Hello, I’m Akiko. Today, I want to introduce the French film, “Amelie”.

Amelie is a story about a girl named Amelie who hardly had any real life interaction with other people in her childhood because of her father’s mistaken diagnosis of a heart defect. This leads Amelie to turn to her own dreams and fantasy world of love and beauty. She becomes a young women and works at a cafe, but she still tends to cherish her fantasy. Her life starts to change due to the news about the death of Princess Diana and her encounter with the young man she loves. This film is a romantic comedy of a naive girl.

First of all, the shots in this movie are taken from various angles. For example, the scene that Amelie is walking, the camera takes a shot of her as though it was circling around her, so I can see her expression from different angles. Also there are some interesting shots like spiral and CG. They express something we can’t actually see, such as Amelie’s heartbeat and her thought. Moreover, the sad feeling of Amelie is expressed by her melting like water. Specifically, there is a metaphor. A girl drawn by an old man who is a painter and lives in her neighborhood, the girl implies Amelie. The man says to Amelie that the girl in this picture doesn’t match this paint. It indicates Amelie who is different from normal people. In this movie, every shots seems slow but the story develops quickly. Sometimes her imaginations are put in and the fast-forward scene appears. It was difficult to expect how the story goes on.

Secondly,  all of the cast are interesting and characteristic. Therefore, I wondered if the world in the film was also her imagination. The view of Paris matches Amelie’s mysterious character. The actress who plays the role of Amelie, Andrey Tautou, creates the atmosphere of a mysterious girl well. She smiles but doesn’t laugh so much, and her eyes are mesmerizing.

Finally, the background music mainly consists of piano and accordion. Such music goes well with the retro atmosphere of this film.

I really enjoy the world of Amelie and I want to watch this movie again.