Film Classics Codexery

Amélie

A 2001 French romantic comedy about a waitress helping others.

Last updated

Amélie follows a young woman who develops an active imagination to cope with her loneliness.[1] She works as a waitress at the Café des 2 Moulins in Montmartre and finds contentment in simple pleasures like cracking crème brûlée with a spoon.[1] UGC-Fox Distribution handled the theatrical release of Amélie in France, which occurred on 25 April 2001.[2]

Making and release

Filming occurred mainly in Paris, and the Café des 2 Moulins at 15 Rue Lepic is a real café.[3] The absence caused controversy because the French media and audience gave it a warm welcome.[4] David Martin-Jones stated the film wears its French identity on its sleeve, attracting both mainstream and arthouse audiences.[4][5] Both computer-generated imagery and a digital intermediate were employed by the production team.[6]

Yann Tiersen created the music for the film's soundtrack.[7] Because Gilles Jacob, the Cannes Film Festival selector, called Amélie "uninteresting," the film did not get a screening at that festival.[4][8] In its debut week, the film played on 432 screens across France and earned 43.2 million French Franc.[9] With a total gross of $41 million, Amélie was the top-earning film in France for that year.[9]

What the cited sources add

Bradshaw noted the film's appeal comes from its absurd and fantastical tone as Amélie tries to improve lives in bizarre ways.[10] The Guardian article states Amélie falls in love with Nino Quincampoix, a young man who collects pictures from railway station photo booths.[10] Bradshaw wrote that Amélie celebrates life's small pleasures, such as breaking crème brûlée crust and skimming stones on Canal Saint-Martin.[10] The Movieloci.com account confirms Amélie's mother is killed by a suicide tourist from Québec at Notre-Dame Cathedral.[11]

The same source notes Amélie likes throwing "frogs" on the Saint-Martin canal.[11] Jeunet told The A.V. Club that Gilles Jacob simply did not like the film, explaining the Cannes situation.[8]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Amélie" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Why I love Amélie", The Guardian, 15 August 2001 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "Amélie" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "The 20th anniversary of the fantastic international career of Amelie - Unifrance", en.unifrance.org; "Amelie de Jean-Pierre Jeunet (2000) - Unifrance", en.unifrance.org (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "Amélie" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Amélie: filming locations", Movieloci.com, 23 July 2012; "Amelie" (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Amélie" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Tobias, "Jean-Pierre Jeunet", The A.V. Club, 31 October 2001; Martin-Jones, "Review: 'Colombiana: Europa Corp and the Ambiguous Geopolitics of the Action Movie'", Senses of Cinema, 1 March 2011 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Martin-Jones, "Review: 'Colombiana: Europa Corp and the Ambiguous Geopolitics of the Action Movie'", Senses of Cinema, 1 March 2011. facts only, no text reused. sensesofcinema.com
  6. Wikipedia, "Amélie" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Arnold, "Inspired 'Amélie' blends solid comedy with cutting-edge special effects", Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 8 November 2001; Bond, "Looking back at Jean Pierre-Jeunet's Amelie", Den of Geek, 29 September 2011; "Color schemes: Lensers view new post-prod'n process as an integral tool in their paint box", Variety, 6 January 2005 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "Amélie" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "JEUNET, JEAN-PIERRE: FABULOUS DESTINY OF AMÉLIE", Urban Cinefile, 13 December 2001 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Tobias, "Jean-Pierre Jeunet", The A.V. Club, 31 October 2001. facts only, no text reused. avclub.com
  9. Wikipedia, "Amélie" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "International box office", 7 May 2001, p. 15; Groves, "'Pie' flies as sequels socre o'seas", 8 October 2001, p. 14; James, "Homegrown pix gain in Europe", 24 December 2001, p. 7; "Amélie (2001)", The Numbers; "Genre Keyword, Foreign Language", Box Office Mojo; D'Alessandro, "ALL-TIME FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILMS IN NORTH AMERICA", February 21, 2000, p. 16 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  10. "Why I love Amélie", The Guardian, 15 August 2001. facts only, no text reused. theguardian.com
  11. "Amélie: filming locations", Movieloci.com, 23 July 2012. facts only, no text reused. movieloci.com

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Amélie (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

More in Film Classics

Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

Spotted an error? Know more?

Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced

Comments

Loading…
Open in the interactive codex →