''Amélie'' is the

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

to the 2001 French film ''

Amélie ''Amélie'' (also known as ''Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain''; ; en, The Fabulous Destiny of Amélie Poulain, italic=yes) is a 2001 French-language romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume L ...

''. Director

Jean-Pierre Jeunet Jean-Pierre Jeunet (; born 3 September 1953) is a French film director, producer and screenwriter. His films combine fantasy, realism and science fiction to create idealized realities or to give relevance to mundane situations. Debuting as a di ...

was introduced to the accordion- and piano-driven music of

Yann Tiersen Yann Tiersen (born 23 June 1970) is a French Breton musician and composer. His musical career is split between studio recordings, music collaborations and film soundtracks songwriting. His music incorporates a large variety of classical and c ...

by his production assistant. Greatly impressed, he immediately bought Tiersen's entire catalogue and eventually commissioned him to compose pieces for the film. The soundtrack features both compositions from Tiersen's first three albums, as well as new items, variants of which can be found on his fourth album, ''

L'Absente ''L'Absente'' is the fourth studio album by French composer and musician Yann Tiersen. When French film director Jean-Pierre Jeunet asked Tiersen if he was interested in writing the film score for ''Amélie'', Tiersen was already working on ''L'A ...

'', which he was writing at the same time. Besides the accordion and piano, the music features parts played with harpsichord, banjo, bass guitar, vibraphone, and even a bicycle wheel at the end of "La Dispute" (which plays over the opening titles in the motion picture). Before discovering Tiersen, Jeunet wanted composer

Michael Nyman Michael Laurence Nyman, Order of the British Empire, CBE (born 23 March 1944) is an English composer, pianist, libretto, librettist, musicologist, and filmmaker. He is known for numerous film soundtrack, scores (many written during his length ...

to score the film. "Les Jours Tristes" was co-written with

Neil Hannon Edward Neil Anthony Hannon (born 7 November 1970) is a Northern Irish singer and songwriter. He is the creator and front man of the chamber pop group The Divine Comedy, and is the band's sole constant member. Hannon wrote the theme tunes for t ...

The Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and ...

. The track later received English lyrics, and was released by The Divine Comedy as a b-side to the ''

Regeneration Regeneration may refer to: Science and technology * Regeneration (biology), the ability to recreate lost or damaged cells, tissues, organs and limbs * Regeneration (ecology), the ability of ecosystems to regenerate biomass, using photosynthesis ...

'' single, "Perfect Lovesong." The English-language version also appeared on Tiersen's ''

''.

Track listing

Personnel

;Musicians *

– piano, toy piano,

carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

, guitar,

harpsichord A harpsichord ( it, clavicembalo; french: clavecin; german: Cembalo; es, clavecín; pt, cravo; nl, klavecimbel; pl, klawesyn) is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. This activates a row of levers that turn a trigger mechanism ...

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

, bass,

melodica The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usual ...

* Ensemble Orchestral Synaxis – orchestra on "Les Jours tristes" and "À quai" * Christine Ott –

ondes Martenot The ondes Martenot ( ; , "Martenot waves") or ondes musicales ("musical waves") is an early electronic musical instrument. It is played with a keyboard or by moving a ring along a wire, creating "wavering" sounds similar to a theremin. A player o ...

on "À quai" * Christian Quermalet – drums on "Les Jours tristes" ;Production * Uwe Teichert – mastering * Fabrice Laureau – mixing * Marc Bruckert – artwork * Laurent Lufroy – film poster

Awards and nominations

The list is made with information from IMDb.

Awards

* 2001 —

World Soundtrack Award for Best Original Score of the Year The WS Award for Best Original Soundtrack of the Year is one of the three main prizes given by the World Soundtrack Academy to honour the best movie soundtracks. "†" means that the film won the Academy Award for Best Original Score. Winners an ...

* 2002 —

César Award for Best Music Written for a Film Cesar, César or Cèsar may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''César'' (film), a 1936 film directed by Marcel Pagnol * ''César'' (play), a play by Marcel Pagnolt * César Award, a French film award Places * Cesar, Portugal * Ce ...

Nominations

* 2001 —

BAFTA Award for Best Film Music This is a list of winners and nominees for the BAFTA Award for Best Original Music, formerly known as the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music, which is presented to film composers, given out by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts si ...

* 2001 —

World Soundtrack Award for Soundtrack Composer of the Year The World Soundtrack Award for Soundtrack Composer of the Year (a.k.a. "Film Composer of the Year") is one of the three main prizes given by the World Soundtrack Academy to honour the best movie soundtracks and the people who work on them. Winners ...

* 2001 — Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Original Soundtrack of the Year

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

Covers

The band

New Found Glory New Found Glory (formerly A New Found Glory) is an American rock band from Coral Springs, Florida, formed in 1997. The band currently consists of Jordan Pundik (lead vocals), Ian Grushka (bass guitar), Chad Gilbert (lead guitar, backing vocal ...

covered "J'y suis jamais allé" on their second covers album ''

From the Screen to Your Stereo Part II ''From the Screen to Your Stereo Part II'' is a cover album by American band New Found Glory, and is the follow-up from the 2000 EP '' From the Screen to Your Stereo''. All the tracks are covers of songs from motion picture soundtracks. In 20 ...

''. The song was also used by Expression Crew in their dance act ''Marionette''. Pianist, composer

Dmytro Morykit Dmytro Morykit (born 3 December 1956) is a British composer and pianist. Early life and education Morykit was born in Northampton to a Ukrainian father and Italian mother who were both displaced from their respective countries after World War ...

arranged and plays a cover version of "Comptine d'un autre été : L'après-midi".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Amelie (Soundtrack) Comedy film soundtracks Yann Tiersen albums 2001 soundtrack albums Virgin Records soundtracks French-language soundtracks