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Amélie (Audrey Tautou) is a waitress
in a Montmartre café. She is shy and oddly elf-like.
She has had a miserable childhood, growing up
starved of affection. Her father, a doctor, never hugs or kisses
her. Her mother dies when she is hit by a suicide who has jumped
off the top of the Cathedral of Notre Dame.
The death of Princess Diana changes her life.
The news causes Amelie to drop a bottle top, which rather improbably
losens a tile in the wall of her apartment. She discovers an old
box containing the treasures of a little boy, hidden there long
ago.
She decides to track down the little boy who
hid the box, now a grown man, and return his hidden treasures
to him. The return is a great success.
Amelie has discovered her life's work: She wants
to make people happy by other strange strategems. She will henceforth
devote herself to devising plots to make people happy. This here
mission, her role in life
She devises other acts of kindness: for example
painting word-pictures for a blind man, and pretending to find
old love letters from a dead husband to his widow. She enriches
the lives of all around her with her ellfin magic.
Amélie is looking for love.. She meets
Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz) a mysterious Photomaton-image collector,
and takes a liking to him.
This film is a lighthearted joy of a movie.
After you've seen it you will find yourself thinking about it
days aftwards, smiling at Amélie kindlyl mischiefs. It
is full of comic excursions. For example when Amelie stands on
the terrace at Montmartre she wonders how many people in Paris
are having orgasms at that moment. And hey presto! We see them,
all 15 of them, in a quick succession of climaxes.
The movie is set in Paris - not the real Paris,
but the unrealistic version of Paris beloved of tourists and film
directors, clean, bright, orderly and free of all unpleasantness.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet specialises in films of astonishing
visual invention like this. Others on this site include Delicatessen
and The City of Lost Children.
A clever, unconventional, light-hearted comedy
- another triumph for Jeunet.
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Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Year: 2001
Runtime: Runtime: 122 min, France:129 min
France:185 min (director's cut)
Country: France & Germany
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Writing credits:
Guillaume Laurant story
Jean-Pierre Jeunet scenario
Guillaume Laurant (screenplay)
Produced by Alain Terzian
Helmut Breuer — co-producer
Jean-Marc Deschamps — producer
Arne Meerkamp van Embden — producer: Germany
Claudie Ossard — executive producer
Claudie Ossard — producer
Original Music: Yann Tiersen
Non-Original Music
Samuel Barber (from "Adagio for Strings")
Georges Delerue (from "Jules et Jim")
Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnel
Colour: Black and White / Duboicolor
Sound Mix: DTS / Dolby Digital
Cast
Audrey Tautou — Amélie Poulain
Mathieu Kassovitz — Nino Quincampoix
Rufus — Raphaël Poulain
Lorella Cravotta — Amandine Poulain
Serge Merlin — Raymond Dufayel
Jamel Debbouze — Lucien
Clotilde Mollet — Gina
Claire Maurier — Suzanne
Isabelle Nanty — Georgette
Dominique Pinon — Joseph
Artus de Penguern — Hipolito
Yolande Moreau — Madeleine Wallace
Urbain Cancelier — Collignon
Maurice Bénichou — Dominique Bretodeau
Michel Robin — Mr. Collignon
Andrée Damant — Mrs. Collignon
Claude Perron — Eva
Armelle — Philomène
Ticky Holgado — Man in photo (who describes
Amelie to Nino)
Kevin Fernandes — Bretodeau as a Child
Flora Guiet — Amélie (6 Years Old)
Amaury Babault — Nino (As a Child)
André Dussollier — Narrator/Récitant
(voice)
Eugène Berthier — Eugène
Koler
Marion Pressburger — Credits Helper
Charles-Roger Bour — The Urinal Man
Luc Palun — Amandine's Grocer
Fabienne Chaudat — Woman in Coma
Dominique Bettenfeld — The Screaming Neighbor
Jacques Viala — The Customer Who Humiliates
His Friend
Fabien Béhar — The Humiliated Customer
Jonathan Joss — The Humiliated Customer's
Son
Jean-Pierre Becker — The Bum
Jean Darie — The Blind Man
Thierry Gibault — The Endive Client
François Bercovici — His Buddy
Franck Monier — Dominique Bredoteau Kid
Guillaume Viry — The Vagrant
Valérie Zarrouk — Dominique Bredoteau
Woman
Marie-Laure Descoureaux — The Dead Man's
Concierge
Sophie Tellier — Aunt Josette
Gérald Weingand — The Teacher
François Viaur — The Bar Owner
Paule Daré — His Employee
Marc Amyot — The Stranger
Myriam Labbé — The Tobacco Buyer
Jean Rupert — Nasal operation man
Frankie Pain — The Newsstand Woman
Julianna Kovacs — Grocer's Client
Philippe Paimblanc — Train Ticket Taker
Mady Malroux — One of the Twins
Monette Malroux — One of the Twins
Robert Gendreu — Cafe Patron
Valériane de Villeneuve — The Laughing
Woman
Isis Peyrade — Samantha
Raymonde Heudeline — Phantom Train Customer
Christiane Bopp — Woman by the Merry-Go-Round
Thierry Arfeuillères — Statue Man
Jerry Lucas — The Sacré-Coeur Boy
Patrick Paroux — The Street Prompter
François Aubineau — The Concierge's
Postman
Philippe Beautier — Poulain's Postman
Karine Asure — Pretty Girl at Appointment
Régis Iacono — Félix L'Herbier
Franck-Olivier Bonnet — Palace Video (voice)
Alain Floret — The Concierge's Husband
(voice)
Jean-Pol Brissart — The Postman (voice)
Frédéric Mitterrand — Himself
Manoush — Nymphomaniac woman
Jacques Thébault — Voice-Over (voice)
Rudy Galindo — Himself (archive footage)
Sam 'Peg Leg' Jackson — Himself (archive
footage)
Jean-Michel Larqué — Himself (voice)
(archive footage)
Thierry Roland — Himself (voice) (archive
footage)
Sister Rosetta Tharpe — Herself (archive
footage)
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