Amelie

Amelie (2001)

Plot summary

(4 votes)

(Flashback) As a child, Amelie lived a very sheltered life, didn't go to school, and had no friends. When she was six, her mother suddenly died, leaving her with her indifferent father.

(The present) Now she is 23, and having left home, she is working in a cafe in Paris. On the day Princess Diana is killed in a car crash, she discovers a box hidden in her flat, containing some treasured objects that a young boy hid away in the 1950's. She decides to find him, and give it back to him.

She succeeds, making this man happy, and now sets out to make everybody she can happy, in subtle and amusing ways. (One example: her neighbour tells her a story about her late husband. Amelie reads some letters from this man, "invents" a new letter by piecing together some of the old ones, and sends it to the neighbour, with a note saying it was lost for 30 years.)

But she doesn't do so well in making herself happy. Nino, a young man who Amelie fancies, collects discarded photos from photo booths, and sticks them in an album, which he loses. Amelie finds it, and devises complicated ways of returning it to him. Although she loves him, can Amelie bring herself to meet him?

In the photo album, there is also a mysterious man who keeps reappearing: taking his picture in photo booths all over Paris, only to throw them away. Is he someone afraid of growing old, or a dead man who is afraid of being forgotten?

Batty

Amelie mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Nino goes to 'Les deux Moulins' for the first time, we can see Amelie writing the menu on a glass right behind him. A few shots later, we see the glass again and the handwriting is quite different. That's easy to see if you look carefully at the 'd'. Later on, we see the glass once more, and the handwriting has changed again. (01:32:55)

More mistakes in Amelie

Old Man at the Two Windmills: Still, true love does exist.
Suzanne, Owner Two Windmills bar: I know. After 30 years behind a bar, I'm an expert. I'll even give you the recipe. Take two regulars, mix them together and let them stew. It never fails.

More quotes from Amelie

Trivia: Just before Bretodeau enters the phone booth while the phone rings, he's the only one moving in real time; all other characters in the background are in slow motion.

Sereenie

More trivia for Amelie

Question: Amelie goes to visit the parents of the green grocer to find out the name of the boy that lived in her apartment in the 50's. As she arrives at the parents' house there is a very tall bridge or walkway, does anyone know its name or location?

Donvogel

Answer: Looking at the height of the bridge, this is most likely the Aqueducs d'Arcueil et de Cachan (which is in Paris).

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