When Amelie<\/em> came out in 2001, I wasn\u2019t exactly feeling it. I caught it one night during a preview screening and dozed off on it a couple times. It was too damn whimsical, like a French version of a Wes Anderson film. Here\u2019s this tale of an adorkable, fourth wall-breaking, cafe waitress (Audrey Tautou in a star-making performance) with a Lulu bob haircut, doing all kinds of cute shit in a part of Paris that\u2019s more quirky and colorful than any music video directed by Michel Gondry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Not to mention that the titular character, the offspring of parents who are clearly on the spectrum (her late, headmistress mom didn\u2019t like to be touched, while her ex-Army doctor dad doesn\u2019t like peeing next to other guys), is kinda loopy in the noggin. When she\u2019s not doing good-natured but weird schemes to help those around her (seeing a greengrocer verbally abuse his employee leads to her sneaking into the greengrocer\u2019s apartment and tampering with items that\u2019ll make his life miserable), she\u2019s playing a cat-and-mouse game with her crush (Mathieu Kassovitz), a guy who likes retrieving discarded photos of strangers from passport photo booths. She basically gives him the runaround until she truly feels dude is definitely in love with her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite what I felt about it, Amelie<\/em> became a hit. After grossing $41 million in its homeland (it stayed in the top ten for 22 weeks), it eventually headed over to these parts and made $173.9 million worldwide. The critics loved the hell out of it. The New York Times<\/em>\u2019 Elvis Mitchell called it<\/a> \u201ca sugar-rush of a movie.\u201d Our resident Classic Corner columnist Sean Burns praised it<\/a> for being \u201chyperactively whimsical and more than a little subversive\u201d and resembling \u201cplayful \u201860s Godard without the existential dread.\u201d Even Chris Kattan impersonated the character<\/a> on Saturday Night Live<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s a good thing that Amelie<\/em> was a success before hitting U.S. shores. If it didn\u2019t, Harvey Scissorhands would\u2019ve slashed the shit out of it. Jeunet and Weinstein have had quite the dicey (pardon the pun) relationship over the years; when Weinstein wanted to re-edit Delicatessen<\/em>, the 1991 debut Jeunet made with comics artist Marc Caro, the directors hit him with this ultimatum: \u201cOK. We have another idea for a modification, you cut our names out of the credits,\u201d Jeunet later said the movie was only popular on home video after getting a bad theatrical release. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite not being able to do his slicing-and-dicing thing, Weinstein eventually made Amelie<\/em> an awards contender. But despite winning several overseas awards (four Cesar Awards, three European Film Awards, a couple of BAFTAs), the movie unfortunately got curved by stateside awards. According to a post on Jeunet\u2019s own blog<\/a>, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences were tired of Weinstein\u2019s bully-boy tactics and decided to shut him and his films out in 2002, the year Amelie<\/em> was nominated for five Oscars, including Best Foreign Film:<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat was the year that the Academy, tired of Weinstein\u2019s vote-collecting \u2018abuse,\u2019 decided to boycott his films. \u2018We will not vote for <\/em>Am\u00e9lie,\u2019 wrote the American industry magazines. Whoopy [sic] Goldberg, president of the ceremony, spent the entire ceremony making fun of Weinstein. The result being, out of 19 nominations, he won only one Oscar.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Amelie<\/em> wasn\u2019t the last time Jeunet had to deal with Weinstein and his bullshit. When Weinstein got U.S. distribution for The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet<\/em> – Jeunet\u2019s first 3-D film \u2013 in 2015, he wanted Jeunet to re-edit it. Since Jeunet had final cut, he wasn\u2019t changing a damn thing. Jeunet said<\/a> this led to Weinstein dumping it, releasing the trailer a day before it dropped in theaters, with no press screenings or no other marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Weinstein isn\u2019t the only canceled person Jeunet has called out for dickish behavior. He put Joss Whedon on blast for the negative comments<\/a> he made about Alien: Resurrection<\/em>, which Whedon wrote the script for. \u201cHe\u2019s very good at making films for American geeks \u2013 something for morons,\u201d Jeunet said in 2022<\/a>. \u201cBecause he\u2019s very good at making Marvel films. I hate this kind of movie. It\u2019s so silly, so stupid.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Nevertheless, Amelie<\/em> is hitting theaters again<\/a> this Valentine\u2019s Day season. The final film to come out of Miramax\u2019s pro-French Miramax Zoe wing<\/a>, it\u2019s now being distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, which distributed Jeunet and Caro\u2019s 1995 sci-fi fantasy The City of Lost Children<\/em> (my favorite Jeunet flick, by the way). <\/p>\n\n\n\n It turns out this crazy-ass tale of a girl both finding and<\/em> spreading love is still beloved by fans. I recently asked my dear friends on Facebook if anyone liked Amelie<\/em>, and the comments were quite enthusiastic. The Last Days of Video <\/em>novelist Jeremy Hawkins said he \u201cappreciates the film\u2019s earnest philosophy of helping others as a way to help yourself,\u201d even lumping it alongside such humane hangout movies as Jim Jarmusch\u2019s Paterson<\/em> and Wim Wenders\u2019s currently-in-theaters Perfect Days<\/em>. Film critic Victor Morton told me it has \u201ca perfect combo of confectionary text and dark subtext \u2026 it resembles Hitchcock in no other way \u2014 except that.\u201d North Carolina DJ Nick Speaks loves \u201chow it makes Wes Anderson seem like an absolute freshman in replicating French cinema.\u201d And Austin resident Robin Cuthbert \u201cloved the way characters were introduced, the plot, the ridiculously twee, cute aspects, and the music. I don’t think I could watch it again and love it as much.\u201d (She also said she \u201chad a huge crush on Mathieu Kassovitz at the time, so that helped.\u201d)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking back, it\u2019s understandable why this film became such a critical\/commercial\/global darling. Released in the States two months after 9\/11 (and set shortly after Princess Diana\u2019s untimely death in 1997), Amelie<\/em> was a dizzy, delightful, cinematic salve, a soothing bit of hope and happiness during a very dire time in 21st-century history. I may not have needed Amelie<\/em>, but the world certainly did.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Amelie” is back in theaters this week. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/amelie2-1024x576.jpg\")
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