She convinces the unhappy concierge of her building that the husband who abandoned her had in fact sent her a final love letter just before his death. She matches a co-worker with one of the customers in the bar. She persuades her father to follow his dream of touring the world by stealing his garden gnome and having an air-hostess friend send pictures of it from all over the world. She escorts a blind man to the Metro station, giving him a rich description of the street scenes he passes. On seeing the positive effect she had on him, she resolves from that moment on to do good in the lives of others.Īmélie becomes a secret matchmaker and guardian angel, executing complex, but hidden schemes that impact the lives of those around her with subtle, arm's length manipulation, leading to several sub-plots and episodes. She trails him to a nearby bar and observes him secretly. Upon opening the box, the man, moved to tears, has an epiphany as long-forgotten childhood memories come flooding back. With his help, she tracks down the former occupant, and places the box in a phone booth, ringing the number as he passes to lure him there.

He is known as 'the Glass Man' because of his brittle bone condition. Fascinated by this find, she resolves to track down the now adult man who placed it there and return it to him, making a deal with herself in the process: if she finds him and it makes him happy, she will devote her life to bringing happiness to others.Īmélie meets her reclusive neighbour, Raymond Dufayel, a painter who continually repaints Luncheon of the Boating Party (Le Déjeuner des canotiers) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Behind the loose tile she finds an old metal box of childhood memorabilia hidden by a boy who lived in her apartment decades earlier.

Shocked upon hearing the news of Diana's death on television, Amélie drops her perfume bottle cap, knocking loose a bathroom wall tile. Her life begins to change on the day Princess Diana dies. L'épicerie of Monsieur Collignon, Rue des Trois Frères, Paris, used as a film location Martin's Canal, trying to guess how many couples in Paris are having an orgasm at one moment (“Fifteen!”, she correctly informs the camera), and letting her imagination roam free. By age 23, life for Amélie is simple having spurned romantic relationships following a few failed efforts, she has devoted herself to simple pleasures, such as dipping her hand into sacks of grain, cracking crème brûlée with a teaspoon, skipping stones across St. The café is staffed and frequented by a gang of eccentrics. Left to amuse herself, Amélie develops an unusually active imagination.Īs a young woman, Amélie is a waitress in a small Montmartre café, The Two Windmills, run by a former circus performer. Raphaël withdraws even further as a result, and devotes his life to building a rather eccentric shrine in the garden to Amandine's memory, which houses her ashes. Amandine dies when Amélie is young, the victim of a freak accident involving a suicidal Québécoise woman who throws herself off the top of Notre Dame Cathedral and lands on Amélie's mother. Her mother Amandine, a neurotic schoolteacher with shaky nerves, sees to Amélie's education. Raphaël, her taciturn, antisocial ex-Army doctor father, mistakenly believes that she suffers from a heart condition (a mistake resulting from the increase in her heartbeat caused by the rare thrill of physical contact with her father, who only ever touches her during medical check-ups).

Amélie Poulain was a girl who grew up isolated from other children.

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