There are some films that are pure joy to watch. These are films to be watched, cherished, and loved over and over again. There are certainly films that I may not herald as perfect cinematic achievements, but bring a smile to my face, and warmth to my heart. Amelie is such a film.

Jean Piere Jeunet made a series of dark, depressing films before Amelie. They seem to come from some strange crossing of Brazil era Gilliam and HR Giger inspired Alien landscapes. In fact Pierre directed the 4th installment of the Alien franchise, Alien Resurrection. Prior to Amelie's huge success he was only known in the US for this picture. Which is a shame, because her previous two films (Delicatessen and City of Lost Children) are real gems.

In Amelie, Jeunet has lost his Orwellian vision of the world and has come up top of the world into the clear, blue sky. It is a beautiful, color filled, world that he has come up into. Amelie is alive with color and beauty. It is as if his first three films were harrowing graphic novels, and this one is bright, technicolor Saturday morning cartoon. It is even a change of story for the director. Where his previous films concerned such meaty subjects as cannibalism, child murder, and those bloody awful Aliens, here is a simple story about making people happy. I'm not sure what caused these changes in the director, but it is a treasure to behold.

The story revolves, of course, around Amelie (Audrey Tautou), a shy, quiet, and lonely young women living in the Montmatre section of Paris. Through a random series of events she decides to make people happy. The means in which she manages this, and the heart of the movie, is through devising an extraordinary, and quirky, series of stratagems. For example, in order to bring some excitement into her saddened fathers life, she kidnaps his garden gnome and sends it across the globe with an airline stewardess. Her father sees the gnomes through a series of photographs taken with the gnome standing near national monuments! The entire film is played out with a child like innocence and beauty. Jeunet uses his camera to create images that are light and joyous. Audrey Tautou plays Amelie like a pixie who is bursting inside to tell the worlds funniest joke.