Try placing pure pleasure into phrases. The English language has loads of worthy adjectives and delightful metaphors however nothing fairly comes shut to really, completely capturing what it feels prefer to be fully crammed with happiness. To reverberate with delight. To float on cloud 9. No, to adequately seize that feeling, you want extra than simply phrases. You want footage, you want sounds, you want story. You want… Amélie.
Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, the 2001 fantasy romance just lately obtained a restricted version Blu-ray steelbook launch, and it felt like the right alternative to revisit a movie that has lengthy been one in every of my private favorites. I noticed Amélie in theaters when it was first launched and immediately turned obsessed. It had, and nonetheless has, an power, angle, and voice all its personal. In the years that adopted, I watched it typically.
But, it’s been a lot of years since then and to be sincere, I hadn’t seen it once more in a whereas. During that point, the world has modified. I’ve modified. And after I popped in Amélie this week it hit me in methods I by no means imagined. From the very first moments, the place the movie begins to speak about random acts of magnificence occurring concurrently throughout France, a rush of feelings started flooding by means of me. Could it have been the second glass of wine I used to be having fun with? For positive. And but from the primary body of Amélie you realize you’re in for one thing particular. Something that, should you’ve already skilled it, is sort of extra thrilling as a result of you realize what you’re in for: a cinematic curler coaster journey of snickers, love, and elation.
For anybody who possibly hasn’t seen the movie, Amélie follows the lifetime of an introverted girl (performed with a contagious, infectious sweetness by Audrey Tautou) who finds objective by serving to others through random acts of kindness. Amélie’s actions make everybody round her blissful, however she’s nonetheless unhappy, so she tries to make use of the identical techniques on her crush, a man named Nico performed by Mathieu Kassovitz.
Amélie is a lot extra than simply that plot although. It’s a celebration of life. A reminder that the great you set on the planet can and can come again to you. As Amélie strikes by means of Jeunet’s vibrant, lush Paris, you possibly can’t assist however smile your entire time. The movie is hilarious, candy, heartbreaking, and reaffirming, typically all of sudden. Every single character is totally relatable however wholly distinctive and particular. Each line of dialogue or piece of knowledge appears random but in addition completely correct and purposeful. Then, on prime of all that, Jeunet weaves in moments of fantasy enriching the world even additional. Paintings transfer, bedside figures converse, and other people soften into the ground, all including a stage of marvel to the already beautiful world. You merely can’t watch Amélie and never really feel improbable. It captures so many hyper-specific however ultra-relatable slices of life whereas additionally constructing a world stuffed with magic and marvel.
Those emotions coursed by means of me for your entire rewatched. I grinned, I laughed, I typically wiped away tears as moments I really like and quoted rising up flickered by. Then, ultimately, when Jeunet actually amps issues up, I turned a blubbering mess. Most of that was as a result of the film does such a improbable job of creating you like everybody and every thing occurring on display screen in methods 99% of different films would by no means dream of. But a small half was additionally simply a reflection of the world as we speak in comparison with nearly 25 years in the past. Things are all the time tousled. People are all the time unhappy. But watching a film this blissful, this constructive, this obsessive about the fantastic thing about life made me take into consideration the great issues in my life greater than I normally do, and that was a reward.
Life is tough, however it may be fairly lovely too. And that’s particularly the case should you use a few of it to observe Amélie. It’s a excellent film. A celebration of all that’s potential and good on the planet informed in a manner you’ve by no means seen earlier than and should by no means see once more. I cherished it earlier than however, rewatching it once more, I like it greater than I even remembered.
The new Amélie steelbook is on the market right here.
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