The Movie: I had no idea what Amelie was about before I watched it. I just rented it because people kept telling me I should watch it. Or that it would be a movie that I would like. So I put it in my Netflix queue, and though it arrived like over a week ago, I didn't watch it because, well, I've pretty much done nothing but play Grand Theft Auto: Vice City since it came out. But tonight I took a break from playing the game to watch this movie. Before I started it, Cami said she heard that this movie was "the cutest movie ever made"... which kinda worried me because... I didn't know if I could handle watching two hours of the cutest movie ever made.

Thankfully, her description was not entirely accurate. Yes, the movie is cute. But it wasn't the sickening Care Bears kind of cute that I was hoping it wasn't going to be. But yeah. First of all, this movie is from France. So yeah, you're gonna have to read subtitles to watch this movie. If you're one of those people who think "man, if I wanted to read I'd go read a book", this movie isn't for you. Even if it was in English you wouldn't like it.

Amelie has got a brilliant and very original visual style, and I don't just mean the costumes and set decoration. I mean the way it uses the entire medium of film to convey a story, an emotion, or a theme. The way the camera was set up, the way it moves, the different visual and audio effects they used... all came together to form something unique and interesting, that I couldn't help but enjoy.

And the story? Well, yeah, it's cute. It's about a girl who sets out to touch people's lives in her own, happy way, and also, I guess a running theme would be to stop and remember the little things that make life great... and it's put together in a... mystical way. The world of Amelie is one that isn't quite reality, but not quite fantasy either.

And some people hate that. I don't. It's one of the things I like most in movies. One thing that did strike me weird at first was what seemed like blatant ripoffs from other movies... but as more and more of those little things popped up, I realized... it had to have been done deliberately... not in a way where it was trying to pretend like it was a new idea. So I guess it was OK in the end.

So yeah, I liked it. And a lot of other people like it. But some people will hate it. And to me, that's the sign of the best kind of art there is :)

The DVD: This is a two disc set, of which I only received the first disc from Netflix. The second disc is full of bonus features which I have not seen. The video transfer on this disc is extremely clean, even grainless. The colors are strong, but maintain the coloration that the director used to help create that sorta mystical feel I mentioned earlier. Though I did notice a bit of softness overall, I did not see any signs of compression artifacts or any other weird things. An excellent video transfer.

The audio was also clean and clear, with the music and dialog coming through perfectly. The surround channels don't get much of a workout, but there is a little bit of this or that, here and there. And as far as special features go, well, I can't tell you about them because I haven't seen them. The only stuff you see on the first disc is a handful of commercials for other Miramax products for you to buy. But as I said, there is a whole other disc full of nothing but special features, so you can check them out for yourself, I guess.