Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain – Amélie (2001)

Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet

Amélie is a film that hardly needs an introduction. Why have I included this into our film festival selection? Because it is filled with joyful moments. Perhaps at the turn of the 20th century filmmakers felt we needed a extra dose of happiness; and this is a result of their sentiments. We could all do with a little bit more cheer in our lives at the moment.

Jeunet‘s fabulous love story comes to us in a saturated colour palette that is reminiscent of all great childhood memories; no longer washed down by the veneer of work and money-making. Interwoven stories of how to make connections with another person – being kind, playing tricks, leaving messages and traces of yourselves for others to find – are all delightfully stitched together in vignettes. There are so many similarities to the next film I’m posting in this series – Wes Anderson‘s The Royal Tenenbaums.

I must’ve seen both of these films a dozen times, easy; and Amélie never ceases to delight. Audrey Tatou’s openly inviting face, the trademark haircut (a tribute to two other characters who had a very different fate to hers – Anna Karina‘s character in Vivre sa vie, and, of course, Lulu – Louise Brooks’ character in G W Pabst‘s Pandora’s Box). Here, and like Tarantino‘s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the heroine is given a different destiny.

I especially love the quirkiness of Kassovitz‘s character: he looks so young, so gentle here. And very different from his character (a hardened undercover operative) codename ‘Malotru‘ (literally means ‘lout’) in one of my favourite TV series, The Bureau.

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