Pretty soon the French movie “Le destin fabuleux d’Amélie Poulain” will be coming to movie theaters in the U.S.A. It’s been out for a while in France, doing very well, but is especially doing well in other European countries.
I’ve seen it here, in Montreal (where it’s also doing very well), and I highly recommend it. Jean-Pierre Jeunet (“Delicatessen”) directed this movie. I love its pacing of t(this is not one of those slow European flicks). I don’t want to say too much, almost anything I feel like adding is a spoiler. By the way, if you do decide to see it, part of the fun is a surprise element that will not work if you read spoilers (eg, the “User Comments” in imdb are to be avoided!). However over 2700 votes at imdb already give it a
9.0 out of 10 rating, which is a very rare high score.
On a cautionary note, my newspaper of choice (The Guardian) describes the experience of watching this film as
Like eating the entire contents of the dessert trolley while behind you Maurice Chevalier sings “sank 'eavens for leedle girls, wizout zem what would leedle boys do”.
FWIW, I saw it last week here in Ireland. It’s very whimsical and lighthearted as well as being pacy. If you tend to avoid your local arthouse cinema like the plague, it’s worth making an exception for this one.
TPWombat, it is a bit berets and stripey T-shirts but what the hell.
The Montmartre represented in this movie is no real Montmartre, it’s hard to describe but it’s just a setting for all these various lonely characters, a décor that hasn’t the slightest whiff of Maurice Chevalier about it. I read the Guardian too, not as often as I’d like to, since I live in Montreal. I love their crosswords, but I don’t agree one iota with that assessment of the movie, TP Wombat.
On the other hand, another fairly recent French movie “Chocolat” was a different story. I was straining my limits as I viewed that one, but its saving grace was that it was presented as a fairy tale for adults, and with a slightly sulfurous element of magic or witchcraft.
Personally, I didn’t find Amélie saccharine in the slightest, and I have little tolerance for sweetness or cuteness in movies. I have not managed to sit through any of the popular chick-flicks of the last two decades for this very reason. This movie is closer in feel to American Beauty than to any other recent movie, through its dark humour and its whimsical reflection on the meaning of life.