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Améliè

Améliè: the girl in the picture

The French title for the film is Le Fabuleux Destin d’Améliè Poulain – ‘The Fabulous Life of Améliè
Poulain’

CREDITS
Audrey Tautou...................... Améliè Poulain
Mathieu Kassovitz................ Nino Quincampoix
Rufus.................................... Raphaël Poulain, Amélie's Father
Yolande Moreau................... Madeleine Wallace, concierge
Artus de Penguern............... Hipolito, The Writer
Urbain Cancelier................... Collignon, The Grocer
Dominique Pinon.................. Joseph
Maurice Bénichou................ Bretodeau, The Box Man
Claude Perron...................... Eva, The Strip Teaser
Michel Robin......................... Mr. Collignon
Isabelle Nanty....................... Georgette, Two Windmills Cigarette counter girl
Claire Maurier....................... Suzanne, Owner Two Windmills bar
Clotilde Mollet....................... Gina, Two Windmills waitress
Serge Merlin......................... Raymond Dufayel aka Glass Man
Jamel Debbouze.................. Lucien

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Some of the reviewers’ comments:
‘Watching this movie is like being frogmarched into Maxim’s in Paris and forced to eat the entire
sweet trolley in 60 seconds, while Maurice Chevalier stands behind you, singing a 78rpm version
of: ‘Zank Evans for Leedle gairls, ceurz leedle gairrls gait beegaire ev-reh-day.’

Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

‘Paris: city of light, city for lovers swept up by the air of romance. It’s the perfect setting for Jean-
Pierre Jeunet’s wonderful Améliè, a film with a golden, glowing heart. Its irresistible charms will
dispel the heaviest clouds hanging over the head of the gloomiest misanthrope.’

Allan Morrison, Empire Magazine

‘You can’t believe in, or identify with, Jeunot’s Montmartre. Too lushly perfect: a 20 franc postcard.
Every damned character in every damned corner of the screen is just that, a character pushed to
the extremes of stereotype.’

Peter Preston, The Guardian

‘Amelie is a wonderful movie about a young woman’s fantasy world, a place of violently contrasting
colours, of eccentric characters, where the only music is that of a quaint nostalgic accordian.’

Gwladys Fouche

‘I think it’s been such a big success because it makes you happy. It’s positive. It makes you dream
– and we need that.’

Audrey Tautou (Améliè)

TASK
Having seen the film which of the comments do you most agree with? Give reasons for
your answer. Do you think factors such as the age and gender of the reviewers or the
publications for which they are writing are likely to influence their judgement of the film?

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 Style in Améliè
A great deal of Améliè’s popularity with its audiences (it topped the box office in France in 2001, the
year of its release) seems to stem from the non-realist – ‘magic realist’? - visual and aural style
employed by the filmmakers. If you have already seen Jeanne-Pierre Jeanot’s Delicatessen you will
recognise the director’s distinctive look and sound. The film’s style can be broken down into distinct
elements:

● Mise en scene: including use of colour, lighting, the animation of inanimate objects such as
photographs, costume and décor.

● Use of camera: including movement, focus and the framing of shots.

● Various editing techniques employed.

Music and sounds used to accompany the visual images, including diegetic and non-diegetic
sounds.

TASK
The opening sequence, which introduces the spectator to Améliè’s unusual upbringing,
contains some of the stylistic elements deployed throughout the film. Using the sections
on page 4 identify the key style elements from, perhaps, the opening sequence. Once
you have completed this write down what you think the filmmakers are trying to suggest
to the audience. Some examples are provided.

