Amelie (2001)

She'll change your life.

This is a wonderful film, a romantic comedy but not a genre film, set in the world of comic Jeunet grotesques (cf. Delicatessen, City of Lost Children).

The character of Amelie is something of a grotesque too, but made mainstream (= commercial) by the actor Audrey Tatou's personal charm and good looks, which provides a relatively normal access point, or point of view (POV), for the viewer. Switch Tatou for a less winsome, odder-looking young woman, and Amelie would be more unavoidably an eccentric amongst grotesques.

The stakes couldn't be higher. From the beginning, we are shown that Amelie is a young woman whose character has been been formed by an unusual childhood, which has given her an eccentric outlook on the world. As an adult, she now occupies a world of eccentrics, none of whom has been able to fully realise themselves, each one compromised by some flaw or circumstance. And we understand that Amelie herself is ultimately in terrible jeopardy, for unless something or someone changes the course of her future, she will share her neighbours' bleak fate, becoming like them a disappointed or embittered or damaged grotesque.

In many respects, Amelie is a modern version of Jane Austen's Emma: busy making matches between lonely people, and trying to bring hope and /or happiness to sad people, but reluctant to risk reaching out to seize happiness for herself. She is good at clever "schemes" but always at a distance, anonymously.

Jeunet uses every trick in the book to keep things fresh and surprising and delightful: ironic voice over, magic realism, breaking the fourth wall with direct looks and performances to the audience, speeding up sequences.

There is a wonderful mystery involving photo booths, like one of those logic problems people used to tease you with.

The sub-textual values of the film are to be cherished: art for art's delightful sake rather than commercial gain, although that message may be slightly ironic given the film's strong commercial appeal.

• Rating: Exceptional
• When seen: 03 Feb 2011
• Where seen: Home
• More information: IMDB | RottenTomatoes | Wikipedia

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Amendments: Added writer tag: "Guillaume Laurant"; actor tags: "Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus, Claire Maurier, Isabelle Nanty, Dominique Pinon, Serge Merlin, Jamel Debbouze". Removed link to Wikipedia-sourced image. Added ranking image.