Amélie

a beautiful collage of love, hope and dreaming.  i could go on and on about each layer of significance this movie holds for me. from playful jumps into Amélie's fantastical daydreams (see BOBKALOLBA’s 21/7/2025 review) to use of the human need for connection as the glue that holds arbitrarily bound individuals together—this film presents life as meaningfully meaningless.  the lighthearted whimsy is balanced with depth of longing for a goodness that Amélie was never taught how to have. as a shy child "deprived of playmates, tossed about between a neurotic [mother] and an iceberg [father], Amélie retreats into her imagination…” which the film captures as a magical privilege with negative consequences in her adulthood.  she is able to see the rewarding potential that action, novelty and change brings in other people's lives—as her own imagination is filled with it. and yet, the central tension is between Amélie and her fear of welcoming positive change (new relationships!) in her own life. what makes her story even more special to me is the way that it would be incomplete without lapses into everyday life or the clips that show completely irrelevant scenes of people just existing in different places. cut to a closeup of two glasses dancing in the wind. nuns playing a game of tennis. the gnome that your dad cares about more than grieving his recently passed wife. or even the glass of milk someone put out for their cat. it shows that we are our small idiosyncrasies, pleasures and habits as much as we are our lore: like wanting to dip your hand into a bag of rice at the market, hoarding receipts for no reason, not hesitating to pick up random things off the sidewalk, turning around in the cinema to people watch, or even eating leaves off trees. (who would do any of these things tf?) and by leaning into the absurd, so much solemnity is given to reflective, still and gentle moments which are restricted to intimate moments between Amélie, Dufayel and Nino. these are the moments where fantastical elements are stripped away and Amélie faces the most honesty because she is gradually learning to touch and fully exist in her reality.  "Amélie suddenly has a strange feeling of complete harmony. It's a perfect moment. Soft light, a scent in the air, the quiet murmur of the city. She breathes deeply. Life seems so simple and clear. A surge of love, an urge to help mankind suddenly engulfs her."