Movie Review: Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain

Released in the UK as simply 'Amélie', this 2001 French-language rom-com features Audrey Tautou as Amélie Poulain, a young Parisienne waitress who one day finds a small box of toys hidden behind a tile in her apartment. She decides to locate the owner of the box, and anonymously leaves it for him. She decides that she wants to continue to help people, and when she finds a photo album dropped by a childhood friend, Amélie follows both her heart, and the guidance of her neighbour Monsieur Dufayel, in order to return it.

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This film was one of the first French-language films I watched - wait, that's a lie. It was the first decent French-language film I watched. Its predecessors were some lovely made-for-learners documentaries that I won't go into, and a film wherein a dancer was eaten by his tap shoes and dragged off stage bleeding, by said tap shoes.

But that's not the point. Amélie is lovely. I love the story and the characters and the score is just fantastic. I love the acting and the actors embody their characters perfectly. I also love the cinematography - the sweeping Parisian panoramas were gorgeous. 

If there's one film that confirms to me the French name given to cinema, le septième art, it's this, as it's just magic to watch. A truly magnificent film, and a must-watch, even for non-French-speakers - there are subtitles!! The only thing I will say is that there are some fairly graphic scenes right from the off, so definitely don't show it to anyone younger than its recommended rating of 15. Other than that, it's an amazing film, and I would recommend it to anyone!

~ Tess