Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amelie Poulain

Back in 2001, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s marvellously inventive romantic comedy was the biggest arthouse hit of the year, and it made an international star out of newcomer Audrey Tautou in the title role. Part waif and part imp, Amélie Poulain works as a waitress in a Montmartre café and dreams up ways of improving the lives of those around her. All that is well and good until she falls in love with a rakish and somewhat mysterious stranger (Mathieu Kassovitz)…

‘Jeunet, along with his co-writer Guillaume Laurant, came up with a tremendously seductive, souffle-light modern fairytale… Audrey Tautou's starmaking performance fits the film like a glove. [Twenty] years on, “Amélie”'s [the English title] charms are still a tad saccharine, but what comes across most powerfully is Jeunet's athletic, playful directing style, a tour de force of tricks, gags and effects.’—Andrew Pulver, The Guardian