MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

One woman decides to change the world by changing the lives of the people she knows in this charming and romantic comic fantasy from director Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Amelie (Audrey Tautou) is a young woman who had a decidedly unusual childhood; misdiagnosed with an unusual heart condition, Amelie didn't attend school with other children, but spent most of her time in her room, where she developed a keen imagination and an active fantasy life. Her mother Amandine (Lorella Cravotta) died in a freak accident when Amelie was eight, and her father Raphael (Rufus) had limited contact with her, since his presence seemed to throw her heart into high gear. Despite all this, Amelie has grown into a healthy and beautiful young woman who works in a cafe and has a whimsical, romantic nature. When Princess Diana dies in a car wreck in the summer of 1997, Amelie is reminded that life can be fleeting and she decides it's time for her to intervene in the lives of those around her, hoping to bring a bit of happiness to her neighbors and the regulars at the cafe. Amelie starts by bringing together two lonely people -- Georgette (Isabelle Nanty), a tobacconist with a severe case of hypochondria, and Joseph (Dominique Pinon), an especially ill-tempered customer. When Amelie finds a box of old toys in her apartment, she returns them to their former owner, Mr. Bretodeau (Maurice Benichou), sending him on a reverie of childhood. Amelie befriends Dufayel (Serge Merlin), an elderly artist living nearby whose bones are so brittle, thanks to a rare disease, that everything in his flat must be padded for his protection. And Amelie decides someone has to step into the life of Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz), a lonely adult video store clerk and part-time carnival spook-show ghost who collects pictures left behind at photo booths around Paris. Le Fabuleux Destin D'Amelie Poulain received unusually enthusiastic advance reviews prior to its French premiere in the spring of 2001, and was well received at a special free screening at that year's Cannes Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 2
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Cinemascope)
• Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Subtitle: Spanish, English
• Features:
  • cc
  • "The Look of Amélie"
  • "Fantasies of Audrey Tautou"
  • Q & A with director Jean-Pierre Jeunet
  • Q & A with director and cast
  • Auditions
  • Storyboard comparison
  • "An Intimate Chat With Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet"
  • "Home Movies: Inside the Making of Amélie"
  • TV spots: English & French
  • Theatrical trailer: U.S. & French
  • Cast and crew filmographies
  • The Amélie scrapbook
  • Original language track (Parisian French)
  • English & Spanish subtitles
  • Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
  • Widescreen (2.35:1) enhanced for 16x9 televisions

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Art Direction - 2001 (Aline Bonetto, Marie-Laure Valla)
•     Nominated Best Cinematography - 2001 (Bruno Delbonnel)
•     Nominated Best Foreign Language Film - 2001 (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
•     Nominated Best Original Screenplay - 2001 (Guillaume Laurant, Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
•     Nominated Best Sound - 2001 (Guillaume Leriche, Jean Umansky, Vincent Arnardi)

• American Society of Cinematographers

•     Nominated Best Cinematography - 2001 (Bruno Delbonnel)

• British Academy of Film and Television Arts

•     Won Best Original Screenplay - 2001 (Guillaume Laurant, Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
•     Won Best Production Design - 2001 (Aline Bonetto)
•     Nominated Best Actress - 2001 (Audrey Tautou)
•     Nominated Best Cinematography - 2001 (Bruno Delbonnel)
•     Nominated Best Director - 2001 (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
•     Nominated Best Editing - 2001 (Herve Schneid)
•     Nominated Best Film Music - 2001 (Yann Tiersen)
•     Nominated Best Foreign Language Film - 2001 (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Claudie Ossard)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 2001 (Claudie Ossard)

• Broadcast Film Critics Association

•     Won Best Foreign Film - 2001
•     Won Best Foreign Language Film - 2001

• Chicago Film Critics Association

•     Won Best Foreign Film - 2001
•     Won Most Promising Performer - 2001 (Audrey Tautou)

