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On the 16th of April, 1974, Joshua Zyber arrives into the world and is immediately disappointed because his mother refuses to take him to see the movie Chinatown, owing to his age. Joshua becomes despondent and cries, but his mother mistakes this for a simple fit of colic and burps him over her shoulder. He spits up on her new dress in protest. Joshua Zyber dislikes: Peeling layers of security stickers from the movies he buys, people who say "should of" rather than "should have," and film reviews that are nothing but tedious plot synopses with no trace of opinion. Joshua likes: Free DVDs, the crunch of potato chips placed inside his ham and cheese sandwich, his cat Sophie's petulant whine when she has been disturbed from a good nap, French films with a twisted sense of humor, and the guilty smile on Audrey Tautou's face as she slips her hand into a sack of grain. Sophie likes: Sleeping on her master's pillow and shedding hair all over it just before he comes to bed.

If the above paragraph sounds strange, clearly you have never seen or been caught up in the infectious spirit of Jean-Pierre Jeunet's comedic masterwork, Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amelie Poulain. (The DVD's English subtitles wildly mistranslate the title as Amelie from Montmartre, while the film was actually released in English-speaking countries under the even simpler title Amelie. I expect that if the movie is ever re-released it will be called merely "A".) Jeunet is known for his early collaborations with filmmaker Marc Caro, including the blackly comic cult fantasies Delicatessen and The City of Lost Children. With Amelie he goes it alone, dropping most of the dark overtones but retaining the outrageous storytelling style and the sly humor to create a most unconventional romantic comedy, one that is less concerned with the trappings of romantic formula as it is infatuated with making connections between unrelated events that have significance in unexpected ways.

The film is practically a catalog listing of every funny story or anecdote that Jeunet has ever heard, linked together into a delirious chain of coincidences and fate. At the center of this is the character Amelie Poulain, a cute-as-a-button dreamer and do-gooder obsessed with finding happiness for others even though she is too socially inept to find it for herself. She is a prankster, manipulating people's lives, correcting perceived injustices, and attempting to bring some sense of order and balance to the universe. All the while, her efforts at exerting control backfire when it comes to her own life and she lives a self-imposed solitary existence, taking comfort in the simple pleasures of life, finding sensuality in things that others takes for granted.

Jeunet is a master of painstaking formalist technique and he knows well how to use magnificent imagery, dazzling camerawork, and flawless special effects to actually enhance rather than distract from the storytelling. The movie is consistently clever, frequently hilarious, and utterly beguiling in every respect. I am convinced that lead actress Audrey Tautou must be possessed by the spirit of Audrey Hepburn; her frail waif-like figure disguises a coy sex appeal and her performance balances naivety with an almost limitless amount of charm. She can light up the screen with a mere glance or expression like no other actress I've seen since Hepburn's heyday in films like Roman Holiday or Breakfast at Tiffany's. Tautou would have made a marvelous silent film star, as we are reminded by her Louise Brooks hairdo.

On first viewing I found myself wishing for some of those darker elements from Jeunet's previous films, but on subsequent screenings (and there have been several) I've realized that they are neither needed nor appropriate for this particular story. Amelie is a delightful fantasy, an ode to mementos thrown away and a celebration of anything unnoticed or misunderstood. The film is infused with a love for the power of pure cinematic expression and there is not a single imperfect frame in its entire running length. This is a film to be cherished and rewatched, each new viewing revealing some small detail previously missed. At just a fraction over two hours, I almost wish the movie would last forever because I would certainly continue to watch it.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Letterboxed to its 2.35:1 theatrical aspect ratio with anamorphic enhancement, the DVD picture quality is fairly sharp and as colorful as it is intended to be. Objective comparison of the picture to other DVDs is a little difficult due to the movie's highly stylized appearance. Just as the Coen brothers had done with O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Jeunet photographed Amelie on 35mm film but then had the entire movie scanned into a computer file where it could be digitally color-timed and output back onto film. The advantage to this process is that it allows for precise image manipulation not possible through traditional photochemical processing. The primary disadvantage is that the computer file stores the movie at only a 2K resolution, which is significantly less sharp than a film print is capable of achieving, and the movie appeared softer on theater screens than most other films without extensive digital tinkering. However, the 2K file is still a much higher resolution than DVD allows and this should make little to no difference as far as home video is concerned.

My point to this is that Jeunet uses his digital toolkit to paint the picture in unusual washes of color. Much of the film has a deliberately greenish hue to it and flesh tones are rarely natural even in scenes of bright daylight. Meanwhile, specific points within a frame will burst forward in vibrant patches of color. What was intended is well conveyed, and in all I'd say this is an excellent transfer. I detected no compression artifacts and edge-enhancement seemed pretty minimal.

Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

Just about every other region of the world will be getting a DTS soundtrack on their Amelie DVDs, but here in Region 1 we have to make due with only a French Dolby Digital 5.1 track. Fortunately, it's a good one. Not at all burdened with the typically flat romantic comedy type of soundtrack, Amelie has an extremely energetic sound design. Director Jeunet is something of a sound freak, and he has given the movie an aggressive surround mix buzzing with crisply recorded sound effects, lively directional steering, and a healthy amount of deep bass, all to create an enveloping soundfield that wraps you up in its presence. Dialogue is always perfectly intelligible and fidelity is excellent across the board. I'm sure a DTS track may have been even better and I can't help feeling a little disappointed at its absence (in light of every other country getting one), but my complaints are tempered by the high quality of what we do get.

English or Spanish subtitles appear in a yellow font below the letterboxed picture if watching on a standard 4:3 television, but will move up into the picture in 16:9 anamorphic mode. The English subtitles are decent as far as coherence goes, but it is obvious that they are not translating all of the subtle nuances of language as well as they could (in his audio commentary, Jeunet jokingly recommends that English-speaking audiences learn French to fully appreciate the film). English captions for the hearing impaired as well as true closed captions are also available. No alternate language tracks have been provided, nor are they needed.

Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet (right) on the set

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Though not mentioned anywhere on the packaging, Disc 1 contains two audio commentaries by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, one in French and one in English. Sadly, Miramax has neglected to provide subtitles for the French commentary, so I have no idea how significantly the two tracks differ. I would assume that the director probably talks about similar things on each. On the English track, Jeunet has a thick accent but this should not deter anyone from listening. This is a really great commentary filled with both technical insight and plenty of anecdotes about the production. Jeunet has a winning personality and is often quite funny. His enthusiasm for the film is boundless (every scene seems to be his favorite). He begins the talk by saying, "If you prefer to keep the poetry and the spirit of the film, don't listen. I'm going to destroy everything." There may be a little bit of truth in that, as he does systematically lay out all of the elements that make the film, but any real fan of the movie will certainly want to listen anyway.

Disc 2 has a number of interesting featurettes, starting with The Look of Amelie, a 13-minute piece in English about the film's cinematography. Discussed are the difficulties of shooting on location with a control-freak director who prefers studio sets, as well as the use of digital color correction in post-production. Fantasies of Audrey Tautou is a short 2 minutes of outtakes, flubs, and funny faces made by the lead actress, who is never less than adorable, even when she swears. Three Screen Tests appear after that, one each for Audrey Tautou, Urbain Cancelier and Yolande Moreau. None are more than a couple of minutes long, and all show these actors nailing their characters right from the beginning.

At 24 minutes, the Q & A with Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet is one of the longest pieces on the disc. This English-language interview was conducted in California after a screening of the movie. Jeunet answers questions from the audience about both this film and his career in general. He has some blunt words to say about comparisons of his film to the so-called French New Wave from the 1950's. Similarly, the shorter Q & A with Director and Cast (6 minutes) was conducted after a French screening. Jeunet is joined by the movie's principal stars, including Mathieu Kassovitz (a filmmaker himself) who teases him about their wholly different directing styles. Anything you ever wanted to know about the movie that wasn't covered in these two featurettes or the commentary will be found in An Intimate Chat with Jean-Pierre Jeunet (21 minutes), in which the director walks the viewer through the entire production process, from conception through to release. He also discusses the minor controversy that erupted when the film was dismissed out of hand at the Cannes Film Festival, much to the consternation of the French public (the movie was the highest-grossing French film of the year and went on to win just about every other major European film award except Cannes).

A brief Storyboard Comparison (just 1 minute long) takes a look at the funhouse ride scene. "Home Movies" Inside the Making of Amelie (13 minutes) is much as it sounds, a compilation of behind-the-scene footage presented without narration in home-movie style. The filming of the orgasm montage sequence is quite hilarious. The Amelie Scrapbook contains a series of still galleries covering behind-the-scenes photos, French poster concepts, storyboards, and (my favorite) a journal of the garden gnome's travels. We also get one each of the American and French theatrical trailers, followed by a string of TV spots. The 12 American spots are annoyingly repetitive, but the 5 French spots are very clever and do a much better job of selling the film. Finally, to wrap things up we get some Cast & Crew Filmographies.

DVD-ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM extras have been included.

Parting Thoughts

A great movie, solid transfer, and a lot of interesting supplements make for a highly recommended purchase. DTS audio is missed but probably not essential. (If I have one complaint, it is that Miramax has marred some perfectly good poster art with a stupid peek-a-boo slipcover and an obnoxious "5 ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATIONS" banner that appears on both the outside and inside of the packaging.)

Obsessive fans should probably note that the movie was released in France in a limited edition metal tin reminiscent of the one Amelie finds behind her bathroom wall. It has already gone long out of print, but a similar set is scheduled for release in Japan. Unfortunately, neither of these foreign DVDs contain English subtitles or translation, and both are coded for playback only in Region 2 DVD players (the French disc is also in PAL format). TVA International will also be releasing a special collector's edition in French-speaking Canada as well, coded for Region 1 NTSC but again containing no English subtitles or translation.