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One of the characteristics I've noticed in the two Jeunet films I've watched, involves his use of interconnecting threads in an otherwise juxtaposed or fractured story line. This is not exactly a unique technique in recent cinema. Paul Thomas Anderson used it quite effectively in "Magnolia." Likewise David Lynch in "Mullholand Drive," for just two examples. Jeunet surpasses all of them, however, in terms of playfulness and sheer directorial instinct. It owes also to a sensibility in French cinema that hearkens back most directly to the Jaques Tati era.

The artistic marriage of such an artfully clever director with an actress (Audrey Tautou) seemingly born to play a role can best be chalked up to kismet, synchroneity, harmonic convergence, whatever. I'm just glad they got together, for they make for an irresistable combo.

Highest marks for camera work, script, direction, acting, DVD transfer. This is the whole package. Don't let anything put you off from securing this grand-slam of a film. For something "completely different," also check out "City of Lost Children." I can't wait for "Delicatessan" to be released to DVD.

BEK

The only-child of a tight-lipped, hard-hearted doctor father and a neurotic schoolteacher mother, Amelie Poulaine grew up being too much unloved, with a not too happy childhood. As a young lady, she becomes a waitress at the Two Windmills cafe, but other times spends her time in an imaginative world of dreams, not forming close ties with people, being terribly shy.

One day, she is watching TV when Princess Diana's death is announced. From then on, she decides to be a healer of sorts, whether it be uniting a man with childhood memories he left in a cubbyhole in the skirting board long time ago, trying to soothe the hearts of people, make people's lives better, or being an avenging angel. The scene where she helps a blind man across the street and describes what's going on is simply magical.

Amelie is also befriended by artist Raymond Dufayel, known as the Glass Man because of a disease that has given him very brittle bones. They communicate indirectly through a painting he's working on, particularly a young girl that Dufayel's trying to figure out.

Amelie meets Nino Quincompoix, a man who collects discarded, frequently torn ID card photos from a photo booth and puts the reconstructed pieces in an album. Included in there many times is a stern bald man whose pictures are always torn up. Amelie finds Nino's album and wonders who the bald man is. This is a mystery included in the film.

There's Colignon the grocer, an obnoxious middle-aged man who delights himself in disparaging his assistant Lucien, who's slow-witted but nice and sensitive. Amelie feels sorry for Lucien and the scenes where she becomes his avenging angel at Colignon's expense are hilarious. At one point she tells Colignon, "You'll never be a vegetable. Even artichokes have hearts." Ouch, but well deserved.

Amelie's widowed father spends his life collecting garden statues to decorate his dead wife's shrine, instead of travelling around the world. Amelie steals one of them, a bearded garden gnome complete with red pointed hat, and then something weird happens. A few days later, her father receives a postcard from the gnome, who is apparently on holiday abroad!!! This goes on for a while and completely baffles him.

Audrey Tautou would've been my choice for Best Actress of the year. I simply melted everytime she smiled in the movie. She also bears a slight similarity to another Audrey--Hepburn. Both have in common black hair, a face brimming with charm, and irresistible smiles. Maybe that's why it was love at first sight with me.

Director Jean-Pierre Jeunet uses some quirky film techniques, mostly visual imagery, such as a scene when Amelie literally dissolves into water. The onscreen narration is also useful. At times, it sets the stage for turning points in the film. Earlier, it describes the likes and hates of the Poulaines and the one important characteristic of the Two Windmill employees. He creates an imaginative film that's a breather from the usual Hollywood grind. But it's his closeups of Amelie and her smile that make this worth seeing over and over.

The movie starts with the purveying of Amelie's childhood where her father is a physician who yearns to travel. The intimacy towards her reticent father is only experienced when he gives her a check-up; her mother died tragically with a fateful suicidal victim falling onto her. Introverted and a lonely recluse, she enjoys the small pleasures of throwing stones in the river and eating strawberries from her fingers. She slowly fades into the glorious Paris where few ever stops to admire its delicate beauty. It is only until the day when she finds unexpectedly a box with little toys and returns it to the owner after much difficulty that she discovers the simple joy of spreading warmth to the people around in her tiny universe.

AMELIE is heavenly for the subtle emotions it triggers. The quirky humour where Lady Di's sensational demise is juxtaposed wickedly to Mother Teresa's; Amelie's sarcasm towards the grumbling grocery shop-owner -"even artichokes have a heart". It is ironic that she lacks the courage to pursue her own happiness when she gives others mirth through little acts. She steals her father's gnome and pictures it with thw world's historical monuments as backgrounds to convince her father to venture out; she writes love letter to comfort the forlorn widow; she gives the Glass Man who named for his brittle bones a new perspective towards life. In her adventures there is sweet exuberance and fluttering hope that she finds her true love with a shy photographer (Mathieu Kassovitz).

Of course the dazzlingly resplendent magical Paris isn't reality - and curmudegeons in the Cannes Festival rejected the film for its lack of realism. Yet in this film Jeunet's deliberate removal of flaws through computer effects has wondrously touched the audience's heart to spellbinding effect. It sheds miraculously hope in the worst of times and that ordinary heroes can achieve happiness unwittingly. The lead role intended for Emily Watson is through a twist of fate, helmed by Audrey Tautou - and through her emotive eyes - there are genuine moments of sorrow, mellifluous joy, cunning and bashfulness.

For all its box-office phenomenon, it remains at the very best a deeply moving picture that will tug at your heartstring for a very long time after you leave the cinema. Happiness is a subliminal experience - and it is definitely one emotion you will feel after this movie.