• European Film Academy

•     Won Best European Cinematographer - 2001 (Bruno Delbonnel)
•     Won Best European Director - 2001 (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
•     Won Best European Film - 2001
•     Nominated Best European Actress - 2001 (Audrey Tautou)

• French Academy of Cinema

•     Won Best Art Direction - 2001 (Aline Bonetto)
•     Won Best Director - 2001 (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
•     Won Best Original Music - 2001 (Yann Tiersen)
•     Won Best Picture - 2001
•     Nominated Best Actress - 2001 (Audrey Tautou)
•     Nominated Best Cinematography - 2001 (Bruno Delbonnel)
•     Nominated Best Costume Design - 2001 (Madeline Fontaine)
•     Nominated Best Editor - 2001 (Herve Schneid)
•     Nominated Best Screenplay - 2001 (Guillaume Laurant, Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
•     Nominated Best Sound - 2001 (Jean Umansky, Gerard Hardy, Vincent Arnardi)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actor - 2001 (Rufus, Jamel Debbouze)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actress - 2001 (Isabelle Nanty)

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Nominated Best Foreign Language Film - 2001

• Independent Spirit Awards

•     Won Best Foreign Film - 2001 (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)

• National Board of Review

•     Nominated Best Foreign Film - 2001

• Telluride Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 2001

• Toronto Film Critics Association

•     Won Best Director [Runner-up] - 2001 (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
•     Won Best Picture [Runner-up] - 2001

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  Jean-Pierre Jeunet

• Producer:

  Claudie Ossard, Arne Meerkamp Van Embden

• Screenwriter:

  Jean-Pierre Jeunet

• Dialogue Writer:

  Guillaume Laurant

• Screenwriter:

  Guillaume Laurant

• Cinematographer:

  Bruno Delbonnel

• Composer (Music Score):

  Yann Tiersen

• Editor:

  Herve Schneid

• Production Designer:

  Aline Bonetto

• Art Director:

  Volker Schaefer

• Executive Producer:

  Antoine Simkine

• Set Designer:

  Aline Bonetto

• Costume Designer:

  Madeline Fontaine, Emma Lebail, Véronique Elise, Sylvie Bello

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Vincent Arnardi, Sophie Chiabaut, Jean Umansky, Guillaume Leriche

• Makeup:

  Nathalie Tissier

• Special Effects:

  Jean-Baptiste Bonetto, Yves Domenjoud, Oliver Gleyze, Les Versaillais, Thierry Reymoneno, Noël Chainbaux, Daniel Lenoir

• First Assistant Director:

  Christophe Vassort

• Consultant/advisor:

  Edouard Dubois

• Stunts:

  Patrick Cauderlier, Jean-Claude Lagniez, Rémi Canaple, Pascaline Girardot, Sébastien Seveau

• Sound Mixer:

  Vincent Arnardi

• Casting:

  Valerie Espagne, Pierre-Jacques Benichou

• Sound Editor:

  Gerard Hardy

• Foley Artist:

  Jean-Pierre Lelong

• Visual Effects Supervisor:

  Duboi

• Digital Effects:

  Duboi

• Post Production Assistant:

  Sophie Vermersch

• Sound Effects Director:

  Laurent Kossayan

• Visual Effects Supervisor:

  Alain Carsoux

• Digital Effects:

  Alain Carsoux

• Matte Painting Supervisor:

  Jean-Marie Vives

• Second Assistant Director:

  Pascal Roy

• Hair Styles:

  John Nollet, Veronique Boitout

• Continuity:

  Anne Wermelinger

• Production Supervisor:

  Jean Marc Deschamps

• Location Manager:

  Alain Mougenot

• Post Production Assistant:

  Céline De Seynes

• Additional Cinematography:

  Françcois Paumard

• Storyboard:

  Luc Desportes

• Extra Casting:

  Alberte Garo

• Production Assistant:

  Svetlana Novak

• Publicist:

  Isabelle Sauvanon

• Dialogue Editor:

  Alexandre Widmer

• Assistant Sound Editor:

  Marilena Cavola Hardy

• Boom Operator:

