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 AMELIE
(2001)
(Le Fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain)
A review by Jeff Johnson
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Leading Cast Members:
Audrey Tautou…Amélie Poulain
Mathieu Kassovitz…Nino Quincampoix
Rufus…Raphael Poulain
etc
Life rarely behaves like "the movies." It's often fickle, clever and
lacks a clean three-act structure.
It's the rare film that mirrors the troubles and triumphs of existence.
The rare film that revels in the simple inexplicable; the hidden moments
that act as an engulfing patchwork.
Amelie is such a film.
In a powerful use of cinematic storytelling, Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet
(his cast and crew) has created a film that dares to celebrate the exquisite
elegance of destiny. Yet, not some free carnival-ride destiny that one
jumps on and rides out glibly. No, Amelie presents a three-dimensional
destiny that arrives unexpectedly, acts surprisingly and waits only a
sliver for you to grab hold and ride; always with a degree of risk.
Audrey Tautou is exuberant as Amelie, a sort of 21st Century "It" girl:
"She's a ripping sort really, she's absolutely heavy with "it".
- It (1927)
Tautou fills the screen with eyes, sweetness and a healthy dose of genuine
mischievousness. She breathes life into the screen and infuses the story
with personality and charm. She creates a character that one could easily
fall in love with, were "the movies" only real life.
A shy dreamer, Amelie sets about affecting others through anonymous acts
of kindness. And, while acting on her new found self-appointed destiny,
exerts her presence in a world accustomed to overlooking the shy and the
little, little things. However, her selflessness soon reveals itself as
a selfish desire to hide and refuse to face the perils of personal change.
This is soon altered though thanks to fate and some well placed advice
that leads Amelie to open her eyes and seize a fleeting instant.
Her friends, family and those at the bar where Amelie works are interesting
and entertaining characters, played to perfection by the supporting cast,
that make the viewer want to stay with them long after the film has finished.
Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, Alien Resurrection
and City of Lost Children) has a well deserved reputation for originality
and visual brilliance. With Amelie he continues form by swirling
an unobtrusive use of the camera and shards of the conventions of cinema
to tell the story. The screen pops with imaginative eye-tickling surprises
and offers a portrait of Paris' Montmartre district in all of it's widescreen
twisted street beauty.
Acting as a sugary liquid thread, the music of Yann Tiersen accentuates,
elevates and taps the emotions of the motions and the movements of the
moments inside the life presented in Amelie. In a terrific fusion,
Tiersen's music clearly represents the character of Amelie, deftly playing
off her child-like whimsy, her sharp fiery motivation as well as her love-struck
grief.
It is often said that one should appreciate the little things in life.
Yet, the film Amelie declares, in the breezy melody that is French,
that in fact life itself is only a collection of little things; seconds
to go right or left, glances to return or rebuff, hands to hold, happy
minutes vs. the sad, destiny's to claim or pass. The ripples we create
with the blink of an eye that wash up at the top of each others feet.
I must say that I can't help but wish that life were like "the movies";
I'd be better looking, witty, have faults that were fixable in two hours
and would fall into bed with a raven haired beauty in the time it took
to write this review. Ridiculous? Yes. Yet, I must admit that a tiny fragment
of the joy, wonderment, curiousity and heart contained in the film Amelie
did leak out of the screen, snuck into my pocket and came home with me.
A tiny, tiny fragment that continues to celebrate the little, little things
in a very real, real life.
30 January 2002
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