Amélie - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of Amélie or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to Amélie

[michele]

The funeral in the imaginary black-and-white documentary that Amélie watches on TV is composed of footage from a 1923 Pathe Journal newsreel segment about the death of actress Sarah Bernhardt.

[kylie]

In the original film, when Amélie goes to Mr. Collignon's parents, the father, who makes holes in flowers, says he'd rather make these holes into lilacs. This is a direct reference to French singer Serge Gainsbourg's song "Le poinçonneur des Lilas". The reference is not translated in the English subtitles.

[jesus]

Ranked number 82 non-English-speaking film in the critics' poll conducted by the BBC in 2018.

[kenzi]

Voted #2 in Australia's Favourite Movie poll.

[maureen]

Jean-Pierre Jeunet: hans] Death of Amélie's mother. An orphan is considered to have lost both parents. As Amélie's father is still alive, she is not considered an orphan. However, Jean-Pierre Jeunet often portrays children who have suffered the loss of one or both parents.

[carl]

Vanessa Paradis was considered to play the part of Amélie.

[frederick]

To brighten up the Glass Man's day, Amélie records a bicycle race for him in which an escaped horse gallops alongside the riders. The Glass Man later makes an oblique reference to the Tour de France, though the footage is actually from a different race, the Critérium International in 1997.

[phyllis]

At the opening scene, where the crew is being displayed on screen, young Amélie is representing the job of each crew member listed with origami.

[jesus]

Nino's last name is "Quincampoix". Quincampoix is also a village about sixty miles northwest of Paris. It's a rare surname even in France, so this is likely not a coincidence: buried in Quincampoix is the champion cyclist Jacques Anquetil, who for many years was tough competition for Federico Martín Bahamontes -- the same Bahamontes whose win of the '59 Tour de France the young Dominique Bretodeau cheers on in the film. (Anquetil placed third in the same race.)

[beth]

The film has been digitally color-corrected at 2K resolution.

[sandra]

The main colors in the film (green, yellow and red) are inspired by the paintings of the Brazilian artist Juarez Machado.

[richard]

The actor reading the magazine on the park bench near the end of the film, Régis Iacono , can be seen playing the "Ice Cream Man" in the music video for "Bangarang!" by EDM artist Skrillex.

[charlie]

With the exception of brief exchanges on the phone at Sacre Coeur and in person in the Deux Moulins, Amélie and Nino do not exchange a single line of dialogue during the course of the entire film.

[michele]

Some of the locations in the film can be found in Montmartre. The café "Les 2 Moulins" can be found at the beginning of Rue Lepic and the vegetable/fruit store "Collignon" at 56 Rue des Trois Frères.

[cassandra]

The traveling gnome was inspired by a rash of similar pranks played 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. The idea was later used in an advertising campaign for an Internet travel agency.

[kristina]

In the introduction, when the narrator says "nine months later, she was born", the footage shows a pregnant woman's stomach growing larger during her nine months of pregnancy. This footage was taken from a time-lapse film called 17 Seconds to Sophie (1998). It was shot in 16mm of the mother (Carol Cote) by the father (Bill Cote) of the daughter (Sophie Cote) using a Bolex mounted on a wall. The dad clicked off two frames a day, for the entire nine months. The lighting was fixed, the background was fixed, the focus was fixed. The only thing that changed was the mother's stomach and her hair (you can see the length of her hair growing and receding with the passage of time). The film won first prize in the Shorts International Film Festival (experimental category) in New York, 1998.

[aaron]

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.

[sophie]

After the movie, the chairs from the outside of Café Des Deux Moulins were changed to avoid being stolen.

[wesley]

It was in 1974 that Jean-Pierre Jeunet began collecting the memories and events that make up the story of Amélie.