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Mise en scene Meaning Effect

sepia colour saturation connotations of the past warm colours suggest a

nostalgic, safer world

Camera Techniques Meaning Effect

Close-ups of Améliè directly this is her story audience involvement, possibly

addressing the camera identification with the heroine

Editing

Music, sounds Meaning Effect

and sound effects

accordian music traditional instrument playing nostalgia

recognisably French music
creating a sense of time
and place

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 Postmodern Cinema
In a film as heavily stylised as Améliè you can rarely forget that you are watching a movie. Witness
her frequent looks to the camera, the scene where she dissolves into a pool of watery
disappointment or the talking snaps, for example. In a sense the audience is being invited to relish
the art and artifice of cinema itself. Postmodern cinema is characterised by the conscious mixing of
film styles and genres, of playfulness and pastiche. Some filmmakers, in recognition that their
audiences are increasingly sophisticated, cine- and tele-literate spectators, will play with some of
the conventions. Popular culture from this perspective is like a pick and mix counter in the hands of
the director. Elements of this approach include:

● Unexpected mixing of periods, styles and genres

● A high degree of irony

● References to media, including film and television

● Some other features, and implied criticisms, of postmodernism in

film have been summarised by Patrick Phillips thus:

‘First, it is based on traditional generic material. Second, much of the imitation is from images from
the past, offered as a nostalgic substitute for any real exploration of either the past or the present.
Third, this referencing of the past reflects another problem the filmmaker faces today: not being able
to say anything that has not already been said.’

TASK
To take this further you may already have observed that there are several references to
vision (in film, photography and painting) deception and fakery in Améliè, a comment
perhaps on the business of movie-making itself. Using the chart below, try to identify
elements of the film which point towards this theme.

1 Améliè’s second-hand instamatic camera in which she records images from her childhood.

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 ‘A man who knows
his proverbs can’t be all bad.’
The film is also about the celebration of life’s little pleasures. While a good deal of attention is likely
to be devoted to exploring the visual imagery and rich mise en scene, one ought to be aware of the
importance of dialogue. In Améliè each of the characters utters lines which serve to act as
commentaries on some of the film’s themes. Again, as you both watch and listen to Améliè try to be
aware of some of its proverbs:

● Nostalgia

‘We forget the time of day to forget how time passes.’

● Amour

‘Even artichokes have hearts.’

● A woman without love

● Being in love

● Imagination

Add any other sayings that you think may be of significance.

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 Filmography

EXTENSION TASK
Below are a number of films that you may wish to view alongside Améliè for the
purposes of contrast and comparison.

● Delicatessen (1991), directed by Jeanne-Pierre Jeunot

Jeunot’s debut, Delicatessen, is a boarding-house-set fantasy which contains a collection of

grotesque, if entertaining characters, and an underground rebellion. The visual and aural aesthetic
of Améliè is present in this film. Watch out for the strong parallels between, for example, the comic
love-making sequences in Delicatessen and Améliè.

● Emma (1996), directed by Douglas McGrath

Again, the eponymous heroine acts as cupid before she too falls in love.

● Jules et Jim (1962), directed by Francois Truffaut

In Améliè Jeunot pays homage to this classic French film of the early 1960s: see if you can spot the
references.

● La Haine (1995), directed by Mathieu Kassovitz

The plot of La Haine begins in the aftermath of a riot. Three alienated ‘homeboys’ – a skinhead, an
Algerian and a young black boxer – journey from the abandoned estates on the periphery to the
centre of Paris. Interestingly, the director of La Haine, Kassovitz appears in Améliè as Nino
Quincampoix, the object of her affections.

● Moulin Rouge (2001), directed by Baz Luhrmann

Another fantasy spectacle, which employs a battery of filmmaking techniques, including computer
generated imagery (CGI), Luhrmann’s lavish musical offers an exotic, erotic version of ‘gay Paris’.

● Notting Hill (1999), directed by Richard Curtis

This film is notable for its creation of ‘Notting Hill’ as an urban village populated, in this instance, by
British archetypes.

● Eastenders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale

These British soaps could be said to share a number of the characteristics - such as the intertwining
of storylines and the strong sense of community - which feature so strongly in Améliè.

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 Reading
● Vincendeau, G - Café Society in Sight and Sound (August 2001)

www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/2001_08/cafesociety.html

● Branston, G and Stafford, R - Chapter 14: Postmodernisms in The Media Student’s Book, 3rd
edition (2003)

Written by Tom Brownlee

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images © 2002 Buena Vista Home Entertainment, Inc.