The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain

Have an “Amelie” Tour

Amelie : Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain is a 2001 romantic comedy film. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, the film is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre. Discover where Amelie lives and finds true love in Paris with our bespoke private tour guide.

Tailor-Made Private Tour Guide

Amelie and the 2024 Olympic Games

Feeling very honored that David Chazan – Journalist of The Times Magazine London – is talking about my movie tour of Amelie. Full article : https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/amelie-returns-to-paris-cinemas-for-olympics-in-wave-of-nostalgia-wn7shns9j

The most famous heroine of French film abroad will make her return to cinemas this summer. On the occasion of the 2024 Paris Olympics, The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain will be released in cinemas on July 24, subtitled in English, 23 years after its initial release in April 2001. Double objective: tourists can enjoy it, and to offer great screenings to French people who have never seen the film, or have never seen it in theaters.

The film will be released nationwide. Very popular, the feature film won over 9 million French people when it was released in 2001, and 30 million spectators worldwide. For Anglo-Saxons, it remains a master work of French cinema: during a re-release in American theaters on February 14, it attracted 50,000 new spectators, a very good score for a film in a foreign language.

A romantic comedy film

It tells the story of a shy and complex waitress, played by Audrey Tautou, who decides to change the lives of those around her for the better while struggling with her own life. The film received critical acclaim, with praise for Tautou’s performance, for the cinematography, for production design, and for writing. Amelie won Best Film at the European Film Awards; it also won 4 César Awards, including Best Film and Best Director. It won 2 British Academy Film Awards, including Best Original Screenplay, 5 Academy Awards nominations, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay.

Amelie : “It is better to help people than garden gnomes.”

Amélie is a fanciful comedy about a young woman who discretely orchestrates the lives of the people around her, creating a world exclusively of her own making but also it is about a young woman falling in love with Nino whose particularity is to collect photos forgotten in Parisian photo booths. The character is in fact based on the writer Michel Folco who, in the early 80s, himself developed this funny fad : picking up clichés that had fallen, near the cabin, or torn into a thousand pieces.

Why do we love Amélie ?

Madonna of the unloved, godmother of the neglected, guardian angel, daughter of her father, little bird fallen from the nest, Amélie is intelligent and shy but curious. She has a lot of imagination and the idealism of a child. She is also kind. Amélie has a great sense of justice, and she tries to help humanity in her own way. The film takes place in Paris, it’s a perfect and nostalgic Paris, with a focus on Montmartre. In Amélie, the heroine can look directly at the camera to tell us her story or reveal a secret. She is like a close friend.

• Natural simplicity

Characters in the movie are simple people living their daily life with their own issues in a way that perfection, appearance and superficiality do not have space. In Montmartre village spirit, there is no snobbery, bourgeois elitism and a displayed exuberance of wealth or cult of beauty. In Montmartre, physical appearance and social status do not occupy an important place. Amelie, waitress in Montmartre falls in love with Nino a man who is working in sexshop, show fairs and making a collection of photo booth session.

• Amelie movie Staging

The staging of each sequence in the film is like a painting with vibrant colors including references to the impressionist painter Renoir thanks to old man Raymond Dufayel and artistic expressions such as contemporary arty video, poetry thanks to Lucien working in Colignon food store and somehow cadavre exquis, a collective graphic or writing game invented by the surrealists around 1925. A bit like in Alice in Wonderland, objects such as Amélie’s bedside lamp speak.

• Amelie soundtrack

The music is like poetry. Yann Tiersen wrote the film’s soundtrack. In 2001, he became then known worldwide for his composition of the soundtrack. He won the César for best film music in 2002.

• Hope for misfits

Amélie, a SO charming young woman who, despite her shyness, finds love and acceptance of herself, just as she is. Her message states that by actively creating human connections and not giving up hope, even outkasts and misfits can find true love and happiness in this world full of nastiness and harshness.

• Be yourself, entrusted and loved the way you are

It is a great message of HOPE and HUMANITY but also about something to think of : be yourself and be loved for who you are, go outside your comfort zone to feel the magic, push yourself to reach love and happiness. How to accept your true face? This question which concerns philosophers and psychologists is at the heart of the film. Lacking the love of her parents, two neurotics, Amélie takes refuge in her own inner world. It is when making people happy by giving them what she thinks is right, she finally decides to reveal herself, in her intimacy and in her true self to the man with whom she has fallen in love.

When I saw Amelie movie in a movie theater in 2001, I was in the United States of America. It was a blessing to receive this wonderful message from Paris ! My American friends and international minded people really loved it as well. I liked the fact that Amelie managed to master her fears, and inner trust.

So let’s take Amelie – inspired tour :

• Café des Deux Moulins where Amélie is a waitress, 15 rue Lepic in Montmartre by the Moulin Rouge
• Amélie Poulain offers a blind person an express guided tour of Lamarck Street near the metro station
• Colignon food store marché de la Butte 56 rue des Trois-Frères where Lucien (Jamel Debbouze) works
• Abbesses metro, Amélie challenged by Fréhel song “Si tu n’étais pas là” nearby the wall of “je t’aime”
• Square Willette and its old-fashioned merry-go-round, at the foot of the Sacré-Coeur Basilica
• Garden of Luxembourg, stroll through the garden, where Amélie enjoys a whimsical daydream
• Amélie’s dad house 63 Rue des Callais in Eaubonne (Val de Loise suburb of Paris département 95)
• Canal Saint-Martin Quai de Valmy to Bichat Pont écluse bridge where Amélie Poulain likes to ricochet
• Notre Dame where little Amelie is taken by her mother in hope “heaven will give her a little brother”
• Piscine des Amiraux, the swimming pool where Amelie’s dad goes, listed as a historical monument
• Le Verre à Pied 118 rue Mouffetard just after Amelie anonymously returned a memory box to Bretodeau
• Gare de l’Est when Amélie finds the collection of Nino Quincampoix (Mathieu Kassovitz) photographs
• Vincennes Park the heroine goes to the Foire du Trône where Nino works to return his photographs
• Au clown de la République, 11 Bld St. Martin Amélie bought a Zorro mask before photo session
• Sexshop “Toys Palace” where Nino works 37 boulevard de Clichy at the bottom of Montmartre

The Photomaton – Experience a photo booth session inspired by the movie’s scenes

The Fabulous Destiny of Amelie Poulain

The film is an emblematic work of the beginning of the 21st century. In addition to having a lively script, the film is a true homage to Montmartre historical district of Paris, cradle of modern art with Picasso, spiritual Christian roots with Saint Pierre de Montmartre church, café cabaret birth with the Lapin d’Argile, the Chat Noir, the famous Moulin Rouge but also to Paris as a whole.

Indeed, the Montmartre district is the heart of the movie, with the Abbesses metro station, the Square Willette, where Amélie and Nino meet at the bottom of the Sacred Heart Basilica. The Butte Montmartre, this mound is actually the highest point of Paris with 130 meters above sea level.