Saying a motion picture changed my life is a bold statement. But I'm going to stick with it. Prior to Amelie I had seen some pretty damn good films; some of which I'd probably say are better movies than Amelie. However at the time I wasn't exposed to the world of independent cinema and minus 100+ bollywood films in the background, this was the first foreign language film I'd watched. My love for cinema reaches most genres but I will be more excited about seeing the independent film that did well in Cannes as opposed to this year's Jerry Bruckhiemer explosion-fest. I believe I have Amelie to thank for that. Upon first viewing, it blew me away. I'd never seen anything quite like it; the originality of the story for instance is a basically a loner's love story but presented in such a unique fashion. The look of the film is immediately recognisable as Amelie, thanks to director Jeunet's emphasis on green. The score is beautiful and corresponds with the film perfectly and is to do this day is the only film score I actually own and listen to frequently. Even though the film is obviously centered around the character of 'Amelie', the rest of the characters are a wonderful assorted of the whacky, wise and (can't complete the alliteration, damn) and down right horrible; yes I'm talking about the grocery store owner.
In a way, 'Amelie' got lucky. The film that could have changed my life could have been 'La Haine' (1995), an equally brilliant and movie film (also french) or even the Brazilian gangster epic that we know as 'City of God' (2002); all 3 films I saw roughly around the same time. Amelie came first, stole my heart and now I'm babbling about it 10 years on. For those of you that haven't seen it, well here's what Total Film said about it: "Quite simply, it's perfect".
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