Jean-Pierre Jeunet (France)
Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amélie (Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain) employs several characteristics typical of documentary yet veers resolutely in the direction of pure, romantic fancy. Its premise is slight, and concerns the withdrawn, imaginative and almost impossibly adorable Amélie (Audrey Tautou) who, compelled by an irrepressible desire to improve the lives of her unhappy, Parisian neighbours, involves herself in a series of anonymous pranks. Between selfless acts, she also woos Nino (Mathieu Kassovitz), the long-awaited man of her dreams. In the end, Amélie amounts to a series of inventive set-pieces, each of which is enlivened by the film's consistently unique aesthetic. Jeunet's presents the city of Paris as a familiar yet wholly fictitious place with the result that the film, like Amélie, occupies a world of its own. - N.A.

(Mon., Sept. 10, 9:30 pm, Elgin; Wed., Sept. 12, 3:30 pm, Uptown 2)