FAQ

A shy, 23-year-old waitress working at a restaurant in Montmartre, Amélie Poulain (Audrey Tautou) falls in love with her soulmate, Nino Quincampoix (Mathieu Kassovitz), and must learn to leave her fantasy world behind if she is to connect with him in the real world.

Amélie is based on a screenplay by French director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and French screenwriter Guillaume Laurant.

Amélie was filmed in French, but English subtitles are provided on the DVD. On the HBO stream, it has French subtitles AND English mixed together - which means you can't read either of them.

No. The traveling gnome was inspired by a rash of similar pranks played out in England and France in the 1990s. In 1997, a French court convicted the leader of Front de Libération des Nains de Jardins (Garden Gnome Liberation Front) of stealing over 150 gnomes.

In the director's commentary during this scene, Jeunet clarified that Tautou did, in fact, learn to write this simple phrase backwards.

Yes, it happened during the 1997 Critérium International de la route.

After learning that Nino has gone out with Gina (Clotilde Mollet), Amélie goes home to bake a plum cake. She fantasizes that Nino buys a packet of yeast from Lucien (, slips into her apartment, and rustles the bead curtains to get her attention, but it turns out to be the cat. Suddenly, the doorbell rings, and Amélie can hear Nino calling her name outside the door, but she remains silent. Nino slides a note under the door that reads, "Je retournerai (I'll be back)." As she watches him walk down the street, her telephone rings. It is Raymond Dufayel (Serge Merlin), who tells her to go into her bedroom where she finds that he has set up a videotape of himself warning her not to let this chance pass her by. She races out the front door only to come face to face with Nino. Wordlessly, she pulls him inside and kisses him gently on the side of his lip, on his neck, and on his eyebrow. Nino responds by kissing her in the same places. When they finally kiss each other fully on the lips, Raymond can be seen watching them through the window with his binoculars, while Lucien videotapes the happy event. Later, presumably after making love, Nino and Amélie lie in bed together. Meanwhile, the rest of the world goes on, e.g., Hipolito (Artus de Penguern) sees one of his sayings written on a wall, Dominique Bretodeau (Maurice Bénichou) feeds the oyster to his grandson, Raymond paints Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party" in the style of Lucien, and Amélie's father Raphael (Rufus) decides to take an international trip. In the final scene, Nino takes Amélie for a ride on his moped.

Yes. Viewers who have seen Amélie have mentioned several movies either similar in mood or cinematography. Two other movies by the same director, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, include (1) A Very Long Engagement (2004) in which a woman searches for her fiancé and (2) the surrealistic Delicatessen (1991). In Mon meilleur ami (2006), a man hires a taxi driver to be his "best friend" in order to prove to his business partner that he actually has one. Paris, Je T'aime (2006) is a collection of short films about Paris from some 20 different directors. In Love Me If You Dare (2003), a man and a woman, best friends, compete with each other to perform outrageous stunts and maybe fall in love. The Science of Sleep (2006) is a story about a man who deals with falling in love by escaping into a dreamworld. In Chocolat (2000), a woman opens a chocolate shop that shakes up the rigidly moralistic community.

The song played during Samantha's peepshow scene at the porn shop isn't included in the film's soundtrack. If you're looking for it, it's The Child by Alex Gopher.

It's the second half of "La Dispute" by Yann Tiersen.

"Quimper 94" by Yann Tiersen (it is not included on the Amelie soundtrack album).