Amelie (2001) quotes

Director
Jean-Pierre Jeunet.

Cast
Audrey Tautou.
Mathieu Kassovitz.
Rufus.

Amélie is an innocent and naive girl in Paris with her own sense of justice. She decides to help those around her and, along the way, discovers love.

Without you, today’s emotions would be the scurf of yesterday’s.
– Hipolito, The Writer

Sorry madam, I don’t work on Sundays.
– Beggar

We pass the time of day to forget how time passes.
– Hipolito (The Writer)

So, my little Amélie, you don’t have bones of glass. You can take life’s knocks. If you let this chance pass, eventually, your heart will become as dry and brittle as my skeleton. So, go get him, for Pete’s sake!
– Raymond Dufayel aka Glass Man

The fool looks at a finger that points at the sky.
– The Sacré-Coeur Boy

At least you’ll never be a vegetable – even artichokes have hearts.
– Amélie Poulain

She is in love.
– Man in photo
I don’t even know her!
– Nino Quincampoix
Oh, you know her.
– Man in photo
Since when?
– Nino Quincampoix
Since always.
– Man in photo
In your dreams.
– Man in photo

[whispering in cinema] I like to look for things no one else catches.
– Amélie
[film on the cinema screen: as a man and a woman are about to kiss, a fly walks across a windowpane in the background]
I hate the way drivers never look at the road in old American movies.
– Amélie
[film on the cinema screen: the driver of a car turns towards his passenger and talks at length to her, totally ignoring the road ahead]

A woman without love wilts like a flower without sun.
– The Newsstand Woman

Amelie has a strange feeling of absolute harmony. It’s a perfect moment. A soft light, a scent in the air, the quiet murmur of the city. A surge of love, an urge to help mankind overcomes her.
– Narrator

You mean she would rather imagine herself relating to an absent person than build relationships with those around her?
– Raymond Dufayel aka Glass Man

Amélie still seeks solitude. She amuses herself with silly questions about the world below, such as “How many people are having an orgasm right now?”
– Narrator
[scenes of various orgasms taking place]
Fifteen.
– Amélie

On September 3rd 1973, at 6:28pm and 32 seconds, a bluebottle fly capable of 14,670 wing beats a minute landed on Rue St Vincent, Montmartre. At the same moment, on a restaurant terrace nearby, the wind magically made two glasses dance unseen on a tablecloth. Meanwhile, in a 5th-floor flat, 28 Avenue Trudaine, Paris 9, returning from his best friend’s funeral, Eugène Colère erased his name from his address book. At the same moment, a sperm with one X chromosome, belonging to Raphaël Poulain, made a dash for an egg in his wife Amandine. Nine months later, Amélie Poulain was born.
– Narrator

Nino is late. Amelie can only see two explanations. 1 – he didn’t get the photo. 2 – before he could assemble it, a gang of bank robbers took him hostage. The cops gave chase. They got away… but he caused a crash. When he came to, he’d lost his memory. An ex-con picked him up, mistook him for a fugitive, and shipped him to Istanbul. There he met some Afghan raiders who too him to steal some Russian warheads. But their truck hit a mine in Tajikistan. He survived, took to the hills, and became a Mujaheddin. Amelie refuses to get upset for a guy who’ll eat borscht all his life in a hat like a tea cozy.
– Narrator

[to her father, who is not paying attention] I had two heart attacks, an abortion, did crack… while I was pregnant. Other than that, I’m fine.
– Amélie

[to blind man] Let me help you. Step down. Here we go! The drum major’s widow! She’s worn his coat since the day he died. The horse’s head has lost an ear! That’s the florist laughing. He has crinkly eyes. In the bakery window, lollipops. Smell that! They’re giving out melon slices! Sugarplum, ice cream! We’re passing the park butcher. Ham, 79 francs. Spareribs, 45! Now the cheese shop. Picadors are 12.90. Cabecaus 23.50. A baby’s watching a dog that’s watching the chickens. Now we’re at the kiosk by the metro. I’ll leave you here. Bye!
– Amélie

Life’s funny. To a kid, time always drags. Suddenly you’re fifty. All that’s left of your childhood… fits in a rusty little box.
– Bretodeau, The Box Man

[Amélie has found Nino’s photo album and his “lost” posters] Any normal girl would call the number, meet him, return the album and see if her dream is viable. It’s called a reality check. The last thing Amélie wants.
– Narrator

I am nobody’s little weasel.
– Amélie