Characters page for the 2001 film Amélie and the Broadway/West End musical adapted from it.
Main Characters
The eponymous protagonist. A young woman living in Paris after a lonely childhood due to her parents misdiagnosing her with a heart defect. The plot sees her journey of realizing her yearnings when she falls in love with a strange man.
- Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: Played with. She's amicable and kind to others but never lets anyone get too close to her. Her friendships never delve deeper than acquaintance and her relationships don't quite satisfy her until she meets Nino.
- Aside Glance: Gives plenty of these in the film.
- Chronic Hero Syndrome: Catches this when she discovers an old box full of a boy's treasures from decades ago in her apartment. She resolves to return it and if the man is grateful, she would continue bringing happiness to others.
- Lampshaded at the end of the musical, where she questions how she thought she could've become an anonymous Good Samaritan.Amélie: Who do you think you are, Amélie Poulain? The savior of humanity? Ridiculous.
- Lampshaded at the end of the musical, where she questions how she thought she could've become an anonymous Good Samaritan.
- Covert Pervert: Downplayed in the film, where one of her hobbies is trying to guess how many people in Paris are having orgasms. When she visits a sex shop to give Nico his book in the musical she seems both shocked and intrigued, compared to her more subdued reaction in the film.Amelie: And now it's me,
Just me against the door,
This isn't what I thought
Although I think I want some more. - The Ingenue: Downplayed. Amélie is an innocent and kind young woman who is optimistic about the world around her despite not having seen much of it, though she doesn't have the sexual purity that the trope is known for.
- No Social Skills: A given, since she was isolated from the world from a young age and hardly socializes in her adult life.
- The Pollyanna: Amélie has had quite a melancholy childhood, if not downright tragic; regardless, she seems to live a content life and manages to put on a smile in public.
- Emphasized in the Broadway production, where Phillipa Soo's portrayal characterized her as a chipper and playful young woman in touch with her inner child.
- Shrinking Violet: She's a painfully shy young woman who falls in love with a man but for the life of her cannot seem to work up the courage to simply talk to him.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Is famously associated with raspberries. Another famous shot from the film also shows her enjoyment of creme brulee.
Amélie's love interest who has many peculiar hobbies, including collecting discarded photostrips from photobooths around Paris.
- Bespectacled Cutie: The West End production of the musical adds a pair of specs to his costume.
- Deuteragonist: Despite not being introduced until halfway through, he is Amélie's love interest and is ultimately the one to help her overcome her emotional repression.
- The West End production of the stage adaptation increases his role and spreads it out more evenly throughout the show; he has the first lines of the musical, is given an earlier introduction, and gets a new duet with Amélie.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: The grounded, down-to-earth blue to Amélie's eccentric red.
- Starving Artist: Implied in the musical, with added dialogue from his coworker implying that he views his pastimes as pieces of art and that no one cares about them but him.
- Straight Man: He's pretty level headed compared to his Cloud Cuckoolander love interest, though he's got some quirks of his own. The Broadway production of the musical dials this up.
- Why Do You Keep Changing Jobs?: His coworker explains several of his old jobs before his current ones at the sex shop and the Ghost Train, including telemarketing, night security, and even a stint as Santa during the holidays.
The Poulains
Amélie's germaphobe father and a doctor. After the death of his wife, he creates a memorial in his garden dedicated to her, guarded by a gnome. His obsessive upkeep of the shrine keeps him from traveling and Amélie seeks to remedy this.
Amélie's neurotic mother. She dies early on in Amélie's life due to a tourist's suicide attempt at Notre Dame but the lasting impacts of her parenting endure long after her daughter has grown up.
- Twitchy Eye: One of Amandine's defining characteristics and paints a clear picture of her neuroticism. Amélie's inherited this from her, evident towards the end of the film.
Amélie's childhood pet fish.
- Adaptational Expansion: Gets his own song in the musical.
- Adaptational Name Change: Its name is Bubbles in the movie but is changed to Fluffy for the musical.
- Dub Name Change: The film's English subtitles call him Bubbles, but if you listen to the French audio, he is rather humorously named "Le Cachalot" (French for "sperm whale").
- Suddenly Speaking: In the musical, he sings to Amélie in "World's Best Friend".
Denizens of the Two Windmills Café
The owner and proprietress of the Two Windmills; she walks with a limp due to a serious injury from earlier in her life.
- Adaptational Expansion: Is given a small epilogue at the end of the musical, where she and Raphael set off on an international trip together.
- Career-Ending Injury: She used to work in the circus as a performer with her boyfriend who was a trapeze artist. He ended up dropping her, giving her a limp and ending both her circus career and any notions of romance.
- Only Sane Man: In the musical, she's the most level headed of all the cafe employees/regulars, often settling spats between Gina, Joseph, and Georgette.
The lonely tobacconist and resident hypochondriac of the Two Windmills. Amélie tries to give her happiness by instigating a romantic relationship between her and Joseph.
- Hypochondriac: Her defining characteristic.
- Shrinking Violet: Has a crush on Joseph but can't seem to work up the nerve to talk to him. Amélie has to subtly nudge the two towards each other.
A fellow waitress at the Two Windmills. She grills Nino when he comes looking for Amélie to make sure that he has good intentions with her.
- Composite Character: For the musical, her character is combined with that of Madeleine Wallace, Amélie's concierge who obsessively rereads old love letters from her late husband who abandoned her, so that Gina has more to do outside of interrogating Nino.
A regular patron of the Two Windmills and an aspiring author. His dissatisfaction in life comes from the fact that he is never able to publish any of his works.
A regular patron of the Two Windmills Cafe. After going on one failed date with Gina a year ago, he now stalks her by constantly spending his time at the cafe. Amélie nudges him towards a relationship with Georgette.
- Jerkass: He only goes to the Two Windmills to stalk Gina long after their one failed date. He's also incredibly misogynistic, insecure, and domineering over Georgette when they start dating.
Other Characters
Amélie's elderly neighbor; his rare bone disease keeps him from leaving his apartment so he spends all of his time obsessively trying to recreate Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party".
- Adaptational Name Change: He is referred to as Dufayel for the majority of the play, but his name is changed from Raymond to Julien for unknown reasons.
The local grocer, who is incredibly mean to his assistant. Amélie seeks revenge for his cruelty by pranking him in ways that make him question his sanity.
- Manchild: Despite being in middle age he still has his mother do his bookkeeping at the grocer. His parents also bring up the fact that she squeezed his toothpaste for him well into his teens.
Collignon's simple-minded assistant, who regularly faces verbal abuse from his boss.
- Kindhearted Simpleton: He's not the sharpest tool in the shed but his kind demeanor and devotion to his job endear him to Amélie.Narrator: Lucien might not be a genius but Amélie likes him. She likes the way he handles each endive delicately, as if they were precious and worthy of respect...It's just his way of showing his love for a job well done.
- Token Minority: The only non-white character in the film (the actor is of North African descent).
