This movie is generally labeled as a romantic comedy. I find that to be a rather superficial and misinterpreted characterization of the story. As is always the case, there may be parts that are intended to be told and then some that comes forth, that are not intended to be a part of the story but reveals parts of the directors subconscious that then becomes a part of the story too. I cannot help reading things that are beyond the false-self layer of recognition for all that its worth. My theory is that your viewer level of "analysis" of a movie directly reflects your level of self knowledge.
First of all, there is not a real plot, in the traditional sense. The going on´s are functioning either as a metaphor or as symbolism. For instance, Amélie´s (Audrey Tautou) development starts the day Lady Diana dies, the death of the princess, as in the end of childhood fantasies that some white knight will come riding into her life. She has to dig down and find reality in her child hood to figure out what went wrong. The intro section of the movie leaves no doubt that she was devoid of intimacy and emotional development as a child and twisting reality into a fantasy is her way of dealing with social life.
She finds a box of old memories of physical items (reality) in the form of a strangers box hidden behind a kitchen tile. She will not recognize that it is her own true self she needs to look for but projects it to some stranger, she then has to locate. When she finally finds him, she reveals her latent inability to connect with other people directly, but has to use relays like phone booths and other arrangements. That connection is what is missing to get to her true self. And she keeps avoiding it.
In stead she decides that she has to help (read change) the world to become sane. She scans her surroundings for people who are "crippled" in one way or another and sets out to repair their supposed unhappy lives. There is a neighbor for whom she records videoclips, since he cannot leave his apartment. She helps a one armed, mentally handicapped worker at a grocery store get "revenge" over his boss (relates directly to here way of getting revenge in her childhood with a "football fan", in stead of expressing her feelings).
She tries to help her father get out to see the world by sending his garden dwarf around the world and return some Polaroids. Her mother died when she was young. This is a symbol of either a mother gone crazy (very likely when looking at her manic behavior) or divorcing her father and leaving. Anyhow, she is unable to process her father is emotionally dead and it is probably a projection of herself she sees in her father to some extend. it is always easier to see others "faults" than one´s own.
There is a clear hint at fate in the way that she is supposed to "meet" the "love of her life". It is a lack of ability to judge people by yourself that leads you to look for external signs of "determinism". She finds a book from this guy, after a very well shot sequence where she chases him chasing some unknown fellow of who he has found a passport photo. The guy actually collects discarded passport photos and works at a porn shop, which I see as a way of presenting him as a geeky wanker, who takes delight in dwelling on peoples failures. There are always someone worse off than yourself, to make you feel relatively better.
Amélie connects with this profile, because it is compatible with her own. A person with emotional weaknesses will not look for a perfectly well functioning, self a sure and emotionally developed person. They are afraid that their own shortcomings will be exposed by a strong personality. But her social skills are so inhibited that she has to make some extremely elaborate schemes to evoke his interest, without exposing hers. The second half of the movie is basically a mix of this "chase" and following the "development" of those people she is trying to help.
It is only when she finally brakes her shell and connects with Nino, as he is called, that those she think she is helping, actually get a head. I am not sure if this is a way of saying that she is herself a hurdle in their lives, as her interference has the opposite effect of what she thinks or some other explanation. But there is no doubt that her relation to thses other people are deeply connected to her own ability to confront her own problems.
Throughout the movie, there is the same kind of comical and stylized/amplified cinematography that was prevalent in a movie like the 1991 "Delicatessen" that i am not very fond of. It is not nearly as strong here, but there is a clear inspiration. Casting Dominique Pinon in a small role may be a clue. There are references to the french New Wave, in the theatre that is showing "Jules & Jim" by Truffaut, which hints at the use of the narration style, but other than that , it seems the director draws from his own vision.
And it is basically a dream or psychological vision mainly in the way the color palette is used. There is a clear tendency towards red and green color combinations (complimentary colors). There are lots of small gimmicks here and there, like a heart visibly through skin and clothes. Very sped up sequences or small stories within the stories, often with a very comic feel to them, that gels well with the overall craziness of the movie.
The was the ever present feeling that the director wanted to please me by presenting serious psychological aspects as "cute" or "quirky" or whatever the term is, but at the same time I enjoyed a lot of the underlying aspects, that i have pointed out here. After reading a few reviews on IMDB, it seems to me that i am on my own here and most either see the movie as silly or lovely in the superficial, romantic sense. Maybe I am out on a limb, but hey, that is the charm of reviewing and reading my reviews.
The technical side is flawless and beautiful. Some scenes are quite astounding, like the double chase where Nino hits a car and loses a bag that Amélie picks up, all in one shot. Some of the small comic sequences are hilarious. Putting all these parts together to one cohesive whole is a bit of an achievement. There is absolutely much to like about it, but if you strip all the gimmicks away and get to the raw story it is rather thin and the development of Amélie is not really that big. But I was entertained all the way through and must recommend it for its potential deeper layers and the cinematography.
Rating: 8/10
