Amélie From Montmarte
Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain
dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet
France, 2001 - 116
Amélie is 22 and lives in Montmartre, a Paris quarter that seems to be a world unto itself. She waits tables in a local bistro, on the corner there is a small vegetable shop and the neighbours greet themselves as if they lived in a small town. There is nothing very interesting in her life. Amélie would probably accept her sad existence but once - on the day of Lady Di's death - she finds in her apartment a secret compartment in which there is an old box with the keepsakes from the childhood of the previous tenant. The girl decides to find the box's owner and give him back the long-lost things. She realises that she could change the world: give comfort to the sad and the hurt, fix up couples that are made for each other, punish mean people. One day she meets a guy who collects passport photos abandoned by the photo booths at underground stations and she falls in love. His name is Nino, but a lot of time will pass before she gets to know him, and even more before she allows him to enter her world...
This is a fresh, funny, bittersweet and a bit melancholy story. The films of Jean-Pierre Jeunet are picturesque, witty and full of distinguished aesthetics, and here the same can be said, but the film is not as dark as the previous ones.
It is a story about happiness, dreams and Amélie Poulain's unique destiny. "You should be happy if only to set an example," one line goes.
The film was awarded first prize at the Karlovy Vary Festival and the public in France was simply crazy about it.
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