Summary
The victim of an unhappy and lonely childhood, Amélie Poulain attains adulthood
with a strong sense of justice and a willingness to help others, a strange set of qualifications
for a modest waitress in a Montmarte café. One day she decides to dedicate
herself to bringing happiness to those who are less fortunate than she, whilst punishing
those who deserve to be punished. Her crusade brings her into contact with a strange
young man, Nino, who works in a sex shop and who collects discarded passport photographs.
Although she falls in love with Nino, Amélie is unable to approach him herself...
Review
Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain was the film which defined French cinema
across the world in the year 2001. Not only was it the most successful film made
in France that year, attracting well over 8 million viewers in France alone, it was also
the most distinctive, the most memorable, and certainly the most talked about.
Through a combination of fine acting, deliriously funny comedy, eye-opening photography
and memorable, quintessentially French, music, the film could hardly have failed and it
looks set to become a classic. It is no exaggeration to say that Le Fabuleux
destin d'Amélie Poulain was the French film phenomenon of the year 2001.
The film was directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, who was previously best known for his collaborative
ventures with Marc Caro, including the surreal fantasies Delicassen
(1991) and La
Cité des enfants perdus (1995). Jeunet's style of cinema has a very
strong visual sense which is very well suited to his surreal brand of cinema. In
Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain, Jeunet skilfully uses the same cinematographic
approach to tell a fairly straightforward love story in a totally original way.
Although the plot and characterisation are admiitedly thin, the story is told in such
a mesmerising and charming way that such faults are easily forgiven, if bearly noticed.
The film can be rightly regarded as a modern fairy tale - it has the magic of a classic
children's fable but set in a world we can all recognise as our own.
Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain was not just a huge success with the
cinema-going public, but it has also been well-received by critics. It has won many
awards across the world, and picked up no less than four awards at the Césars Ceremony
in 2002: for best film, best director (Jean-Pierre Jeunet), best film score (Yann Tiersen)
and best set design (Aline Bonetto). It also won five Oscar nominations in 2002
(the first time for a French film) but failed to win an award, in spite of the film's
enormous popularity in America.
The film’s popularity in France was at least partly influenced by the presence of three
cult figures in the film, Mathieu Kassovitz (the charismatic young actor/director made
famous for his film La Haine
in 1995), Jamel Debbouze, a popular young television comedian, and Dominique Pinon, an
actor who featured in many of Jeunet's previous films (most notably Delicatessen
). All three actors make an impressive contribution to the film, but it
is the impish Audrey Tautou who captivates the audience’s attention for the most part,
playing the lead role of Amélie Poulain. Despite her tender age, Tautou delivers
a spell-binding performance, and is perfectly suited for her role. The fame that
this film has brought her, plus her evident talent as an actress, will almost guarantee
her future as a leading lady in French cinema for some time to come.
Although the acting is good, and the actors certainly have some good material to work
with, it is probably the very distinctive photography which has the greatest impact on
the spectator. Paris, in which the film is set, has never appeared so appealing
and romantic, a fairy tale setting which makes the film's surreal flourishes (including
a suicidal goldfish and a globe-trotting garden gnome) almost believable.
Thanks to the film's sheer originality and creative overload, the fabulous destiny of
Amélie Poulain and friends is doubtless assured - along with that of Jean-Pierre
Jeunet, one of France's most imaginative and popular film-makers.
© James Travers 2001
|
