In 2016, fifteen years have passed since the movie “Amelie” was released. This touching film instantly became a cult, and the French actors who played in it received worldwide fame. But the most popular was Audrey Tautou (actress in the role of Amelie).
The film "Amelie": the plot
The plot of this movie is pretty simple. The whole story is centered around the life of a charming girl named Amelie. She is kind and inquisitive, but very lonely. However, Amelie is not used to falling into despair, the girl knows how to find happiness in pleasant everyday things, and then decides that her goal is to help other people find happiness.
Trying to establish the life of those around her, Amelie unexpectedly meets her soul mate.
Amelie character
The central character of the whole film, as the name implies, is the young and somewhat naive Frenchwoman Amelie Poulin. She rents a tiny apartment in Paris and works as a waitress in the cafe “Two Mills”. An aging father, living alone in their old house, regular visitors to the cafe, as well as eccentric neighbors - this is the whole world of this girl. However, the heroine does not perceive reality as others.
Amelie herself is deeply alone, from her earliest childhood. Everyone she loved leaves her life. The mother died by chance, the beloved fish swam away, the father does not pay enough attention to his baby, and Amelie is not allowed to go to school. In the absence of friends, Amelie is saved only by her stormy imagination.
Once, as an adult, Amelie found an old box with toys from a boy who forgot it in his hiding place many years ago. The girl returned the thing to the owner and decided that her mission was to change the life of the people around her. With the help of funny tricks, cheating and another girl, she is gradually able to carry out her plan. But unfortunately, not everyone whom she helped was able to be happy, despite all her efforts.
The main characters of the film
The second half of the beautiful Amelie is Nino Kenkonpua.
This guy is as lonely as a girl, and just as weird. His hobby is to collect scraps of torn photos near the photo booth and collect images from them. Nino pastes all his “work” into a special album, which accidentally gets to Amelie. She falls in love with the owner of the album, and in order to attract his attention, she arranges a real quest for Nino. The role of Nino was played by Mathieu Kassowitz - a famous French director and actor.
One of the most touching and tragic characters in this picture is the girl’s neighbor, Ramon Dufael - “glass man”.
His bones are extremely fragile by nature, and in order not to damage them, he constantly wears warm clothes, and also does not leave the house. He observes the outside world with a telescope. In his spare time, the eccentric copies the paintings of Renoir, one per year. With Amelie, they quickly find a common language. The girl is trying with all her might to awaken in him an interest in life, however, everything is not working out as she planned, but quite safely. Ramona played Serge Merlin.
In addition to the "glass man," Amelie tried to help her lonely neighbor, Madeline Wallace.
She had a difficult break with her husband in the past, and she never recovered from what happened, and after that her husband died. To help her, the girl forges a letter from her late husband and Madeleine calms down and begins to live in a new way. The role of Madeleine was performed by the Belgian actress Yolanda Moreau. Ameli's father was played by Rufus.
This character does not appear much in the film. His trouble is that he was stuck at home and never happens. To help him, Amelie kidnaps her father’s beloved garden gnome and gives him away for the time to the familiar stewardess. During travels, she photographs the gnome in the most famous corners of the earth and sends a photo to Papa Amelie. As a result, Monsieur Poulain goes on a journey.
Also worth mentioning is a minor character named Lucien.
He is a good fellow, but he is offended by the owner of the shop. To help the guy, Amelie arranges for the offender a “fun” life. The character was performed by the famous actor Jamel Debbuz.
Another world famous French actor, Dominic Pinon, played the role of jealous Joseph, forever following his ex.
The girl tried to help this man and arranged his romance with the lonely Georgette.
This heroine was played by Isabelle Nanti - a famous French actress. Amelie hoped that the lives of these loners would get better, but it soon turned out that these two were simply unable to be happy, regardless of the circumstances.
Audrey Tautou - actress from the movie "Amelie"
The role of the beautiful and touching Amelie went to the French actress Audrey Tautou.
If the actress was unknown to viewers around the world before the film “Amelie,” then she managed to become famous in her homeland even without the help of this significant role.
The early years of the actress
The future star was born in the family of a dentist. Since childhood, she was fond of biology, as well as playing musical instruments (the actress plays the piano and oboe beautifully).
