Customer Reviews

Movie - Amelie

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I'm going to assume that anyone looking at this listing is familiar with the movie Amélie and will stick to technical details of this release. If you want thoughts about the movie, I suggest taking a look at the 980+ reviews of the DVD: Amélie Suffice to say that this is a "top 5" favorite movie for me, since I first saw it in a theater, or I wouldn't have bothered importing it on Blu-ray Disc.

This Blu-ray Disc was released by Icon in Australia. It comes in a blue Amaray case that is the same height as a regular BD case but is the same thickness as a standard DVD case.

The main menu and movie are in Region A, B, C ("region-free") High Definition and will play on any Blu-ray Disc player. The leading trailers and extras are in standard definition PAL format and will not play correctly on most USA/Canada BD players, except for region-free ones (such as Momitsu, or equivalent).

The disc opens with some copyright screens in high definition (I thought the "don't burn" one was nicely done). These are followed by some PAL trailers that are not watchable on NTSC BD players. The main menu button doesn't work but the trailers can easily be skipped by using the "chapter skip" button on the player remote. That brings you to the main menu, in high definition. The main menu doesn't have a "setup" tab. Instead, when the movie is played, the disc defaults to the lossless DTS-HD Master Audio track with English subtitles "on" (they can be turned off if you wish). Very convenient. (For those folks with front projectors, please note that the subtitles are "Sony-style" and have the top line in the 2.35:1 image and the lower line below the picture. This can be a problem for those using 2.35:1 masked screens.)

I thought the movie was lovely in high definition; I couldn't ask for a better presentation. Perhaps someone with a higher end system can find flaws to criticize but for me, this is what I was hoping for with this purchase. Best of all, this release has the correct English subtitles! The Disney/Miramax DVD release had numerous subtitle errors, some of which changed the meaning of the dialog and led to confusion. Having the correct subtitles is a big plus for me and was the other thing I was hoping for in this release, in addition to a good high def picture.

To sum up: this release of Amélie is gorgeous in high definition and has the correct subtiles. But the extras aren't viewable on most USA/Canada BD players. Since I've already seen the extras on the DVD, I'm happy to have the movie in high def at last. Very pleased with my purchase. I'm giving this BD four stars because the extras and leading trailers can't be viewed on NTSC BD players (they could have converted them to HD). But the movie itself is five stars all the way!

I sold my regular DVD before my Blu-ray arrived, and was thinking I'd be out of luck
for everything but the movie.

On a Panasonic DMP-BD30, that is the case. You have to skip over the trailers,
as all you see is Black. When it goes to the menu, you can click on the bonus
features, but again all you see is Black. I would of been OK with this,
as I really like the movie, and was looking forward to HD.

What a surprise, in my LG BD390 ... Trailers, Bonus Features, and the movie ALL play!
(No modifications were done to my player.)

Hopefully the price will come down ... this is a little steep.
But the 3rd party sellers are more reasonable.

...and by the way, it looks phenomenal. Excellent transfer. Single subtitles are below
the picture in the black, and doubles are in the picture & below. Very easy to read.

This movie is defenitly one of my top 5 in the list of favorites, already had the regular DVD but really wanted the Blue-Ray version, and I believe Blue-Ray was made exactly for this kind of movie. The DVD was in good condition as described by seller, no hasle, no fuzz and it arrived promptly.

I've been waiting for this wonderful movie to be released on Blu ray in the US. I've grown tired of waiting and given the positive reviews of this Australian release, I decided to give it a try despite the reports that I may not be able to view the PAL contents. I figured as long as I could watch the movie it would be worth it. To my surprise, my Pioneer BD player/TV played all the content with no problems!

The presentation on this Australian BD release looks gorgeous. The DTS-MA track also sounds terrific. Apparently there was another release (Canadian?) that got some negative reviews because the transfer wasn't that great; glad I didn't get that one.

The only reason I didn't give this BD release 5 stars is the extra content was lacking IMO. The DVD release I own has much more extra content, so I'll be keeping both releases.

Great movie, terrific transfer and sound, what more could you want?

Bottom line; love it, highly recommended!

First let me say that I own the DVD. When I saw that it had become available on Blu-ray I ordered it. As you can probably tell it is an import from Australia. Because of this, the case is slightly thicker than a normal case. The movie comes as a single disc.

The audio/video transfer was well executed, the movie was gorgeous to begin with, and it's nice to see they managed not to mess this up (unlike "Hero").

The only reason for the 4 stars was that the extras are not 1080p and as a result will not play on my PS3 so I won't be enjoying those.

As with the original, the movie is in French with English subtitles.

As for the movie, very briefly, it is the story of a young woman who goes on a mission to help others despite her own problems.

If I were to classify the story, I'd say romantic comedy with a side of fantasy.

It is an adult movie so there is some nudity, for those who have not seen it.

If you've seen the movie, then you already know this, the jump to blu-ray was worth the $34, for me anyway.

However, as always, rent it first (as a DVD most likely) and decide for yourself.

"Amélie" is a film where you want to find the perfect word for describing its charm. There is probably such a word in French, but I would not know what it was. All I know is that quirky, enchanting, and everything I come up with in English is wholy inadequate to the task at hand. The most important thing to know is that "Amélie" is a film where you should go see it because so many people love it, even if it requires you to not to do anything else so you can read the subtitles (some people resist such demands and--shudder--listen to dubbed versions of "Life is Beautiful" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon"). I feel about this film the way I did about "Memento," where I told people they should see it and refused to tell them anything else because it would ruin the experience (think the Heisenberg principle). However, I think the audience that would enjoy "Amélie" is considerably wider than those who would cotton to a quirkly little film like "Memento."

So, I am giving you my strongest recommendation for you to see "Amélie." Now, if you have not yet seen the film, please go away, because I want to talk to those who have seen the film and while I am not going to be providing what we would traditionally consider "spoilers," you really sure come to view this film as pure and chaste as the driven snow (of which we have lots up here).

I find it interesting that the film's French title "Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain" was reduced to just "Amélie" for American consumption. Combined with the green framed portrait of actress Audrey Tautou smiling impishly as the title character, this certainly does not give viewers a real idea of what they will discover in this film. One of the chief charms of the film for me was how you had to pay attention to the details because almost everything was a clue as to future developments (the exception that proves the rule would be Blubber, whose return we patiently waited for throughout the entire film).

Jean-Pierre Jeunet establishes the fabulous world of Amélie Poulain in the creative prologue, which establishes what each of our cast of characters likes to do. We then begin 48 hours in which d'Amélie's life is changed. Of course such massive developments hinge on a bottle cap fallen to the floor. Our heroine's efforts to sabotage the life of Collignon (Urbain Cancelier), the Grocer (who will never be confused with an artichoke), struck my funny bone exceedingly hard and her relationship with the Glass Man, Raymond Dufayel (Serge Merlin), was particularly nice, both their discussions about the girl with the wine glass in the Renoir painting and the old man giving her the final push to her destiny. The only question is whether Nino Quincampoix (Mathieu Kassovitz), is really good enough for our girl, but if she is smitten with a man who collects torn up and discarded photographs from photo booths around town, who are we to challenge her choice?

The end of the fabulous 48 hours at which point our heroine finds her destiny does not offer a perfect world. Some find true bliss in love, others finally go on trips, but some still right where they started, unpublished, afflicted by imaginary illnesses, or consumed by jealousy. But as long as Amélie lives happily ever after we are content.