Director:
Jean-Pierre
Jeunet
Year:
2001
Language:
French
Length:
1
hr 56 mins (116 minutes)
Staring:
Audrey
Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz, Yolande Moreau, Dominique Pinon, Michel
Robin.
Plot:
[Taken from LOVEFiLM]Amelie
Poulain (Audrey Tautou) is a young woman who glides through the
streets of Paris as quietly as a mouse. With wide eyes and a tiny
grin, she sees the world in a magical light, discovering minor
miracles every day. A shy and reserved person whose favorite moments
are spent alone skimming stones into the water, Amelie was raised by
a pair of eccentrics who falsely diagnosed her with a heart problem
at the age of six and so limited her exposure to the outside world.
Now
a free and independent woman, Amelie wears a bob that curls in every
direction and dresses in red. With a job in a cafe and an aptitude
for spying on her neighbors, Amelie entertains herself by enacting a
series of homemade, kindhearted practical jokes. She returns a
long-forgotten box of childhood knickknacks to its proper owner, she
sends her father's garden troll on a trip around the world, and she
creates a love connection at the cafe between the hypochondriac
druggist and a beer-drinking grouch. But when the day is done, Amelie
finds one stone unturned, and decides to work her magic on the quirky
object of her affections, Nino Quincampoix (Matthieu Kassovitz), whom
she has never met.
Review:
It's
witty, its beautiful, its cute, its funny, its sad, its happy, its
perfect. I had no idea what to expect when I started watching this
film, I'd never even heard of it and then it was in French and I had
to read... But, it was absolutely brilliant. The use of colour and
shots was perfect. The plot was odd and, at times, a little hard to
follow, but really came together well at the end.
If
you like French films, you'll like this (and actuall to be perfectly honest, even if you don't like French
films, you'll like this). Its brilliant and completely unlike anything
I'd seen before. If you're looking for something heart-warming,
romantic and funny, yet thought-provoking, watch this. If you're not,
then maybe you should watch it anyway because it's just so fricking good!
The
way the story is told through the unfamiliar child-like mind of
Amalie in that oddly fast-paced and curious way, is phenomenal. The
thing with the gnome and the postcards is absolute beautiful genius. And daaaaamn is she beautiful!
Quotes:
'Amélie:
It's better to help people than garden gnomes.'
Overall
Rating: 5/5
