Amelie Review

SPOILER ALERT

Number 62 on the top 1000 films of all time is the French romantic comedy Amelie.

Amelie is a shy and introverted young women.  Amelie has a lonely childhood, as he mother dies when she is a little girl and her father barely touches her.  She moves to Paris and becomes a waitress in a cafe ran by eccentrics.  When one day Amelie stumbles upon a time capsule in her apartment, she resolves to return it to its original owner.  Upon witnessing how happy this makes him, she aims to make everyone happy, one act of kindness at a time.

Amelie is a heart-warming film with two key moral messages- take happiness in the little things in life and whilst it is important to make other people happy, it is just as important that you are happy as well.  Amelie explores both of these themes in earnest.

Beginning with returning a time capsule to its owner, to helping a blind man cross the road or punishing a shopkeeper who is unjustly mean to his employee, Amelie's acts of kindess lead her to meet a number of odd characters.  All of the odd people that she meets was one of the most entertaining parts of the film for me.  From the ex-boyfriend of one of Amelie's colleagues who spends his days stalking her and comically speaking into a dictaphone to Amelie's love interest- a man who collects discarded photos from a passport photo machine, Amelie's world is populated with no shortage of weird people.  This made think of what the world is really like: bursting to the brim with all kinds of strange people who all have their own stories to tell.

I also really enjoyed the film's visual style.  Certain scenes especially the ending scene were shot in something similar to stop-motion.  This strongly reminded me of snapshots and vignettes, which gave the film a nostalgic feel.  It made me think of the film's key theme of happiness and how it is such a fleeting concept.  You have to make the most of it before it disappears.

Amelie is a charming, feel-good film focusing on the importance of being happy.  This is a film to watch when you're feeling down.  It is a reminder that happiness is all around us and it is up to us to go and find it.