Amelie Timeline

1.       We are introduce to an idyllic Paris with seemingly insignificant details – bluebottles flying, glasses dancing
2.       Title sequence with Amelie indulging in childhood activities – eating strawberries from fingers, creating a face with her hand, making noises using the top of a wine glass, spinning coins etc.
3.       Meet Amelie’s mother and father we find out their Likes / Dislikes
4.       We see Amelie as a six year old. Her father treats her like a patient and her mother like a student. As Amelie get excited with contrast from her father her heart beats fast – he diagnoses her as having a heart defect and declares her unfit for school.
5.       Amelie resorts to a childhood where her imagination runs riot, she thinks records are like pancakes, imagines playing doctors with monsters and has a suicidal goldfish as her only friend – whom she then has to set free. (On a bridge we later see her skimming stones)
6.       Amelie takes pictures with a used camera – again her imagination is clear with clouds becoming rabbits and bears. Following a crash a neighbour makes her think it is her photos that caused the crash. When she sees the news she thinks her camera has caused major accidents. Realising she’s been tricked she gets her own back by ruining the football.
7.       Amelie’s mother is killed by a suicidal tourist. Dad becomes a recluse
8.       Forward to Amelie as a young adult – working is Les Deux Moulin (Two Windmills) in Montmartre
9.       We meet her co-workers, a Former Circus performer, a hypochondriac, a rejected lover, an airhostess .
10.   On her way to visit her father she offers money to a homeless man who replies, ‘No Thankyou, I don’t work on Sundays.’
11.   We see Amelie’s Likes / Dislikes. Plunging hand into grain, breaking Crème Brule, skimming stones, We learn relationships have been a disappointment for her.
12.   We meet the glass man (Dufayel) – his bones are so brittle he can’t leave. He films a clock on a camera as he is unable to wind up his own, he paints recreations of famous paintings  - a link to the artists of Montmartre,
13.   When she hears of Princess Diana’s Death she drops a bottle top which reveals the location of a hidden box – left by a former inhabitant of the house. She vows to find the owner.
14.   She asks Madeleine, the concierge of the apartment who used to live there. Madeleine tells of how her husband left her. Before this he used to write her letters.
15.   Amelie then sees Collingnon, the grocer to find out who lived in her apartment. He is mean about his assistant Lucien. Collingnon sends her to his parents They give her the name Bredoteau .
16.   She walks along an empty subway, containing only a blind man and sees Nino rummaging under a photobooth. We see also that Nino had a tough childhood – bullied by his peers.
17.   She visits her dad who is cleaning a Gnome to add to his wife’s shrine
18.   After failed attempts to find Bredoteau, she is informed by the glass man that the correct spelling is Bretodeau. Meanwhile he shows her a picture he is painting – Renoir’s Luncheon of the Boating Party. He is having trouble painting one girl
19.   Amelie ensures Bretodeau gets his box back by leaving it in a phone box. He is delighted. He claims he will get back in touch with his daughter.
20.   Amelie, vowing to help others, leads the blind man down the road and explains all that is around him.
21.   Amelie sees the Glassman dining alone. She eulogises her future – helping others but eventually dying sad and lonely.
22.   Amelie goes to see her father but he is asleep, instead she takes his gnome. She missed the last train and has to sleep in a photo booth.
23.   When she awakes Nino is in the station, once again rummaging for photos. He runs after a man with red trainers. In the chase Nino drops a scrapbook. Amelie retrieves it.
24.   Amelie looks through the scrapbook. It is full of discarded ID photos. The same man keeps reappearing in the album.
25.   Back in the Café, Amelie begins to set up Joseph with Georgette.
26.   On her way to work the next day, Amelie reads an article about a mailbag which has been discovered after decades of being lost.
27.   Amelie sees that Collignon has left his keys in his apartment door. She takes them and gets a spare key cut. She uses thins to break and create a series of practical jokes on him.
28.   Amelie visits her father who shows her a photo of his Gnome in Moscow. On her way home she sees that Nino has put up a poster asking for his album back.
29.   Joseph and Georgette get together at the Café!!!
30.   Amelie visits Nino’s workplace, he is not there, she is sent to the fairground where Nino works on the ghost train.
31.   She leaves Nino a note, saying to meet at Montemarte and to bring 5 francs (French money before the Euro) When Nino gets home he dreams that the photos are talking to him – similar to Amelie’s daydreams.
32.   Next day Nino arrives at Montemarte, a telephone call tells him to follow the arrows, When he gets to the top he puts 5 francs into the telescope to reveal Amelie placing his album back in his scooter.
33.   After collignon is mean to Lucien once again, Amelie goes back into his apartment to play more tricks.
34.   Amelie uses the letters sent to Madeleine to recreate a new letter (supposedly lost) which convinces her that her husband always loved her.
35.   The gnome returns and Amlie leaves another note for Nino to meet her at the Two Windmills.
36.   When at first Nino doesn’t turn up Amelie begins to imagine an elaborate reason why he hasn’t’ turned up. Finally he does turn up but she can bring herself to talk to him. A Note is placed in Nino’s pocket by Amelie’s co-worker. .
37.   Nino goes to meet Amelie at the train station, where she has purposely broken the photo booth. The man with the red trainers is there fixing it – The mystery of the man is revealed!
38.   Amelie falsely thinks that her co-worker friend has met up with Nino to steal her from her. She is sad and imagines what life would have been like with Nino.
39.   Nino knocks on her door, she can’t bring herself to open it, Nino goes away. Nino receives a phone call from Dufayel telling her to go in the bedroom where candles and a video await. On the video Dufayel tells her she must take this chance or her heart will become as brittle as his bones.
40.   Nino returns to the flat and they kiss.
41.   As the film ends Nino and Amelie drive off together.

Themes

·         Innocence and Simplicity

·         Happiness

·         Childhood

·         Outsiders