Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #709 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-07-08
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL
• Original language: French
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 116 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
With its use of special effects to express the main character's internal emotions, Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amelie could have been mistaken for a French version of Ally McBeal; however, unlike Ally--"woe is me for I cannot find a man"--McBeal, Amelie is not distressed by the lack of men in her life, in fact the whole idea of sex seems to amuse her no end. Basic pleasures such as cracking the top of a Crème Brule offer her all the sensual satisfaction she needs and her existence in the "Paris of Dreams" is the stuff of fairy tales. Indeed, this cinematic treat must have worked wonders for the Paris tourist board: Jeunet's beautiful interpretation of Parisian life is depicted in all the vibrant colours you would expect from the director of Delicatessen.

On the DVD: Amelie has received an additional disc for this special edition release. Disc 1 is the same as the original single-disc release, with a choice of DTS or Dolby 5.1 sound and an 16.9 anamorphic widescreen picture with optional director's commentary. The second disc contains the new special features and, just like original disc, a lot of thought has gone into the access menu with its lavish graphics offering the choice of entering the Café, the Canal or the Station. Yet the most exciting extra in name--"Audrey Tautou's funny face"--is simply a series of out-takes which does little more than allow you to warm to Tautou as a person. The home movie includes the transformation of Tautou into Amelie and the creation of the "photo-booth album". There are also interesting interviews with Jeunet and the cast and crew, and a nice little section themed around the gnome and his travels. Along with this is a storyboard-to-screen exposition, behind-the-scenes pictures, scene tests, teasers and trailers. All in all a decent enough package, but hardly warranting the special edition label. It's hard not to wonder why Momentum didn't offer this set two months earlier. --Nikki Disney

DVD Description
DVD Special Features :

Dolby 5.1 and DTS
16.9 Anamorhphic
Director's Commentary (Jean-Pierre Jeunet)
Storyboards
Script to screen features
Teaser trailers
Trailer
Talent Q & A feature
Director's interview
Audrey Tautou's funny face feature
Making of Amelie featurette

Synopsis
Amelie Poulain (Audrey Tautou) is a young woman who glides through the streets of Paris as quietly as a mouse. With wide eyes and a tiny grin, she sees the world in a magical light, discovering minor miracles every day. A shy and reserved person whose favorite moments are spent alone skimming stones into the water, Amelie was raised by a pair of eccentrics who falsely diagnosed her with a heart problem at the age of six and so limited her exposure to the outside world. Now a free and independent woman, Amelie wears a bob that curls in every direction and dresses in red. With a job in a cafe and an aptitude for spying on her neighbors, Amelie entertains herself by enacting a series of homemade, kindhearted practical jokes. She returns a long-forgotten box of childhood knickknacks to its proper owner, she sends her father's garden troll on a trip around the world, and she creates a love connection at the cafe between the hypochondriac druggist and a beer-drinking grouch. But when the day is done, Amelie finds one stone unturned, and decides to work her magic on the quirky object of her affections, Nino Quincampoix (Matthieu Kassovitz), whom she has never met.
Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (who codirected DELICATESSEN and THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN with Marc Caro) presents AMELIE, an aesthetically gorgeous and inventive film. The rich, glowing color scheme is offset by flashbacks in black and white archival footage that give short biographies of each character. A soft-spoken narrator guides viewers through this enlightening fairy tale, which sometimes speeds through the streets and other times drifts in slow motion. AMELIE is humorous, questioning, and strange, and it will change the lives of all who watch it, if only for a short while after leaving Amelie's world.

Customer Reviews

Awesome Film.
There is just one word to sum up this film. 'Awesome.'

You have to see it and add it to your collection, it is pure genious.

Perfection
If you haven't seen this film, then you are really missing out on something special. I have never seen a more beautiful, heart warming than this. I have a friends who complain that it is in French, but you soon acclimatise to reading subtitles and it does not detract from the film's charm. This 2 disc version has some unnecessary features that you will probably watch once and never again, but, overall, this is an amazing package.

Perfect
What can i say! This has to be one of my all time favourie films. Audrey Tautou is just perfect in Amelie, she is beautiful, talented and i can sympathise with her character in this film so much. Ever since seeing this film Audrey Tautou has without doubt become one of my all time favourite actresses, so much so that i have taken to buying most of her movies.

Amelie is a very happy story with so many things im sure most of us can relate to. Its funny, quirky and has that typical French charm to it which has fuelled my enthusiasm for foreign cinema.

You must by this film, i promise you wont regret it!