Amelie

Rating:
Summary: After All, Life Is Beautiful, Amelie Says
Review: Certainly this years' best, "Amelie" delivers what you expect from the word "cinema." Anyone who thinks life is worth living would agree with me.

The greatest achievement "Amelie" displays during its non-stop 2 hours joyful ride through Paris is, ultimately, celebration of life. What is more important is, it tells also dark side of life. "Amelie" is sweet, indeed, but it is the film's subtle way of implying that life is not actually all made of sugar; (look how Amelie comes to be detached from her own father). Not forgetting that fact, the film firmly convinces us that life is sweet. In that respect, "Amelie" shares its viewpoint with "Life Is Beautiful."

Unlike the latter film, which is also a great masterpiece, "Amelie" reaches something very unique. The narrative skills are full of amazing items; you can see "a suicidal goldfish," "a falling tourist," and "a travelling gnome" that really goes to NYC and Moscow! Or picture yourself with Amelie how many couples are experiencing orgasm right now ... the film literally "picture" the answer (15) !!

Besides these amusing scenes, you will be fascinated with colorful characters (one of them is Dominique Pinon as a very nervous guy with a handy recorder, who previously appeared in Jeunet's third sequel of "Alien" series in a wheelchair). However, it is cute Audrey Tautau who steals every scene in the film. It is now an incredible fact, but the director was first thinking of Emily Watson as a leading lady (hence Amelie, got it?) but, though I love Emily Watson, the result turned out probably better with Tautou.

Finally, "Amelie" proves what a good cinema can do. It is funny, it is lovely, but most of all, it celebrates life. And that makes the film a must for everyone living at this age full of troubles.

And, really, finally. Hollywood, don't you ever try to remake it.

Rating:
Summary: AMELIE! FABULOUS!
Review: This was the best French foreign film I have seen since One Sings, the Other Doesn't by Agnes Varda (a serious film).

I loved the gnome globe-trotting photos...

AMELIE IS A COMPLETELY HAPPY FILM! Thanks!

Rating:
Summary: Gem of a film
Review: I have had the fortunate opportunity to view this film twice. Once this summer on a return flight on Air France and most recently at a local theater. It was just as fresh and delightful the second time around as it was the first. Original, quirky, funny, and poignant.....all of the above.
It is a rare comedy...not the laugh out loud type, but the type that induces deep down chuckling through out the film. In fact the chuckling continues for hours following the movie. I will definitely add this one to my collection when released on DVD.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting . . .
Review: I went to this movie based practically only on the poster I'd seen and I was not disappointed. It's a sweet, funny, moving film that everyone should enjoy. There are some interesting concepts and weird scenes that make you go, "What?" But it's really good and I'm glad I saw it. It was very creative as well.

Rating:
Summary: Sweeter than candy
Review: I absolutely loved this movie. Audrey Tautou is one of the charmingest actresses to grace the screen in recent memory. Amelie is one of the loveliest, most endearing characters ever created on film. This really is an amazing move, done in a fashion suitably dreamy to provide a backdrop for the romantic yearning of its title character. The movie transcends sappiness, largely becaue it is willing to poke fun at its protaganists as well its heels. And my tough-as-nails grandma liked it a much as I did.
In trying to write a review I keep coming back to Amelie/Tautou. She is just so lovely and clever and awkward and vulnerable. I was rooting for her the whole time, even though I knew she would eventually get what she wanted (how couldn't she?). In fact, my only disapointment was that the guy she ends up with isn't good enough for her, the dope. As an aside, I rooted for Amelie partly because I fell in love with the character, but I think she is easy to root for, a hero for the romantic in all of us.
Towards the end I couldn't help but notice that Amelie and Chcolate both have a feel-good scene tidying up all of the loose ends. I point that out to preempt any comparison of the two. They couldn't be any more different (except maybe for lovely heroines). Amelie is about a girl unaccustomed to human contact, afraid of intimacy, who takes small steps to share her idiosycratic world with someone who can share his own with her, in settings fantastically real. Chocolat is a story of a mystic who enters a conservative town and destroys their conventions, replacing them with pleasure-seeking. Fresh, sincere, warm- Amelie is really a beautiful story and if you can stand subtitles see it now!

Rating:
Summary: Best ever? Perhaps not. Favourite? A good chance.
Review: I saw this film last night, tonight I'm going back. The film has magic about it that will touch all those receptive to it. If you can condemn 'It's a Wonderful Life' as sentimental gushing instead of lolling in its affirmation of humanity and life's little pleasures and a million and one things that make your existence worth having, then you will hate this film too. I cannot honestly say it is the BEST film of all time, for that I would demand a greater profundity and gravitas. But to be one of your FAVOURITE films of all time it has to appeal to the heart, the eye and the head in equal amounts and this film does that magnificently. I eagerly await the DVD release because I could watch this film over and over, (unlike my nominations for the 'best' film).

Rating:
Summary: Best movie I've seen in a long while
Review: It's a sweet, sometimes almost obnoxiously so, French fairytale for people who are at least a little sentimental. If you like humanism in your films, you'll dig this. If you like action spectacles, run run run in the other direction.

Rating:
Summary: Why grow up?
Review: I don't recall ever seeing a movie quite as charming as Amélie. Audrey Tautou is simply wonderful in the title role. I found the story quite clever and engaging. I felt at most times a step behind Amélie's actions and subsequent events ... this is a good thing! In general, I very much agree with most of the reviews I've seen on here ... so you'd have little to gain from my yammering on about this wonderful movie. However, one review that I read on here I hope is disregarded as utter rubbish. The review I'm referring to dissed this movie as the characters (especially Amélie) seemed "childish". I would say that "child-like" would be a more appropriate description and I feel this only adds to the charm of the characters. Amélie lives in a very much "adult" world ... yet her subtle method of interacting with this world makes it seem quite innocent. Basically, Amélie is able to create a world that she is happy in. If this is "childish" then I personally find such behaviour virtuous. (...)

Rating:
Summary: C'était vraiment un bon film!
Review: J'ai vu ce film tout à fait 2 fois au cinema - à ce moment, je l'attends sur DVD. Si vous ne regardez pas un autre film cette année, allez très vite au cinema pour voir "Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain." (Le titre a été coupé aux pays dehors de la France).

La cinematographie est si belle et les personnages sont emotives.

Allez-y, sans hésitation!

Rating:
Summary: Sacre Bleu!
Review: "Amelie" is fun and sweet and entertaining. There are some nice touches, but overall, it's too just too cutesy. The film is this year's "Chocolat." In fact, although this is a 'French' film, it's more like a mainstream film with subtitles.