Amelie

At exactly 10:49pm on Monday 20th July a man in a Birmingham swatted at a moth completely missing his target and instead falling into the lap of his wife who he hadn't touched for 3 years; at precisely the same time 4.2 miles away an old lady suffered a stroke upon finding her lost cat dead in a wheelie bin and somewhere in Kings Norton, Shane Grant started writing his review of Jean Pierre Jenuet's Le Fabuleux Destin d' Amélie Poulain. Shane likes picking off all the chocolate from the outside of a Crunchie bar so that he is left with a bar of honeycomb, he also enjoys the satisfaction that comes from scratching the underside of his balls. He hates picking a pistachio nut out of the bag that has no opening in its shell.

It's too easy to mock this film for its incredibly twee French atmosphere. It's true that everything about the movie is 'Quirky' and I would concede to anyone who argues that the movie is a prime example of style over substance with its incredibly thin plot. It presents a very unrealistic, very whitewashed version of Montmartre. Since seeing the film first I've come to learn that much of the imagery and ideas were lifted directly from other films such as The Double Life of Veronique (1991) and Chunking Express (1994) which is disappointing for a film that felt so original when I first saw it. Regardless of all this, it's still a film I love wholeheartedly and must give it credit for being, at least in some very small way, responsible for me being engaged to a brunette with a bob and a French name.

So, yes, the plot is slight - a girl who feels out of place in the world encounters a guy who she feels some kinship with and love ensues - but like Tampopo, that plot provides great opportunities to present smaller moments and ideas, and that, along with the style in which those ideas are presented really give this film its heart.

For a film about coincidence, destiny and bringing joy to those around you, it's interesting that the inciting incident of this film is Princess Diana's death. This not only helps situate the proceedings in a specific time and place but also offer some thematic resonance - Lady Di was after all known as the Queen of Hearts and we are reminded Mother Theresa died the same summer, so it seems a fitting time to set a story about a girl inspired to anonymously carry out good deeds in the world. But there's also a reflection on the process of cause and effect here. Princess Diana's death sets off the events in the film in the most Rube-Goldbergian, tangential way, almost like a butterfly's wing flap causing a hurricane: shocked at the news, Amelie drops the round top of a perfume bottle which rolls perfectly along the tiled floor to hit the exact part of the skirting necessary to reveal a hidden compartment containing an old box hidden there by a boy decades before. The coincidences throughout the film make things feel more like destiny and help to add to the sense of wonder in this magical version of Montmartre.

The techniques employed help with the magic of it all too:- the narration, the 4th wall breaking, the colour scheme, the special effects employed to show us inside Amelie's rib cage or inside her head. They all put us inside Amelie's head and force us to see the world through her own whimsical filter making everything feel almost like a fairytale.

The characters populating the film also feel fairytale-like or Dickensian at the very least: Mr. Glass, the wise old mentor figure who never leaver his flat, Collignon the mean grocer who is constantly berating his helpless sole employee or my personal favourite, Joseph the obsessive stalker who patrons the café only to hound his latest conquest and over-analyse their every move.

Matthieu Kassovitz, a film director in his own right who made the fantastic La Haine, but unfortunately nothing else worth watching, here acts as Nino, the target of Amelie's affections who is initially presented to the audience as a mystery - why is this man always looking under photo booths? The mystery helps draw us in and makes us intrigued in the character so that we share in Amelie's attraction to him. Similarly, that Nino has his own mystery that he's trying to solve, his own quest (who is the bald man in the photos?), draws us into his character further - everyone can root for someone on a quest.

That the film has to work so hard to make sure we like Nino is I feel necessary to ensure the audience feels like he is worthy of the miracle that is Audrey Tatou as the eponymous Amelie. With her perfect bob, hip duds, wry smile and cheeky humour, Amelie might be the embodiment of my perfect woman on screen. Of course her quest is to do good and of course we are rooting for her to succeed, how could we not when she gives that wry look straight to camera? I think that we spend the film largely inside her head helps sell her appeal - the flashbacks, narration and visual imagery of the film all feel like extensions of her personality.

I'm also aware that Amelie could probably be considered a 'manic pixie dream girl,' a term populised by Film Critic Nathan Rabin who defines it as a female character who 'exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.' (see Garden State, Scott Pilgrim and most things starring Zooey Deschanel). I think the term is usually applied with some derision, but what can I say, I love manic pixie dream girls... They really teach me to embrace life and it's infinite mysteries and adventures.

5 couples currently orgasming out of 5

If you enjoyed this check out director Jean Pierre Jenuet's two other best films,

Delicatessen and Micmacs.