Amélie

"Time is an invention of people incapable of loving."

"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 Raphael Poulain, made a dash for an egg in his wife Amandine. Nine months later, Amélie Poulain was born."

"In such a dead world, Amelie prefers to dream until she's old enough to leave home."

"It's better to help people than garden gnomes." - Amélie

Amélie: " Maybe she tries hard to fix other peoples messy lives."
Glass Man: "What about her? And her own messy life? Who will fix that?"

"Without you, today's emotions would be the scurf of yesterday's." - Hipolito

"Amelie has one friend, Blubber. Alas the home environment has made Blubber suicidal."

"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."

[Amélie hands a beggar some money]

"Sorry madam, I don't work on Sundays." - Beggar

"We pass the time of day to forget how time passes." - Hipolito

Man: "She is in love."

Nino: "I don't even know her!"

Man: "Oh, you know her."

Nino: "Since when?"

Man: "Since always."

Man: "In your dreams."

"At least you'll never be a vegetable - even artichokes have hearts." - Amélie

[whispering in cinema] "I like to look for things no one else catches." [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 

"The fool looks at a finger that points at the sky." 

"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!" - Glass Man

"A woman without love wilts like a flower without sun."

Narrator: "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?"

Amélie: "Fifteen."

"I had two heart attacks, an abortion, did crack... while I was pregnant. Other than that, I'm fine."  - 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

"You mean she would rather imagine herself relating to an absent person than build relationships with those around her?" - Glass Man

"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."

Joseph: "Cram it, failure!"

Hipolito: "Failed writer, failed life... I love the word "fail." Failure is human destiny."

Joseph: "It's gasbag time!"

Hipolito: "Failure teaches us that life is but a draft, a long rehearsal for a show that will never play."

Joseph: "I bet he stole that."

Hipolito: "I do have some original ideas, but people always steal them. Same as your women."

Joseph: "Meaning?"

Hipolito: "You'd better get used to it."

 "These are hard times for dreamers."

Gina: "Absence makes..."

Nino: "...the heart grow fonder."

Old Man: "Still, true love does exist."

Suzanne: "I know. After 30 years behind a bar, I'm an expert. I'll even give you the recipe. Take two regulars, mix them together and let them stew. It never fails."

Glass Man: "So that's the one, there, the guy who raises his hand?"

Amélie: "Yes."

Glass Man: "Is she in love with him?"

Amélie: "Yes."

Glass Man: "The time has come for her to take some real risks."

Amélie: "Well yes, she's thinking about it. She's thinking of a stratagem."

Glass Man: "Yes, she likes stratagems, doesn't she?"

Amélie: "Yes."

Glass Man: "She's a bit of a coward. That's why I have trouble with her eyes."

"Philoméne likes the sound of the cat's bowl on the tiles. The cat likes overhearing children's stories."

"Bravo! Vive la France! You scalded me! Bravo! Ten out of ten! Ten out of ten! Bull's eye!" - Georgette

[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

"With a prompter in every cellar window whispering comebacks, shy people would have the last laugh."

"We pass the time of day to forget how time passes." - Hipolito

"In the apartment downstairs from Amélie lives Raymond Dufayel; they call him "The Glass Man." He was born with bones as brittle as crystal. All his furniture is padded. A handshake could crush his fingers. He's stayed inside for twenty years. Time has changed nothing."

"She doesn't relate to other people. She was always a lonely child." - Amélie

“Amélie has no boyfriend. She’s tried once or twice, but the results were a letdown…”

"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."

Madeleine: "Where's the owner?"

Lucien: "Shhh! Sleeping in the cauliflower!"

"Raphael Poulain dislikes peeing next to someone else."

Mr. Collignon: [whispering to Amelie] "Bre-to-deau. But if I say it, it won't count. I'm senile."

Mrs. Collignon: "Ignore him. He's senile. See what he's done to my laurel? His old job was punching metro tickets. Now he gets up every night to punch holes in my laurel!"

Mr. Collignon: "We all need a way to relax."

"For Bretodeau, that little box brought back a lot of memories - Federico Bahamontes winning the '59 Tour de France, and of course, the tragic day when he won all the marbles at playtime."

Mme. Wallace: "When my sweet little weasel appears at the station…" Did anyone ever write you like that?"
Amélie: "No. I'm nobody's little weasel."

Joseph: "You're gorgeous when you blush. Like a wild flower."

Georgette: "It's my dyspepsia."

"If Amélie chooses to live in a dream-world and remain an introverted young woman, she has every right to mess up her life!"

"September 28th, 1997. It is exactly 11am. At the funfair, near the ghost train, the marshmallow twister is twisting. Meanwhile, on a bench in Villette Square, Félix Lerbier learns there are more links in his brain than atoms in the universe. Meanwhile, at the Sacré Coeur, the nuns are practising their backhand. The temperature is 24°C, humidity 70%, atmospheric pressure 990 millibars."