Thoughts on Amélie (2001)
Watching Amélie took two sittings. In the first half, everything that happened seemed so unreal; I couldn’t help but root for their reality to continue playing out. That’s real life for you; it’s a force that keeps you rooting, right down to your blood and bones. Amélie is a film that unearths the most real points of life.
How convenient would it be, if upon meeting a new person, we heard a voice with a rich, deep timbre describing them in detail? It would tell us what they liked and what they didn’t like. It might also give us a little insight into what they do when they’re alone or when no one’s watching or on a mundane Tuesday morning before 10 a.m. I would like to hear my own little sound bite. My likes include listening to music, cooking everything from scratch, and the spice cinnamon. But to know people were hearing that would make me cringe. What I’d love folks to know is this: I dislike people who are unkind, especially when they know better, walking up hills, and the movie Promising Young Woman (2020) [with a passion].
If real life is about relationships, Amélie makes its characters our friends early on. And I could get with the program because I could see myself in the beings of these people. I could relate to feeling upset if people made fun of my sandals. I could relate to dying animals giving me a heart attack. And I could share the grief of losing a loved one to the circumstances of time, too little time, and space. Even now, it’s difficult to think Amélie is just a movie, just a film. It was an experience of life, one that took me and held me for two separate hours. I got cozy with my own mug of chai as I listened to The Glass Man speak in parables to Amélie. I giggled as Raphael Poulain’s dwarf traveled the world. And I cringed, I mean, really cringed, when… well, we all know what happened at the café that day.
Amélie is my Masterclass in being a cheeky child. It is my Masterclass in the courtship of Life and Grace. It taught me that many times, we (and by we, I mean, every single one of us in existence) are afraid, and this should help us all be braver. If everyone was honest about the things that made them shy away from reality, we would all find ourselves enthralled by the simplicity of our fears. The possibility of community lies in the authentic presentation of our true selves. But, not only here. Often, the chance to be there for one another comes through wearing masks and occasionally not being so direct, until the moment we finally can.
Genuinely, I wish I could forget Amélie so thoroughly. I wish this so that I could have the chance to experience it again for the first time, to giggle with delight at the strange way in which this unreality mimics real life.
English