Amelie has one friend, Blubber. Alas the home environment has made Blubber suicidal.
It's better to help people than garden gnomes.
I like to look for things no one else catches.
I am nobody's little weasel.
- Amélie still seeks solitude. She amuses herself with silly questions about the world below, such as "How many people are having an orgasm right now?"
[MONTAGE]
- Fifteen.
The fool looks at a finger that points at the sky.
So, my little Amélie, you don't have bones of glass. You can take life's knocks.
If you let this chance pass, eventually, your heart will become as dry and brittle as my skeleton. So, go get him, for Pete's sake!
You mean she would rather imagine herself relating to an absent person than build relationships with those around her?
- Still, true love does exist.
- I know. After 30 years behind a bar, I'm an expert. I'll even give you the recipe. Take two regulars, mix them together and let them stew. It never fails.
Life's funny. To a kid, time always drags. Suddenly you're fifty. All that's left of your childhood... fits in a rusty little box.
On September 3rd 1973, at 6:28pm and 32 seconds, a bluebottle fly capable of
14,670 wing beats a minute landed on Rue St Vincent, Montmartre. At the same moment, on a restaurant terrace nearby, the wind magically made two glasses dance unseen on a tablecloth. Meanwhile, in a 5th-floor flat, 28 Avenue
Trudaine, Paris 9, returning from his best friend's funeral, Eugène Colère

erased his name from his address book. At the same moment, a sperm with one
X chromosome, belonging to Raphaël Poulain, made a dash for an egg in his wife
Amandine. Nine months later, Amélie Poulain was born.
September 28th, 1997. It is exactly 11am. At the funfair, near the ghost train, the marshmallow twister is twisting. Meanwhile, on a bench in Villette Square,
Félix Lerbier learns there are more links in his brain than atoms in the universe.
Meanwhile, at the Sacré Coeur, the nuns are practising their backhand. The temperature is 24°C, humidity 70%, atmospheric pressure 990 millibars.
She doesn't relate to other people. She was always a lonely child.
These are hard times for dreamers.
- So that's the one, there, the guy who raises his hand?
- Yes.
- Is she in love with him?
- Yes.
- The time has come for her to take some real risks.
- Well yes, she's thinking about it. She's thinking of a stratagem.
- Yes, she likes stratagems, doesn't she?
- Yes.
- She's a bit of a coward. That's why I have trouble with her eyes.
- Nino is late. Amelie can only see two explanations. 1 - he didn't get the photo.
2 - before he could assemble it, a gang of bank robbers took him hostage. The cops gave chase. They got away... but he caused a crash. When he came to, he'd lost his memory. An ex-con picked him up, mistook him for a fugitive, and shipped him to Istanbul. There he met some Afghan raiders who too him to steal some Russian warheads. But their truck hit a mine in Tajikistan. He survived, took to the hills, and became a Mujaheddin. Amelie refuses to get upset for a guy who'll eat borscht all his life in a hat like a tea cozy.

- You're gorgeous when you blush. Like a wild flower.
- It's my dyspepsia.
- At least you'll never be a vegetable - even artichokes have hearts.
- Let me help you. Step down. Here we go! The drum major's widow! She's worn his coat since the day he died. The horse's head has lost an ear! That's the florist laughing. He has crinkly eyes. In the bakery window, lollipops. Smell that!
They're giving out melon slices! Sugarplum, ice cream! We're passing the park butcher. Ham, 79 francs. Spareribs, 45! Now the cheese shop. Picadors are
12.90. Cabecaus 23.50. A baby's watching a dog that's watching the chickens.
Now we're at the kiosk by the metro. I'll leave you here. Bye!
- Amelie has a strange feeling of absolute harmony. It's a perfect moment. A soft light, a scent in the air, the quiet murmur of the city. A surge of love, an urge to help mankind overcomes her.
Essay
For 20 years Jean-Pierre Jeunet collected small astonishing and intriguing
moments in his life, taking notes in his diary, not knowing that he was up to co-write and direct one of the most successful film in French film history.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet fell in love with the story and the film he titled Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain. But it's popularity was even a surprise to Jean-Pierre
Jeunet himself as he once stated: `I guess I have to produce a film like Alien
Resurrection (USA 1997) to make a movie like Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie
Poulain', obviously not aware of the film’s potential. Unfortunately the film didn't win an Academy Award for the best foreign film in 2001 which still puzzles film fans all over the world.
I consider Jean-Pierre Jeunet's film as a masterpiece. In my opinion, it is an outstanding film in film history for its cinematography, the music, the story, but above all the overall atmosphere. Going to the cinema is like meditating. We sit for over one-hour and comfortable chair - our breath slows down and as the lights are switched off, we enter a dream world. We seek to escape our normal world just for a short period of time, to experience something totally different and yet, we want to find ourselves in this world. Thanks to Jean-Pierre Jeunet I

