Before watching the movie:

I recall pretty well the appearance of this movie on the media landscape. I don’t think I saw any trailers, but Audrey Tautou’s face was suddenly in a lot of places. I never got any sense of why people loved this movie, but it looked like a painting and was probably a romance, so I never really took an interest in it. But it kept being out there, and when I decided to do a tour of foreign-language movies, this was an easy pick.

I have to wonder if I’d have been more enticed by a direct translation of the French title. “Amélie” tells me nothing except that it’s about a girl named Amélie. “The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain” at least conveys some kind of tone and direction.

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