Title: Le Fabulex Destin d'Amelie Poulain (Amelie)
Language: French
Year of Release: 2001
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Actors: Audrey Tautou, Mathieu Kassovitz
Awards: Nominated for five Oscars, won 4 Cesar Awards and several others


Narrator: "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."

This is how the movie begins! The first time I saw this movie, I couldn't understand what was going on....it switched to another channel in 5 minutes. Two years later when I saw this again, I realized what a fool I was!!...How could I have missed such a beautiful movie on the previous occasion? That was all I thought about that day. Released in 2001, this French movie directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet featuring Audrey Tautou who later acted as Sophie in "Da Vinci Code" alongside Tom Hanks.

The story is about Amelie. Her father who's a doctor thinks that she has a unhealthy heart (while the real reason is that, Amelie yearns for her father so much that everytime he touches her, which is only while doing a checkup, her heart beats unusually rapid!) and she's never sent to school. After her mother's death she becomes even more lonley and from there after she develops great interest in doing some simple, but different things. One fine day, she leaves her home and starts working in a Cafe'. Her colleagues at the Cafe' each have an issue or you can say problem of their own which makes them quite uneasy on several occasions. One fine day, Amelie stumbles upon a box hid behind a loose bathroom tile and when she opens it she finds a small treasure....a collection of small objects which perhaps a young boy had left behind. Amelie begins her quest to find the owner of the box and return this to him. After some days she finds him and is quite happy when she secretly sees how that person reacts upon finding his treasure. From them on Amelie decides that she would help people around her and make them happy; and in doing so, she will be happy too. She accidentally bumps into Nino, a guy who's hobby is to collect the torn and discarded passport photo booths and falls in love with him. But given the fact how shy Amelie is, she never appears face to face with him and is quite afraid to express her love for him....and help finds its way through Raymond Dufayel, her neighbour who's called as the Glass man by everyone....And how this happens...makes up the rest of the story.

Narrator: 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.

This is how the film ends!!...What makes this film so special is the way, the character of Amelie is portrayed...as a person who never hesitates to help others, but when it is about herself she doesn't take a step forward. Acting is beautiful especially by Audrey Tautou, and the little girl who portrays the role of Amelie when she's young...is so damn cute! Dialouges are good; but some of them are quite unexpected...in one of the scenes, while explaining the different interests of Amelie it is said that, right now she's counting how many people are having an orgasm in the city! and many more like this....for more quotes from the movie...click here

The film has got a great look too...beautiful colours, there's never a dull moment in the movie. And there are quite a few number of references too...like Princess Diana (one of the characters wonders what British are going to Princess Di's ashes...he hopes that it will be thrown in space so that it becomes a star...[:)]..)

It's cute, refreshing, romantic...a perfect feel good movie. This one is among my all time favourite movies and definitely my favourite French movie! Highly recommended...one of the best films from Europe!
For more reviews of this flick...click here

Check out this English trailer of the movie...