Try to put pure joy into words. The English language is full of interesting adjectives and beautiful metaphors, but nothing really comes close, perfectly capturing what it feels like to be. completely filled with happiness. HAS resonate with delight. To float on cloud nine. No, to fully capture this feeling, you need more than just words. You need photos, you need sounds, you need a story. You need… Amelie.
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the 2001 fantasy romance was recently given a limited edition Steelbook Blu-ray release, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to revisit a film that has long been one of my personal favorites. I saw Amelie hit theaters when it was first released and immediately became obsessed. He had, and still has, an energy, attitude and voice all his own. In the years that followed, I watched it often.
But it’s been many years since then and to be honest I haven’t seen him in a while. During this period, the world changed. I changed. And when I arrived Amelie This week it hit me in a way I never imagined. From the first moments, where the film begins to talk about random acts of beauty happening simultaneously throughout France, a wave of emotions began to overcome me. Could this be the second glass of wine I’ve tasted? For sure. And yet, from the first image of Amelie you know you are going to experience something special. Something that, if you’ve already experienced it, is almost more exciting because you know what awaits you: a cinematic roller coaster of laughter, love and exhilaration.
For anyone who may not have seen the movie, Amelie follows the life of an introverted woman (played with infectious, infectious sweetness by Audrey Tautou) who finds purpose in helping others through random acts of kindness. At Amélie’s the actions make everyone around her happy, but she is still sad, so she tries to employ the same tactic with her crush, a man named Nico played by Mathieu Kassovitz.
Amelie But it’s much more than this plot. It’s a celebration of life. A reminder that the good you put into the world can and will come back to you. As Amélie moves through Jeunet’s bustling, lush Paris, one can’t help but smile the entire time. The film is hilarious, sweet, heartbreaking and reaffirming, often all at once. Each character is totally relevant but totally unique and specific. Every line of dialogue or piece of information feels random but also completely accurate and useful. Then, on top of all that, Jeunet weaves in moments of fantasy enriching the world even more. Paintings move, bedside figures speak, and people blend into the ground, adding a level of wonder to this already breathtaking world. You just can’t watch Amelie and I don’t feel fantastic. It captures many hyper-specific but ultra-relevant slices of life while building a world full of magic and wonder.
These feelings ran through me throughout the reread. I smiled, I laughed, I often wiped away tears as the moments I loved and cited growing up flashed by. Then, at the end, when Jeunet really amped things up, I became a bloody mess. A lot of this is because the movie does a fantastic job of making you like everyone and everything happens on screen in a way that 99% of other movies would never dream of. But a small part was also just a reflection of the world today compared to that of almost 25 years ago. Things are always messed up. People are always sad. But watching a film so happy, so positive, obsessed with the beauty of life made me think about the good things in my life more than usual, and that was a gift.
Life is hard, but it can also be very beautiful. And this is especially the case if you use part of it to watch Amelie. It’s a perfect film. A celebration of all that is possible and good in the world, told in a way you’ve never seen before and may never see again. I loved it before but, rewatching it, I love it more than I remembered.
New Amelie pound of steel is available here.
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