Amélie (2001)

User Review

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  TheMovieDiorama

  8 / 10

  Amelie is a French quirky character study and love story. I use the word quirky heavily because everything about this film is just full of quirks and idiosyncrasies. Our lead character, Amelie, bumbles along life with no cares or worries as she attempts to help other people and make them happy. Whilst doing so, she comes across a man who loses a photo album of pictures of strangers and starts to fall in love with him. I absolutely adored Amelie as a character, she was humble, kind and yet strangely relatable. Her lack in confidence contrasted with her smart intellectual wit that reminded me of an evil genius at work, particularly when she is pranking the grocer by making him seen psychotic. It's the little things y'know, like she collects these smooth pebbles throughout the day so that she can skim them across a canal in the evening...small details but it really lingers with us. Audrey Tautou did a beautiful job here, it was a delicate role but her beauty just captivated me. The stand out though is director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. So many different techniques that just enhance the quirkiness of the film. It's a visual direction considering that Amelie does not actually say that much in the film, the visual storytelling carried the whole film and it worked for me. I loved the use of direct address, when the character looks at the camera and talks to us, it's such a good technique for keeping the viewer involved. I liked the introductions to each character, we acknowledge their likes and dislikes straight away which really gives a sense of personality for each one. The script was good, for the most part, it was concise and full of witty comedic lines. The plot is essentially a love story, but it does lose focus on this occasionally in the second act but does get back on track in the last act. It might be too nice and happy for some viewers, but if you are wanting romance with memorable characters and full of quirky idiosyncrasies then definitely check this out.

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