DVD review - Amelie

Do you hear that? Yes, it's a piano accordian! What can I say about this movie that I adore so much other than whenever I'm feeling down, it always cheers me up. It is one of THE definitive feel-good movies, it radiates so much love and joie de vivre that it makes me want to go out and be kinder to random strangers. But now, let's examine why Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (aka Amélie) is such a great movie.

Firstly, there's the plot. Amélie is a young woman in her 20s who grew up largely without many companions as she was home-schooled, and without much overt affection from her parents. Overcome with shock at the news of Princess Diana's death, Amélie accidentally dislodges a tile in her Paris apartment, and discovers a box full of mementos from the 1950s. After anonymously returning the box to its former owner and seeing how much joy it brings him, Amélie decides to continue doing selfless deeds for the people around her. The notion that even the smallest gestures can bring so much happiness - e.g. when she guides the blind man around Montmartre - it may be a hackneyed message, but its a message that stands true. But while she's making other people feel good, it is done in an indirect way and when she finds herself attracted to another oddball dreamer, Nino Quincompoix (left), she doesn't have the confidence to approach him directly...and so the people around her attempt to solve that problem.

The film could have gone so wrong without the brilliant acting of Audrey Tautou. She brings to the role of Amélie so much wide-eyed innocence and joy, but also bottled rage whenever she sees Lucien, the mentally disabled grocer's assistant, being abused by his boss, and uncertainty and melancholy when it comes to Nino. Her acting stops the film from becoming to saccharine with the flashes of anger, slyness, and mischief. But it's not a one-person show. Matthieu Kassovitz (right) is just as brilliant at showing his Nino's happy-go-lucky personality and confusion at Amélie's actions. The various local people and the staff and customers at the café Amélie works at, Les Deux Moulins, especially Georgette the hypochondriac and Joseph the freak are absolutely brilliant in small roles that are essentially there for comic relief or deus ex machina. But that's not a complaint, if anything it just makes Amélie even more charming!

Thirdly, there's the cinematography. Watching the earlier works of Jean-Pierre Jeunet, such as Delicatessen or Alien Resurrection, it's hard to believe that they came from the same director. Amélie has a wonderful, dreamy atmosphere mostly achieved by limiting the colour palette to red and green with splashes of yellow and blue. The camera work adds to the charm by zooming around characters to indicate their (sometimes literal) direction of though, often producing shots that can be bizarre but also touching. One of my favourite shots is when we are told the cat enjoys listening to children's stories, the accompanying camera shot is from behind the cat's head showing him facing a trio of family members, his whiskers and ears twitching as he listens to the story the father is telling. Wonderful.

This is not to say the film is perfect. Sometimes I think at 122 minutes, especially when I'm watching late at night, that Jeunet could have cut some of the scenes of Amélie's games with Nino or made others shorter. The colour scheme can be quite jarring on the eyes although you get used to it. In addition, the film is largely set in Montmartre, an area of Paris, while visually charming, in reality is covered in graffiti and quite dangerous. Apart from the local blind man and a beggar in one of the Métro stations, this is not conveyed in the movie - knowledge that can make you cynical of the onscreen occurrences. There's only one piece of graffiti in the film - a line from a failed writer's manuscript is painted on a wall and after the writer reads it, he takes a little skip.

Good deeds to the people around us, two hearts that beat as one, Paris as the most romantic city in the world, Amélie is a sweet little film that everyone should watch. And at the end, I hope you all love it as much as I do and walk away feeling that there's still a bit of goodness and innocence left in the world.
9/10