Amélie
2001
Director: Jean-Paul Jeunet
Starring: Audrey Tatou, Mathieu
Kassovitz
Every
now and then, a foreign language film comes around that manages to break down
language barriers and win the love of the rather xenophobic American public at
large. Amélie is one such film,
a movie entertaining enough to get the average American viewer to forget that
they have to “read” the movie. Thank
goodness movies like Amélie exist; we need more infusions
of a larger cultural awareness, even if that cultural awareness is a Paris
fairy tale.
Amélie
(Tatou, in her star-making turn) is a shy loner. She grew up as an only child and now lives
alone in Montmartre working as a waitress at a cheerful bar. When she finds a rusty tin box hidden in her
apartment, full of trinkets and toys from the 1950s, she becomes obsessed with
finding the original owner to return to him his treasure trove. The success of this prompts her to continue
work as a do-gooder, but for Amélie, it isn’t just about helping others, she
has to make a convoluted maze of it as well.
When she meets fellow oddball loner Nino (Kassovitz) and falls in love,
she must face her inner fear and slowly open herself up to allowing others in
her life.
