AMELIE (2001)

It’s hard to say this movie wasn’t sensual for me because I liked it so much initially, but all-in-all, it wasn’t.Part of me wonders if the sensuality doesn’t translate to the small screen because Amelie certainly abounds with sensual scenes—the opening credits with the young Amelie playing childhood games, grown-up Amelie’s love of simple pleasures like skipping stones and putting her hands in bags of beans, glasses seeming to dance on a tablecloth, the lists of what people enjoy including the cat, etc.But there is a jumpiness in the camera work that is jarring and a coldness to the characters even when they seem to be finding the warmth of human affection. I was disappointed because the memory of the movie was one of warmth and romance. That is certainly captured in the last few scenes ( I love the dreamy fantasy of her husband running out to get a missing ingredient for her cake and the gentle, gentle love scene) but I don’t feel it throughout the movie so I would have to say this movie isn’t sensual for me. Certainly worth watching if you haven’t seen it—fun, different and Audrey Tautou is a complete knockout but not a sensual selection in my book.