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Combine the elegance of France with the magical directing skills of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and you get the birth of a beautiful french film called Amelie. From the mesmerizing script to the heavenly sound of French accents, Jeunet’s Amelie, starring the divine Audrey Tautou, is the enchanting romantic tale of a young irregular French woman, Amelie, searching to help improve the lives of the lost souls of France, while at the same time succumbing to her own loneliness due to the lack of finding love. Most romcom films are either predictable or just simple horrendous, but with Amelie it is quite the opposite. It is refreshing, touching and heart warming; it is films like Amelie that makes me feel happy that I am still living.
Anyone who has watched Amelie will instantly say that the most outstanding feature of the film is the fantastic music score composed by the genius himself, Yann Tiersen. Words cannot express just how momentous Tiersen’s work is in Amelie. WIth the help of musical pieces such as, Làutre valse d’Amelie and the sensational Comptine D’un Autre Ete, what was earlier deemed by the judges at the Cannes film festival as average, is now considered by many as a superb masterpiece. Even though Amelie is as much adored by me as it is by others, without the contribution of Yann Tiersen, the effect of Amelie would just not be as intense.
However, it would be shameful to not recognize the magnificent performances from Tautou and the other smaller characters in Amelie. With her peculiar gaze and unique smile, Audrey Tautou effortlessly gives off an outstanding portrayal of her character through her gentle whispers of words and her ability to deliver a credible performance,which bewitches anyone within the first fifteen minutes of watching the film. What is so fantastic about Amelie is Jeunet’s decision to share the focus of the film between all of the actors. The characters situated in the Two Windmill Café, where Amelie works, can be seen just as important and touching as the main character herself, but is that so plausible? The rib cracking jokes and performances delivered by the particular characters Georgette (Isobelle Nanty) and Joseph (Dominique Pinon), tend to draw the light away from Tautou; even though she is supposed to be the shinning star. On the contrary, maybe the overpowering characters in the Two WIndmill café are the needed extra ingredients and without them, audiences would have to endure a whole one hour and fifty minutes of a French woman who is too shy to admit her feelings to her true love.
The impact of this French film is far more superior than the average English spoken film and all of the hard work Jean-Pierre Jeunet has put into constructing Amelie has paid off tremendously. Never have I been so moved and captivated by a film other than the works of Hayou Miyazaki. The fact that Amelie was only able to be nominated for an Oscar and not win is infuriating, but many great things in this world tend to go unrecognised, therefore I plead of you to forget what is normal, open your eyes and allow yourself to embark on this whimsical journey with Jean-Pierre Jeunet and his spell-binding film, Amelie.
