``Amélie'' The director with a nightmarish sense succeeds in the challenge of making people happy. A movie that continues to be loved even today

Will Amélie be revealed to be a KGB spy 22 years later?

Just as Amélie herself is fascinated by something that briefly appears on the screen, the film is filled with strange and mysterious, yet somehow endearing items. The love of detail is so intriguing that it makes you forget the main story, such as a desk lamp designed with a pig holding an umbrella, a portrait of a dog wearing an Elizabethan collar, foot cream in the same tube as toothpaste, a jar of caviar hidden inside an artichoke, a foot mat in the shape of a dog, and a goldfish trying to escape from a goldfish bowl (apparently this is a real story from an acquaintance of Genet's). The fact that it stimulates the viewer's enthusiastic sense in a stylish way is also a factor in the success of "Amélie."

As for the color palette, Jeunet digitally altered all scenes after filming, using the colors red, green, and blue to represent the emotions of the characters, a color palette that Jeunet said was inspired by Brazilian painter Juarez Machado.

"The The Truth about Amélie Poulain"

Then, in 2023, director Jean-Pierre Jeunet made a seven-minute short film called "La véritable The Truth d'Amélie Poulain," revealing that Amélie was a KGB spy. Why did the waitress live in a neat apartment in Amélie , the most expensive place in Paris? Why was she watching her neighbors? What was she looking for in the bean bag? The film explains the act of sending signals with the light of the mirror, the secret hidden in the gnomes, and even the connection to the accident of Princess Diana, which appears many times in " Amélie," by overlapping scenes from "Amélie" with news footage. Of course, this work was born from Director Jeunet's playfulness, but the fact that such a short film was created more than 20 years after its production is proof that the director and movie fans around the world have continued to love "Amélie."

Interview and text: Hiroaki Saito

He became a freelancer in 1997 and has contributed film reviews and interviews to a variety of media, including film magazines, theater pamphlets, and film websites. His column is updated regularly on Yahoo! News. He is a member of the Critics' Choice Awards Association (CCA), which votes for the awards.

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"Amélie Digitally Remastered Edition"

Opens nationwide from Friday, November 17th at Human Trust Cinema Yurakucho, Shinjuku Musashinokan, Eurospace and other theaters!

Provided by: New Select Distributed by: Albatross Film

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