History Film / Amelie

''Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain'' ("''The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain''" -- released as ''Amélie'' in English) is a 2001 French film directed by Creator/JeanPierreJeunet, starring Creator/AudreyTautou and Creator/MathieuKassovitz.

** Amélie herself comes off to many as having some kind of disorder - either Asperger's syndrome (explaining her general quirkiness, her obvious aversion to and often misunderstanding of other people, her sensory hypersensitivity and her subdued expression) or some form of Schizophrenia (explaining... just about everything else). Probably intentionally, however, the film shows just enough evidence to contradict both opinions, leaving the question of Amélie's mental state of health unclear.

!!This film provides examples of:

* DisabledCharacterDisabledActor: Lucien has one arm. Jamel Debbouze, who plays him, has a withered right hand which he consistently keeps hidden in a pocket. It's conceivable that, while the character of Lucien being "slow" was always the main excuse given by the grocer for being such a giant JerkAss to him, the missing arm was more of a way to explain Jamel's recognizable posture in-universe that they decided to [[ThrowItIn throw in]].

* ForgedMessage: One of Amélie's neighbors is bitter that her husband left her for another woman, then died in a plane crash. So Amélie creates a fake letter to convince the neighbor that the husband wanted to reconcile with her, had left his mistress, and was on his way home when the plane crashed.

* HollywoodDriving: A pet peeve of Amélie when watching movies in cinema.

** Philomène's cat applies is a minor example, too. See above for CatScare.

** Amélie herself comes off to many as having some kind of disorder - either Asperger's syndrome (explaining her general quirkiness, her obvious aversion to and often misunderstanding of other people, her sensory hypersensitivity and her subdued expression) or some form of Schizophrenia (explaining... just about everything else). Probably intentionally, however, the film shows just enough evidence to contradict both opinion, leaving the question of Amélie's mental state of health unclear.

* NotListeningToMeAreYou: Amélie tells her dad that she's had "two heart attacks, an abortion, did crack... while I was pregnant" and other than that, she's fine. [[DontExplainTheJoke These things didn't really happen; she's just checking if he's paying attention. Which he's not.]]

'''''Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain''''' ("''The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain''" -- released as ''Amélie'' in English) is a 2001 French film directed by Creator/JeanPierreJeunet, starring Creator/AudreyTautou and Creator/MathieuKassovitz.

* UndignifiedDeath: Amélie's mother is leaving Notre-Dame de Paris, having just prayed for the conception of a second child, when a Quebecois tourist committing suicide lands on her.

* UndignifiedDeath: Amélie's mother is leaving Notre-Dame de Paris, having just prayed for the conception of a second child, when a Quebecois tourist committing suicide and lands on her.

* StarMakingRole: For AudreyTautou. However, it did have the effect of typecasting her as a ManicPixieDreamGirl.

'''''Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain''''' ("''The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain''"--released as ''Amélie'' in English) is a 2001 French film directed by Creator/JeanPierreJeunet, starring Creator/AudreyTautou and Mathieu Kassovitz.

The plot follows Amélie, a lonely young Parisian waitress with simple pleasures, as she decides to become a sort of guardian angel to those around her: reuniting a stranger with a box of his childhood treasures, gently prompting her retired father to follow his dreams of world travel, matchmaking café regulars, playing practical jokes on a greengrocer who's being cruel to his assistant, writing love letters to a woman whose husband left her, etc. During her adventures, she meets an odd young man called Nino, who we quickly realize is her soulmate--but she is too shy to make direct contact. She must find the courage to fix her own life as she's been fixing those of others.

* CrazyJealousGuy: '''Joseph''', who possessively smothers any woman he is interested in. This causes him to stalk Gina, and [[spoiler:sabotage his potential relationship with Georgette]].

* ForgedMessage: One of Amelie's neighbor is bitter that her husband left her for another woman, then died in a plane crash. So Amelie creates a fake letter to convince the neighbor that the husband wanted to reconcile with her, had left his mistress, and was on his way home when the plane crashed.
* FriendlessBackground: Both Amélie and Nino. Amélie was [[HomeschooledKids homeschooled]], while Nino was bullied by the other children.

* GlassSlipper: Amelie has a LoveAtFirstSight moment when bumping into Nino at a Parisian subway station. He doesn't notice her at all and quickly rides off with his scooter. However, a photo album falls off when he takes a sharp corner and Amelie picks it up. It helps her to get in contact with Nino, who, after noticing his loss, leaves stickers around the station with his phone number.
* HollywoodDriving: A pet peeve of Amelie when watching movies in cinema.

* ImagineSpot: Used a lot, like when Amélie pictures herself as Zorro, or when Nino is late and her extended train of thought leads her to believe that he'd been captured and taken hostage by the Afghani Mujahidin, whom he joins and is now living in Afghanistan raising goats.
* ImmodestOrgasm / ModestOrgasm: When Amélie wonders "how many couples are having orgasms right now?"

* {{Narrator}}: The narrator will tell you about the plot, the characters, and even the character's likes and dislikes. [[ContinuityNod These are given nods and shout outs almost every time the character in question appears on-screen.]] A good example of this is Bretodeau, whom the narrator tells us likes snitching the chicken oysters while fixing dinner, and [[spoiler: is later shown at his daughter's house fixing dinner for them and her son, giving the boy the oysters.]]

* ParentalNeglect: A non-malicious variation. Amélie's father was so distant that, when he gave her occasional check-ups, the rare contact with her father would make her heart race; since he believed this was a result of a heart condition, he had her home-schooled by her neurotic mother, forcing Amélie to hide in her imagination.

* RightThroughTheWall: Georgette and Joseph in the café bathroom, making all the cups and crockery rattle. Amelie covers up the sound of TheImmodestOrgasm by running the espresso machine.

** Paris is shown to be a beautiful, whimsical, and most of all, extremely clean place. While Paris is, indeed, a lively and wonderful city, it's also quite shabby in many places. The production meticulously cleaned up their shooting locations to make it look more colorful and idealized. We see very little of the poverty and gang graffiti that pervades the city. They also strictly avoided very modern locations to give Paris a more quaint and old-fashioned feel.

* TwiceShy: Amélie and Nino: both very shy and introverted people ([[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} and also more than a little quirky]]) which makes them perfect for each other, but alas, they CannotSpitItOut (until the very end of the movie, that is).

* CoolAndUnusualPunishment: Amélie pays back cruelty with cruelty throughout her life. A neighbor fools Amélie into thinking that her camera causes accidents, so as punishment she sits on his roof, listening to the football game on the radio and unplugging his TV connection at vital moments. She also plays pranks on the grocer to torment him for his mean-spirited treatment of his assistant.