  Jean-Louis Le Bras

• Executive Music Producer:

  Cavalier Bleu, Jacques Smerlak

• Production Supervisor:

  Edouard Valton

• Assistant Location Manager:

  Nicolas Davy, Eric Duchene

• Still Photographer:

  Bruno Calvo

• First Assistant Camera:

  Matthieu Bastid

• Second Assistant Camera:

  Christophe Perotin

• Steadicam Operator:

  Patrick De Ranter

• Key Grip:

  Bruno Dubet

• Grip:

  Robert Dona, Dominique Lepage, Laurent Thiery

• Electrician:

  Olivier Cazzitti, Yves Kohen, Yvan Quehec

• Production Supervisor:

  Marc Grewe

• Production Assistant:

  Claudia Dummer-Manasse

• Second Assistant Director:

  Dinah Rauenbusch

• Assistant Art Director:

  Thorston Sabel, Petra Klimek, Daniel Kolarov, Dagmar Wessel

• Assistant Properties:

  Kerstin Krotz

• Electrician:

  Thomas Brügge, Vlasta Kostic, Andreas Theiner, Timo Von Burgsdorf, Marc Von Kuk

• Grip:

  Kenneth Cornils, Tim Liehr

• Technical Advisor:

  Christophe Maratier, Stéphane Bourdon

• Line Producer:

  Jean Marc Deschamps

REVIEW:

• Directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, previously best-known for his collaborations with Marc Caro in Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children, Amélie exhibits the same brand of wicked humor and off-kilter humanism seen in those earlier films. Its plot revolves around its eponymous heroine (played by Audrey Tautou, channeling equal parts Audrey Hepburn and Olive Oyl), a wistful, lonely dreamer driven by her desire to help others. The product of an unhappy childhood -- mom was squashed by the suicide leap of a tourist from Quebec, dad was emotionally distant -- Amélie also craves love. In particular, she craves the love of Nino (director Mathieu Kassovitz), an equally wistful and completely adorable janitor/porn shop cashier she meets at a train station photo booth. Plot, however, tends to take back seat to style, which Jeunet layers on with the subtlety and glee of a drag queen who has just been given lipstick and a mascara wand. Through his eyes, Paris is less a city than an ongoing festival, resplendent with verdant vegetable stands, eccentric old artists, charming cafés, bubbling canals, endless blue skies, and -- as one sequence hilariously illustrates -- numerous couples who have no trouble attaining simultaneous orgasm. This vision raised the ire of a few French critics, who accused Jeunet of portraying Paris as little more than a close cousin to Euro Disney (where is Montmartre's graffiti? Where is its racial diversity?), peopled solely with the kind of cuddly if curmudgeonly characters found more typically in Tin Tin cartoons and Robert Doiseneau photographs. But such criticism misses the point. In Amélie, as in Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children, Jeunet has made a pure fantasy; its reality is that of a parallel universe, where perverse humor co-exists comfortably with genuine, if somewhat manic compassion. Whether he shows Amélie taking innocent pleasure in cracking the surface of a crème brulée or one of her co-workers engaging in a round of (literally) earth-shaking sex in a café bathroom, Jeunet portrays his characters with both loving self-indulgence and a keen appreciation for the absurd; he's aiming for light-hearted comedy, not kitchen sink realism. It is Jeunet's ability to temper his self-indulgence with absurdity that prevents Amélie from drowning in saccharine sentimentality. It is a "feel good" film, no doubt, but not the sort that people offer apologies for liking. Jeunet's energy, wit, and visual ingenuity are infectious. Even if we know that Montmartre is really strewn with trash and that Paris is often rainy and cold, it is hard not to be seduced by both Jeunet's vision of kind hearts, earthy humor, and fortuitous happenstance. Amélie was nothing less than a cinematic phenomenon in France, where it took in 40 million dollars, won an endorsement from President Jacques Chirac, and brought a new wave of tourists to Paris' Montmartre district, where its story is set. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi