Trivia
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Director Trademark (1)
The part of Amélie was written specifically for Emily Watson. She wanted the part but had to decline because she didn't speak French and had already agreed to be in Gosford Park.
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Whenever this film was shot on location, Jean-Pierre Jeunet and the crew would clean the area of debris, grime, trash and graffiti, so that the film would match his fantasy more so. This was an especially difficult task when it came time to shoot at the huge train station.
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Jean-Pierre Jeunet originally wanted Michael Nyman to score the film, but was unable to get him. Someone then gave Jeunet a CD by Yann Tiersen, who composes in a similar minimalist style, but with an extremely quirky, eclectic mix of instruments. Jeunet fell in love with the music and scored the film largely with existing pieces by Tiersen, for which he bought the rights. In addition, Tiersen wrote an original main theme, "La Valse d'Amelie," which was recorded in numerous variations and used throughout the film.
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Jean-Pierre Jeunet originally started collecting the stories and memories that make up the story in 1974.
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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.
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The artwork in Amélie's bedroom (the dog with collar, the white bird) and her crocodile imaginary friend are by artist Michael Sowa.
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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.
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The main colors in the film (green, yellow and red) are inspired by the paintings of the Brazilian artist Juarez Machado.
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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.
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Audrey Tautou doesn't know how to skip stones; the stone-skipping scenes were made with special effects.
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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".
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Hipolito is a reference to the secondary character Hippolite Terentyev, an unlucky philosopher, from the novel 'The Idiot' (1869) by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The main character of the novel is a person who is innocent, naive and immensely kind just like Amelie - most likely the film was inspired by the book.
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With the exception of a brief phone call where Amelie gives information to Nino, the two leads do not exchange a single word during the entire film.
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Director Trademark
Jean-Pierre Jeunet:
[orphans]
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.
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