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Summary: Finally, a feel-good movie with appeal
Review: I've never been a fan of the so-called "feel-good" movie--always melodramatic, sappy, and with no artistic appeal. That is what makes this film so special: it leaves you in a happy, skippy mood without being sappy or melodramatic, and it has more artistic appeal than any other popular film that was out this past year. In fact, Amélie is one of the freshest, most charming films I have seen in quite a while ... The film goes on at a zippy pace all the way through--with creative sound, camera and digital techniques at every turn, you're never bored. I usually hate voice-over narration, but here it works so well because it is so bizarre and quirky and so in tune with the character of the film. Audrey Tautou makes a perfect Amélie, with her large, impish eyes and outward-curling hair. There are fun, quirky characters in this film, including a hypochondriac tobacco seller, a clerk at a porno store obsessed with collecting the torn and rejected pictures from underneath photo booths, and a frail man who every year makes a copy of the same Renoir painting. The music is hard to get out of your head, and just as delightful as every other elemnt of the film. Some events are equally bizarre, including child Amélie's suicidal goldfish and a travelling gnome. If you're looking for art, quirkiness and delight, you've got the perfect film here. My only complaints have to do with the subtitling of this film. Like other reviewers have stated, the subtitles are sometimes highly condensed, inaccurate, or even wrong. Also, why do I have the option of watching this film subtitled in English and Spanish, or even without subtitles, but--no French subtitles??? These are but small quibbles, however, and I doubt they will mean much to the average non-French speaker.
Rating: 
Summary: Now I understand.
Review: I first saw this film in Sweden with Swedish subtitles. I don't speak Swedish (there was a girl involved, I'm not that stupid). I loved it. ...The movement of the camera throughout is beautiful, augmented at times by CGI ...To quote one of my lecturers at university, "it's like the camera is a paintbrush creating a work of art," ... Criticism of the film for being too cutesy on the surface seems founded but there is a dark-spot in 'Amelie's warm heart. In her pursuit for other people's happiness the she is not adverse to causing others a little well-intentioned pain. Yes, it's quirky and kitsch and girly but it's infinitly better than the manipulative, sentimental drivel coming out of Hollywood and at least proves to your girlfriend that you can read.
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Summary: fabelhaft!
Review: just a beautiful and charming movie! You will fall in love with Amelie...and then go out and buy the soundtrack!
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Summary: Please listen to this voice ...
Review: ... Amelie is a gem you can NOT pass, it's a film you 'll watch over-and-over when your days are black - and you will always find something to live on. It's a film about an ordinary life, that can change a life of her own and other lives, too. It's a film about that "I am the world" - not a "We are ...", and also about a fact that - life is TOO short to loose it ... :-)
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Summary: You could fall in love with Amelie!
Review: I did. They say that you only fall in love, the real kind that you know in your soul and in every fiber of your being, once in your life. I think that may also be true with art (painting, poetry, literature, music, and movies); there is one great painting, one great poem, one book, one song, and one movie that is part of your connection to the Big Scheme of Things. For me, Amelie is that One Movie. This is a movie that could never have been made in Hollywood -- actually I can't imagine anyone in the US making a film as good as this. It's not your cynical highly over-rated Robert Altman flick, or your totally stupid Shallow Hal waste if time. But what is it than? It's a movie you see and feel with your heart -- go see it. Let yourself fall in love with Amelie; it will do your heart some good.
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Summary: A new favorite.
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed this film. A work of art in every sense of the word. The title character was crafty and charming, and the wide eyed Audrey Tautou shimmered in the role. Rarely does a film come along that makes you feel so wonderful about life, especially the small things. You may even want to take your graden knome out with you this vacation season.
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Summary: Paris! Here I come!
Review: The highest rating! An absolute five stars for this wonderful "feel good" movie from France. Talk about creative, imagnative movie making. The director was right on the money in every scene. The acting was academy award calibar! Never have I seen such a collection of wacky personalities. You fall in love with every character in the movie! I wanted to call AIR FRANCE after the film and book the next flight to Paris! I must get back to that wonderful country soon! I can't say anymore. I'm out of breath! Don't miss this one!
