the truth.
CAFE AMELIE FULL
Subtitles just does not bring full justice to a movie like this, and it is bound to scare off most of the audience not used to subtitled movies.
This movies biggest crime, and yet its biggest asset, is that it is in French.
CAFE AMELIE TV
Eventually I did get around to see it, though a small TV never does a film the same justice a theater does, and being a bit sceptic about the small hype this movie caused made me prejudice about it, but I must say I have never been so wrong before. Sitting here, long after in the aftermath, I might never forgive myself for missing that opportunity. To start off with, I heard a lot of good things about this movie when it was on the big screens but never got around to see it before it disappeared. In short 'Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain' is charming, funny, romantic bright and full of life. In a way her character is really doing that here so it does not feel strange.
She looks like she just pulled a joke and she is waiting for you to find out what it is. She has one of those faces that seem to smile the entire time. In this world, Paris actually, Audrey Tautou is the perfect inhabitant.
Even the sad parts from Amélie's life, her youth for example, look almost strangely happy. The movie looks colorful and bright almost constantly. The story is not only sweet and charming, it has some great moments of comedy as well. There is a little mystery in the book as well, of course I will not spoil that for you. He puts all those photos and pieces of photos in a big book. Photos that were tossed away because people thought they didn't look good enough. On the way she falls in love with Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz) who's hobby it is to collect photos from automatic photo booths. She helps her father by making him believe that his gnome from the garden is on a trip around the world, she helps a lonely neighbor by just visiting him, she helps a stranger by returning something she found in her home. Not by doing great big things or giving money, but by little things. We have a wonderful story about Amélie who decides to help people around her, making them happy. The story about Amélie (Audrey Tautou) is a modern day fairy tale and that is exactly how it looks the entire film. 'Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain' finds its charm in the little things.