had a wonderful dream, I will never forget.
Jean-Pierre Jeunet and his camera man, Bruno Delbonnel, wanted to make the film look like the Spanish painter did his artwork. To establish a dreamlike atmosphere they used mostly red and green, sometimes adding a
little blue spot in the picture to set the contrast. Audrey Tautou (Amélie
Poulain), mostly wears either red or green dresses, as well as the housekeeper
(Yolande Moreau as Madelaine Wallace, concierge), and Amélie's mother
(Lorella Cravotta as Amandine Poulin) in the beginning of the film. When Amélie
Poulain sits down to watch the tragedy of her life on her TV, there is an outstanding of a blue lamp in the background. Sometimes the use of color gets very obvious. Amélie's apartment for example is almost completely red, the underground station and the train station are kept in green and the green grocery store stands out from the grey buildings. Honestly, I haven't noticed the extreme use of color the first time I watched the movie. I just wondered how Jeunet succeeded in establishing such a fabulous atmosphere.
The atmosphere is also supported by the magnificent music by Yann Tiersen who has composed 19 songs in 15 days for this movie. The principal motive appears in many variations somehow being joyful, yet at the same time sad - slow and sometimes fast and activating. The music supports every moment in the film and becomes the sound of a fabulous world.
Camera movement certainly contributes its part to the atmosphere. Balanced and unbalanced pictures contribute to the message of each shot. Right in the beginning when Amélie's mother is introduced, the picture is balanced symbolizing her pursuit for correctness and cleanliness. The same can be about the first shots of Amélie's father. When talking about his dislikes, the shots are unbalanced. But more impressing are some camera movements. For example there is an astonishing high angle shot of Amélie flipping stones on le canal in
Paris. The camera shows her leaning on a fence, flying above her head then craning to a low angle shot to show her flipping stones in the direction of the camera. Another one worth mentioning might be the chase of the repairs person. Nino is shown falling up the steps chasing the repairs person for the photo machines. The camera turns to show the man getting in the car driving off. Still in a low angle Nino starts his moped, trying to follow the worker, almost hitting a car. Amélie is entering the picture running after Nino. The camera follows her, then turning almost 180° around her to show her hold
Nino's red bag that he lost. When Amélie sits in front of the station, we see

her in a long shot, the camera dollies in to fly over her head to an over-theshoulder shot. Some of these camera movements are really awesome, not only from a technical point of view, but moreover from an aesthetic standpoint.
They support the dreamlike atmosphere, adding interesting aspects to ordinary actions.
Audrey Tautou at the age of 23 is an astonishing actress. I really can't imagine anybody doing the job better than she did. To me she is not only giving life to the character, she lives it. It's wonderful to watch her. There was no moment when I had the faintest impression that there is something wrong or inappropriate in her acting. Also Mathieu Kassovitz as Nino Quincampoix is extraordinarily gifted with his talent. Most of the actors have done a wonderful job, although I want to mention the scene when Amélie's mother gets her nervous breakdown because of the suicidal fish. This scene appeared to me exaggerated which it probably was intended to be. Anyhow, the extreme close-up of Yolande Moreau was to intriguing to me, so I shrug back in disgust rather than laughing about it. I gues this was the director's choice, so I don't hold her responsible for that.
Another negative and distracting thing where some scenes when Jean-Pierre
Jeunet decided to show the key in Amélie's pocket after copying it and bringing the original key back to the grocer's door in a very unrealistic way. He uses a digital effet showing the key's silhouette in a yellow light. This is a technique that hasn't been used very often in the film, except for showing Amélie's heart going faster and the old, blind man feeling very happy after being guided by
Amélie. All these scenes disturb the otherwise wonderful cinematography.
There could have been other ways to communicate the actions. A simple smile on the old's man face, a close-up of Amélie's hand letting the copied key slide into her pocket and the heart beat as a background sound would have done the same without disturbing the atmosphere.
Anyway, Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain is still my favorite movie. The narration is perfectly arranged taking its time to tell every detail. I enjoyed the subplots a lot that are told in a subtle way. Maybe the introduction is a bit to long, but still I enjoyed every second. Maybe I am too used to typical
Hollywood productions, where you can tell the stages of a story by watching the clock. Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain has its own rhythm driving the story forward not by a superhero trying to achieve his goal, but by a hero that knows that she has time to arrange everything by strategic means. Maybe that is also

one reason why I like this film so much. The story is told with time and not against time. There is no last minute-rescue, no time pressure, no need to act.
It just takes its time as life does.
In my opinion, Jean-Pierre Jeunet created a masterpiece. A film that is not only outstanding because of the cinematography, the special effects or any other technical characteristics, but also combines the perfection of craftsmanship with a wonderful story, humour, and emotion.