Portrayal of a City: Amélie

For 20 years, director Jean-Pierre Jeunet collected the memorable and astonishing experiences of his life and weaved them together in the film Amélie. Amélie is the story of a girl who spent her childhood alone, without any friend or love from her parents. Her father never held her close, never hugged her and never displayed any affection for her, but when he did, her heart would beat so fast that her father misunderstood it as a heart disease. Even her fish is suicidal! Despite spending her childhood alone, she has a heart full of love and affection. She finds the purpose of her life one day when she discovers an old box full of memories hidden by a child in her apartment. She sets on a journey to return the box to its owner and fill happiness in other people’s lives.

The film feels like a giant warm hug. The approach of the film is very playful and quirky. It comforts you and fills your heart with warmth. The narrative of the film is spun around Montmartre in Paris. The portrayal of Paris in Amélie is quite different from its portrayal in ‘Midnight in Paris’ and ‘Cleo from 5 to 7’. The universe of Amélie does have romantic and fantastical elements, but it majorly portrays the ordinary life of Amélie (Audrey Tautou) who is a waitress. The film shows a middleclass image of the citizens living there. Roger Ebert reviewed Amélie in 2001 and had a contrasting theory about how Paris was portrayed in the film.

‘Of course, this is not a realistic, modern Paris and some critics have sniffed about this too: it is clean, orderly, safe, colourful, has no social problems and is peopled entirely by citizens who look like extras from ‘An American in Paris.’ (Ebert, 2001)

This is not entirely true. The characters in the film are diverse with interesting quirks and life issues. We see an old man, Dufayel, who has a body full of brittle bones, who hasn’t left his apartment for years; we see a paranoid and jealous Joseph, who stalks her ex-girlfriend. There is a middle aged woman who misses her long gone husband who was unfaithful to her, and then there is our protagonist Amélie who had an eccentric and lonely childhood. Yet she finds ways to cheer up these people around her fill their lives with happiness. The film shows a working class image of the city; the cafes, bistros, parks, backstreets, sex shops and the subway. The Paris in Amélie has a rustic and nostalgic feel to it. In one scene, Amélie guides an old man who is blind through the streets narrating the meticulous details of the activities surrounding them- the laughing florist, the lollipops in the bakery window, the fragrance of melon slices, sugarplum ice cream, the shopkeeper shouting the prices of cheese and ham and a baby watching a dog who is watching a chicken. There is so much beauty and warmth in these ordinary streets of Paris.

Even though the film does not glorify its tourist places and its grandeur, we feel more emotionally connected to the city and the kind people living there. Be it the way Amélie works to fix the lives of other people, or be it her own eccentric love story with Nino, the film will warm your heart in every way possible!

Written By:

Muskan Sharma

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