Amelie

Jean-Pierre Jeunet continues to impress me. The first I saw of his was Micmacs…then City of Lost Children, and now Amelie.
I think Amelie is probably his most widely known film, and it’s fairly new…2001.
It’s about a girl named Amelie, surprise surprise, who had a very antisocial life growing up, lacking a lot of human contact.
Now, she’s older, single, a little lost, but thoroughly enjoying the small things in life.
She’s almost nauseatingly nice…like, really…I’m not sure it’s possible. Her first act of kindness, that we witness, is her tracking down and anonymously returning a childhood keepsake of a middle-aged man that used to live in her apartment. I think his overwhelming reaction kinda inspired her, and she continued to help people out and match people up anonymously.
One day she finds this scrapbook, full of different pictures of people from photo booths that had been torn up and reassembled. She sets out to find the person its belongs to, however, she plans on having a little bit of fun on the way…as she is now genuinely intrigued by this guy, due to the strange nature of the scrapbook she found. While browsing the scrapbook, she finds pictures of the same man repeated many times throughout the book, and the mystery man of the photos consumes her just as much as finding the scrapbooks owner does. Eventually, she uncovers the secret of both the man in the photos and the scrapbooks owner…and conjures up a plan to have them discover each other…well, the scrapbook man discover who the man in the photo’s is…the other half of this reunion is completely unaware that anything is happening.
As Amelie is concentrated on playing games with everyone else, she frequently visits her neighbor for talks that eventually help HER figure herself out. Her neighbor is working on a painting the entire time…one that he’s painted multiple times before, only…he can never get the face of the girl with the water right. He can never figure out her expression. As her visits increase, we assume that the girl with the water represents Amelie, and in Amelie trying to help him with her expression, she simultaneously discusses and discovers herself.
So far, every single movie of Jean-Pierre Jeunets that I have seen, has been beautifully shot, and this one is no exception! I always think it’s a pity that I have to concentrate on the subtitles as much as I do because it takes away from the visual. As with the City of Lost Children, I’ll probably end up watching it again, just to take in the visuals more…
The acting was good…nothing fantastic I didn’t think. Amelie as a character was very interesting, and I don’t think I’ve ever felt as uneasy and uncomfortable about a character that was essentially the poster child for a “good person”. It was kind of strange.
It was easy going, it was cute…I enjoyed it thoroughly (:

8.6/10