Extensively thought of one of the vital quintessential romantic comedies of all time, Amélie feels as if it has at all times been round. In reality, although, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s quirky French confection is comparatively recent compared to so many different traditional rom-coms. Initially launched within the U.S. in February 2002, Amélie is getting a welcome re-release in theaters as we speak.
The movie stars Audrey Tautou as a younger charmer with a successful smile and a knack for fixing the lives of these round her. Watching it now—within the present second of celebration for Barbie, Taylor Swift, and Beyoncé—Amélie represents a quieter sort of female energy. It looks like each an harmless throwback and a mirrored image of recent womanhood.
Amélie retains its youthful vitality and timeless attraction, largely due to Tautou’s efficiency as a younger lady with social anxiousness, who develops schemes and methods that can assist folks whereas permitting her to keep up anonymity. Her small acts of kindness have a big effect on these round her.
The story takes place in 1997, simply after the demise of Princess Diana, or “Laydee Dee” because the characters name her. In distinction, the movie carries an early Twentieth-century design sensibility, giving the proceedings a comfortable, nostalgic really feel. Meticulous units and classy cinematography evoke the whimsy and distinctive curation of Wes Anderson’s movies. Initially, the rate of the story and speedy chopping had been thought of “frenetic.” Not anymore. Our sped-up world has caught as much as Amélie’s tempo and tempo.
As the one baby of a father with a “laborious coronary heart” and an “unfit” mom, Amélie makes paper dolls and performs solo video games like dominoes. She matures right into a loner and an observer of life, neglecting her personal happiness by obsessing over the unfulfilled lives of others. At 23, working as a café waitress, she stumbles upon a boy’s tin field of small toys and different treasures. She ventures out to seek out the now grown-up man who misplaced it, bringing him sudden pleasure. Amélie then vows to proceed the nice deeds that can steadiness the scales of unfairness round her, setting in movement her objective in life, to hold out selfless acts of affection.
In her group of neighbors, storekeepers, and café regulars, Amélie has her work reduce out for her. She brings collectively two lonely hearts, takes revenge on a bully grocer by doctoring his slippers, his alcohol, and his pace dial, and escorts a blind man by way of the streets whereas describing the sights and smells alongside the best way.
Her ventures are well-choreographed, and jaded critics claimed they had been too phony and contrived to be totally satisfying. It’s true that Jeunet’s story, co-written with Guillaume Laurant, is sort of faraway from actual life. This can be a filtered model of the town, on the strains of Emily In Paris. The Montmartre part of Paris, with Sacré Coeur looming, is a cliché romantic setting for Amélie to fall for Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz, La Haine), a good-looking collector of picture sales space strips.
In distinction to the protagonist’s goodness are characters who’re flawed—merciless, bizarre, or annoying—on this grownup fairytale that additionally options nudity, over-the-top orgasms, and dildos. The truth is, Nino works at a porn video retailer (in addition to a haunted home at a fairground). Delicate eroticism pervades all through, as Amélie slides her hand down a bag of lentils or hears the click sound of a beaded curtain swaying.
A fragile-as-glass reclusive neighbor, who paints and repaints a replica of Renoir’s “Luncheon Of The Boating Celebration,” encourages Amélie to pursue her crush, turning the tables by giving her a lift. He admonishes her for caring for others forward of herself. She decides to lure Nino by way of a complicated scavenger hunt, a maneuver that could be one of many most romantic gestures in rom-com historical past.
In a society nonetheless reeling from the September 11 assaults, Amélie was an escape throughout its authentic launch by Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax. The movie was nominated for 5 Academy Awards, together with Greatest Screenplay and Greatest Overseas Movie, however did not take residence any statuettes. In keeping with Jeunet, the Academy held a grudge towards Weinstein at that time due to his perceived shady campaigning practices.
Regardless of the purpose for Amélie’s Oscars losses, it didn’t have an effect on the movie’s legacy. Like its very particular sense of time and place—it’s not fairly a interval piece, nevertheless it’s not distinctlycontemporary, both—Amélie stays an idealized model of a world that’s by no means existed, however one all of us want we lived in. The movie appears each timeless and retro, in a position to converse to audiences irrespective of after they watch it.
Again when it was first launched, Amélie felt like a refreshing escape, a reminder that there was nonetheless some good left on the earth. Now, it’s straightforward to mission emotions of loneliness and isolation lingering from the COVID-19 pandemic onto Amélie’s shyness and quirky conduct. Twenty years from now, there shall be a brand new trendy anxiousness, and Amélie will most likely show to be a surprisingly prescient backdrop for that, too. It could be a little bit contrived, however Amélie’s escapist attraction is simple.
