Film Review: Amelie

Amelie was a young girl when she learned to live inside her own imagination. Subtly portrayed as a product of fate, she learns from her parents’ actions to keep to herself, to form her own sense of reality, to envision a better, more fascinating world. In the French film Amelie, audiences are let into the absurd mind of this twenty-something dreamer.

Many underlying themes are present in Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amelie, but perhaps the most prevalent is that of living one’s own life instead of letting life control you.

In the opening sequence, audiences are told of a series of unrelated, insignificant events that lead to the birth of the title character. Interpreted as fate, we come to believe that Amelie is destined to live the life she does.

As an incredibly delightful, quirky individual, Amelie, played by the eye-catching Audrey Tautou, is living in solitude in Paris. She goes about her daily life activities not connecting with others, but hiding in her own world. She lives her life in the background of other people’s lives. When she is startled into dropping a bottle cap, and subsequently finding a precious relic of a previous resident in her apartment, everything changes. She discovers a way to anonymously intervene in the lives of others, while significantly altering her own. Fate, it seems, is no longer the driving force in Amelie’s life. She delves into a whimsical fairy tale, in which she is the discreet heroine, rewarding and punishing people as she sees fit. Soon, this life leads her to find love, but can she overcome her shy manner in order to introduce herself?

Effective use of camera techniques reveal the inner-workings of Amelie’s mind. Quick, interrupted shots mirror the fast face of her imagination and help the adience to picture her visions. The varied angles of shots enhance the dynamism of the film and maintain the audience’s interest wonderfully. The camera often zooms in on character’ faces and on seemingly insignificant items in order to show the many details Amelie notices. We are immersed in her exhilarating world.

Amelie is an engrossing film that will captivate audiences and inspire them to change their own lives as Amelie herself did.