Although he has copied the same painting 20 times, he has never quite captured the look of the girl drinking a glass of water. Dufayel, having observed Amélie, begins a conversation with her about his painting. A delighted Lucien takes charge at the grocery stand. Mentally exhausted, Collignon no longer abuses his meek but good-natured assistant Lucien. She plays practical jokes on Collignon, the nasty greengrocer. She convinces Madeleine Wallace, the concierge of her block of flats, that the husband who abandoned her had sent her a final conciliatory love letter just before his accidental death years before. She starts a romance between her hypochondriacal co-worker Georgette and Joseph, one of the customers in the bar. She persuades her father to follow his dream of touring the world by stealing his garden gnome and having a flight attendant friend airmail pictures of it posing with landmarks from all over the world. She escorts a blind man to the Métro station, giving him a rich description of the street scenes he passes. Amélie happily embarks on her new mission.Īmélie secretly executes complex schemes that positively affect the lives of those around her. Moved to tears by the discovery and the memories it holds, Bretodeau resolves to reconcile with his estranged daughter and the grandson he has never met. Amélie quickly finds the man, Dominique Bretodeau, and surreptitiously gives him the box. He recalls the boy's name as 'Bretodeau'. She promises herself that if it makes him happy, she will devote her life to bringing happiness to others.Īfter asking the apartment's concierge and several old tenants about the boy's identity, Amélie meets her reclusive neighbour, Raymond Dufayel, an artist with brittle bone disease who repaints Renoir's Luncheon of the Boating Party every year.

Amélie resolves to track down the boy and return the box to him. On 31 August 1997, startled by the news of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Amélie drops a plastic perfume-stopper, which dislodges a wall tile and accidentally reveals an old metal box of childhood memorabilia hidden by a boy who lived in her apartment decades earlier. She is single and lets her imagination roam freely, finding contentment in simple pleasures like dipping her hand into grain sacks, cracking crème brûlée with a spoon, and skipping stones along the Canal Saint-Martin. Amélie leaves home at the age of 18 and becomes a waitress at the Café des 2 Moulins in Montmartre, which is staffed and frequented by a collection of eccentrics. As a result, her father Raphaël withdraws more and more from society. When Amélie is six, her mother, Amandine, is killed when a suicidal Canadian tourist jumps from the roof of Notre-Dame de Paris and lands on her. To cope with her loneliness, Amélie develops an active imagination and a mischievous personality. The film was a commercial success, grossing $174.2 million worldwide against a budget of $10 million, and is one of the biggest international successes for a French film.Īmélie works at the Café des 2 Moulins in Montmartre.Īmélie Poulain is born in June 1974 and brought up by eccentric parents who – incorrectly believing that she has a heart defect – decide to home-school her. It won two British Academy Film Awards, including Best Original Screenplay, and was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay. Amélie won Best Film at the European Film Awards it also won four César Awards, including Best Film and Best Director. The film received critical acclaim, with praise for Tautou's performance, the cinematography, production design, and writing. The film was theatrically released in France on 25 April 2001 by UGC-Fox Distribution and in Germany on 16 August 2001 by Prokino Filmverleih. The film also features an ensemble cast of supporting roles, including Mathieu Kassovitz, Rufus, Lorella Cravotta, Serge Merlin, Jamel Debbouze, Claire Maurier, Clotilde Mollet, Isabelle Nanty, Dominique Pinon, Artus de Penguern, Yolande Moreau, Urbain Cancelier, and Maurice Bénichou. It tells the story of a shy waitress, played by Audrey Tautou, who decides to change the lives of those around her for the better while dealing with her own isolation. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, the film is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre. Amélie (also known as Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain French pronunciation: English: The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain) is a 2001 French-language romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

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