At first, Audrey Tautou did not plan to become an actress, as she was more attracted to biology classes. However, loving parents convinced their child to try their hand at the profession of an actress, paying for her courses at the Cour-Florent theater school in Paris.
After moving to Paris, the future Amelie not only studied, but also worked as a secretary. Soon, luck smiled at her, and a pleasant girl was taken to act in the detective television series "Julie Lesko". Before that, for almost two years she had only tiny roles.
Winning the French competition of young talents, Audrey Tautou got a role in the film "Beauty Salon" Venus "." In this project, she managed to prove herself well, although her role was relatively small.
After the film, the young actress was noticed and began to be invited to appear in serious projects.
In 2000, Audrey got the main role in the film “Wing of the Moth”. The irony is that this project went on sale worldwide after the noisy Amelie. The actress starring in both films, she was already at the peak of popularity. Therefore, the creators of "Swing" decided to take advantage of this and announced the film as "Amelie-2", although, in fact, this is not so.
How Audrey Tautou became Amelie
At first, Jean-Pierre Jeunet (director of the film) wanted Amelie to play the role of an actress named Emily Watson.
It was taking into account the peculiarities of her manner of playing and appearance that the script was written. Unfortunately, this was not destined to come true, since the actress was busy in another project, and in addition, she was poorly fluent in French.
Once again, the director of the film “Amelie” needed the main actress. Thinking about who to invite to this role, Jeunet accidentally noticed a poster of a new film with Audrey Tautou on the street. He liked the photo of the young actress so much that he invited the girl to audition and soon approved her for the main role.
"Amelie": actress Audrey Tautou after participating in the film
In 2001, along with the release of the film "Amelie" in France, another project appeared with Audrey Tautou, but he did not become so successful without ever appearing in the world box office.
After the phenomenal success of Amelie, the actress realized that she could become a victim of one role. That is why Audrey Tautou began to try herself in other roles. So, her next work was the psychologically complicated thriller À la folie ... pas du tout. Here Totu played an excellent psychopath.
In the same year, two more films with this actress appeared on television, and in each of them she tried to be different.
In 2004, Jeunet again invited Audrey to work with him. This time the film narrated about a girl investigating the circumstances of the death of her lover in the war.
Together with Tautou, another world-famous French actress, Marion Cotillard, played in this picture. Despite the fact that this film turned out pretty good, due to financial disputes and other troubles, he did not manage to go on time in time. This deprived him of the opportunity to participate in prestigious festivals and to be nominated for an Oscar.
Having played in the continuation of the comedy of 2002, “The Spaniard”, which was released in 2005, Audrey was invited to star in the scandalous film “The Da Vinci Code”.
After the success of this project, the actress returned to her homeland and continued to act in French cinema.
Thanks to the image of a purely French actress, in 2009 she managed to get the role of the legendary Coco Chanel.
The film turned out to be very good and successful, despite the fact that a year before that there was a project with Shirley MacLaine “Coco Chanel”.
The talented actress was even nominated for Cesar and BAFTA for this role, but Audrey did not receive these awards.
Audrey Tautou Today
In recent years, this French actress continues to act in films. Unfortunately, she rarely leaves her homeland, preferring French cinema, although she is able to act in international projects, since she is fluent in German and English, besides French. Most of her films in recent years are melodramas and romantic comedies.
In 2012, with the participation of Audrey Tautou, the film "Teresa D." was released, which is almost the same adaptation of the famous novel by Francois Moriac "Teresa Desqueiro". Despite the fact that critics rather coolly greeted this picture, Totu played her heroine truly magnificent.
In addition to working in films, the actress does not leave the theater, periodically participating in productions.
In 2015, two films were released with her participation, in 2016 several more films with Audrey Tautou are also planned. So the actress continues to be loved not only by the audience, but also by the directors.
In the history of cinema there are few phenomena such as the film "Amelie." The actress, who played the main role (Audrey Tautou), got used to it so beautifully that for the whole world she remained forever a dreamer of Amelie, even after so many years and roles in the movie.
Recently, rumors about the possible continuation of the film sometimes flash in the press. However, Zhenya is unlikely to do this even for a lot of money, because the film "Amelie" is unique and impossible to repeat.