Amélie

Co-written with Guillaume Laurant by its director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the film stars:

• Audrey Tautou[?] - Amélie Poulain
• Mathieu Kassovitz[?] - Nino Quincampoix
• Rufus[?] - Raphaël Poulain, Amélie's father
• Yolande Moreau[?] - Madeleine Wallace, the concierge
• Arthus de Penguern[?] - Hipolito, the writer
• Urbain Cancelier[?] - Collignon, the grocer

The film was distributed[?] in the United States by Miramax and released in November 2001.

Amélie is the story about a girl who grows up isolated from other children. Her mother dies when she is young. Her father, a doctor, never hugs her. He only touches her to check on her heart, and this rare thrill causes her heart to race. As a result, her father believes she has a heart condition and keeps her away from other children while she grows up. Left to amuse herself, she develops an unusually active imagination.

Amélie grows up and becomes a waitress in a small Montmartre café run by a former circus performer. By age 22, life for Amélie is simple. She enjoys small pleasures like cracking crème brûlées with a teaspoon, going for walks in the Paris sunshine observing people, skipping stones across St. Martin's Canal, and letting her imagination roam free. One day, behind a loose bathroom tile she finds an old metal box of childhood memorabilia hidden by a boy who lived in her apartment decades past. She resolves to track down the now-grownup man who put it there and return it to him. If she finds him and it makes him glad, she will devote her life to goodness; if not, too bad.

After a bit of detective work she tracks him down—Bretodeau (not Bredoteau)—and places the box in a phone booth. When he passes by, she rings the number to get him into the booth. He opens the box and has an epiphany as long-forgotten childhood memories come flooding back. She trails him to a nearby bar and observes him but does not reveal herself. When she sees the positive effect she had on him, she resolves from that moment on to do good in the life of other people, including her father, her co-workers, the concierge of her building, and Lucien, the boy who works at the neighborhood vegetable stand.

But while she's looking after others, who's looking after Amélie?

The film was a critical and box office success, gaining wide play internationally as well. It was nominated for five Academy Awards:

• Best Art Direction, Aline Bonetto (art director), Marie-Laure Valla (set decorator)
• Best Cinematography, Bruno Delbonnel
• Best Foreign Language Film, France
• Best Original Screenplay, Guillaume Laurant, Jean-Pierre Jeunet
• Best Sound, Vincent Arnardi, Guillaume Leriche, Jean Umansky

In 2002, in France, it won the Cesar Award for:

• Best Film
• Best Director
• Best Music
• Best Art Direction

Tagline: "Elle va te changer la vie..." (She'll change your life...)

External Links

• Amélie movie website (http://www.amelie-themovie.com/) (English)
• Amélie movie website (http://www.amelie-lefilm.com/) (French)
• Critics' Reviews of Amélie (http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/amelie/)
• IMDB - Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (http://www.imdb.com/Title?0211915)