Amélie

Amélie is a whimsical and charming fairy tale told in the colourful and distinctive visual language familiar from the earlier films of the duo Jeunet and Caro. Now Jean-Pierre Jeunet is standing on his own two feet, and the result is a surprisingly bright and humorous tale.

The protagonist is the sweet Amélie, who works as a waitress in a small bar in Montmartre. She is so busy creating little miracles in other people's lives that she quite forgets her own. A couple of times she happens to bump into, and falls in love with, Nino, a young man who, like Amélie, has his own way of looking at the world. When he leaves behind a photo album, Amélie tries to find him and return it, but she does not dare meet him face to face. So she begins a game reminiscent of cat and mouse, but how long can it go on?

The plot of Amélie is episodic and, when all is said and done, not especially profound, but that is overshadowed by Jeunet's combination of poetry, an energetic and spirited narrative style and an indomitable joie de vivre.