Rating:
Summary: Amelie
Review: Amelie is the most wonderful breath of loveliness to cross the big screen in many years. I chuckle at some of the reviewers who try to treat it as flawed art in some misunderstood tradition. . Let's get back to the basics of life, which is where art comes from. The director of this film followed his spirit, not Hollywood, thank God. This is a French movie, not an American movie; I restate the obvious because I have not seen anything emerge from Hollywood in a decade or more that is this uplifting, this entertaining, this funny, this poignant, this beautiful, and which leaves one feeling so wrapped in love. I don't know whether we Americans have lost the touch, or if we never had it. Oh... wait... Moulin Rouge comes close. I stand corrected. But Amelie reminds me of a long list of movies in the French tradition which leave me smiling and reassured that the world is not spinning off its axis and careening into the fearful abyss. Love and sweetness find their ways through any obstacles, however primitive or modern, and Amelie somehow connects the old and the new with that joi d'vivre wherein the most pathetic of human existences are all revealed to be golden at the core--all respond to the spirit of Love. Amelie is entertainment that massages your spirit. Yes, I know I've used that word already; it's intentional--this movie works on the level of the human spirit! The vistas of Paris, from downtown to Montmartre, to the suburbs, will bring you wonderful memories, and if you haven't been to Paris, the movie will GIVE you memories. The trains, the stations, the streets, the cityscapes, the people... oh, and the music. Then let's not forget the charming Audrey Tautou, who delivers a character so sweet it aches in the solar plexus where you crave to know her. If you're dead to the world, you might not like Amelie, but if there is some spark in you that you remember once having but can't seem to find; I promise Amelie will find it and blow on it and set it ablaze again. If you, like me, find yourself looking at the current waves of movies to wash up on the surf from Hollywood, shaking your head and walking away empty handed and wondering if they've simply made all the good movies already and nothing worthwhile is left, this is the movie to spice up that malaise and set your mouth watering again. I will spare you another plot synopsis; one really cannot do it justice here anyway, but hear me--from my spirit to yours (oh my, there's that WORD again!) --I can't recommend this movie enough. As the original review stated, this is one of the most charming movies of all time. A classic. If you ever do one thing that ol' Shooshie recommends, do this one. Shooshie
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Summary: Altruism and Amelie
Review: This film merits five stars. Altruism is the vacuum which nature abhors in human relationships; the title character confronts this dilemma with imagination and great sense of humor. At first glance, it may appear that the director has approached the interior struggles of Amelie with very broad strokes, based upon the title character's overt actions. However, the director is working on many levels and with exquisite subtlty. This gem of a movie slips messages to the viewer on many levels via the vehicle of the title character's apparently outrageous reactions to her emotional environment. Imagination is the ever-present unseen character of the piece. Unlike David Lynch, who tends to overwork some metaphors, this director's approach, while nonlinear, is nevertheless sublimely coherent in its depth of layers. The character of Amelie is engaged in a struggle to nourish her soul, while at the same time acknowledging the reality that altruism is the vacuum nature abhors in human interactions. This awareness presents challenges to Amelie in her dealings with others and also with herself. Like the title character, the director manages this internal conflict with superb imagination and a great sense of humor. This is the story of a series of small truimphs and setbacks building to the resolution of Amelie's inerior struggle. While the journey is a wild ride that does not appeal to all tastes, the resolution is a powerful argument for life, individuality and resistance to templates imposed by society. Amelie is a deeply meaningful, humorous, feel-good movie. The outlandish elements employed are artfully used to provide the resolution of Amelie's emotional pain resulting from the clash of her altruistic nature with the realities of the world crashing down around her. Any attempt to "tone down" these outlandish elements would have resulted in not giving Amelie's great heart and imagination the voice they deserve in proportion to the voice of the unrelenting realities of the outside world. Amelie is the purr of the Cheshire Cat. See Amelie to reconnect with that "inner child" we hear so much about. See Amelie to give your imagination muscle a workout. Amelie is a stunning affirmation of the proactive approach in embracing life!
Rating: 
Summary: Thoughtful foriegn film
Review: As with many foriegn films you have to leave your brain turned on. Its not a mindless free ride like so many Hollywood movies these days. However, this is not one of those confoundingly weird French films either. It has a story line that you can understand without having just completed film school. The movie is actually quite humorous and very original. Also, if you are familar with Jung's theory of synchronicity you may find some sequences in this film particularly interesting.
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