|
In fact even tragedy is laughed at in Amelie and there
are so many hugely enjoyable moments that I may have to take
back my official position that the French do not have a sense
of humour.
As a teen our heroine decides to leave home and moves into
a block of flats where there are characters by the dozen.
There's the artist with easily broken bones, the nasty old
fruiterer, the concierge whose hubby left her 25 years before
and fled with a younger woman to South America (where he died
in a car crash).
Amelie has had a couple of boyfriends, but no earth shook,
and so she just enjoys her work in a cafe and is happy to
be a carefree lass.
That is until she one day discovers an old toybox hidden
inside a wall cavity and that sets her on a mission to return
it to its former owner. Seeing the reaction of the boy-turned-middle-aged-man,
Amelie then decides to help others out in a similar way.
The satisfaction of helping others in a variety of amusing
ways seems to be all she needs for a contented life until
she is lovestruck at the sight of a young man who has a strange
hobby of collecting torn up photo-booth portraits.
Although her magical healing ways have worked for others,
Amelie's own plans to catch her man are amusingly frought
with difficulty and will leave you with both a smile and a
warm inner glow.
Tautou is simply bewitching as Amelie and she heads a cast
of unusual characters who take this movie to classy heights.
The video transfer of Amelie is near-perfect and shows
off the gorgeous photography to the max. The colours are lush,
the images crisp and it has a visual warmth that makes embracing
it very easy indeed.
The sound is fine, although the subtitles are far too intrusive.
Instead of being placed over so much of the picture they really
should have been dropped into the black border of the letterbox
format.
Amelie is one of the most refreshing movies this chap
has seen in a long time and is a wonderfully uplifting piece
of whimsy.
Conclusion: 90% Extras: 70%
Continued: DVD
details at a glance >
|
